Nukes and Needles


Written by Javed Ansari • Cover Stories • August 2009

Going by the high standards set by some wise people who reside in the western and more civilized parts of the globe, the state of Pakistan is fast moving towards failure, that is, if it has already not become a 'failed state.'

According to the Fund for Peace, which is based in Washington and styles itself as an independent research organization, Pakistan enjoys the 10th position, bottom up, which means there are nine other countries that are in a worse state than we are. Some consolation!

The theory that Pakistan was doomed to be a failure right from the start is as old as the country itself. From the very moment that Pakistan was created, the mother country that we had seceded from, namely India, and its ardent supporters around the world, were confident that the experiment of Pakistan that the British Empire was dabbling in, would not last long. In their reckoning, it would stumble and fall flat on its face because it was in no way equipped to strike out on its own as an independent state. They were sure the child would come running back to Bharat Mata for nourishment and sustenance.

This is of course to say that we the people as well as successive rulers of Pakistan have not left any stone unturned in driving our proud and independent nation to the ground. It is generally said that had Mr. Jinnah lived a little longer, Pakistan would have really taken off! Much as the possibility sounds pleasant, even if the founder had been in robust health and in full command of the affairs of the state for some more years, it is worth asking that would he have succeeded in achieving the ideals he stood for? All the more, considering the sort of people he was surrounded by, barring a few?

The harsh reality is that the Quaid lived for just over a year after Pakistan's independence, most of it in illness. The moment he breathed his last, the rot began to set in. Six decades on, what has become of Jinnah's Pakistan is aptly mirrored in a review Ashfak Bukhari wrote in Dawn on The Jinnah Anthology: '…the Quaid now seems to be an outsider in Pakistan. He seldom figures in public debate and political discourse on issues of vital importance to the future of the country, although his father-figure image remains intact and he is accorded the respect he deserves but as a ritual only. His advocacy of democracy and rule of law is acceptable, but not his firm belief in secularism.

'The conservative political community, which has grown in size, tends to ignore his ideas about polity. However, there are still many in the community of liberals, progressives and the educated segments who are vocal in asserting the primacy of Mr. Jinnah's vision in tackling political and constitutional matters.'

So, where have we come from and where are we headed? If this is a direction sign to go by, Pakistan is now categorized as insecure, unstable and a breeding ground for terrorism and extremism. The future is certainly dark for Pakistan, if the international media is to be believed.

In western eyes, Pakistan has been labelled as a “failing state” ever since the early sixties. And all this despite the fact that the country has been a declared US ally, a partner in US-sponsored defence pacts such as CENTO (earlier the Baghdad Pact) and SEATO, and a recipient of American defence and other aid since the 1950s. The US has readily utilized the services of this 'failing' state when it has wanted to and has left it out in cold when the job is done.

The US established its military bases on Pakistani territory at the peak of the Cold War to snoop on the USSR. Francis Gary Powers, flying the CIA's U-2 spy plane had taken off from the US airbase in Peshawar when he was shot down high over Soviet territory, photographing their strategic defence installations. The historic rapprochement between the US and China came about when General Yahya Khan's government served as a ready go-between and facilitated Henry Kissinger's secret visit to China, later leading to President Nixon's much fan-fared state visit to the communist country.

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it was Pakistan that became the frontline state and prevented the Russian bear from prowling towards the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. For this service, it paid the high price of over 3 million Afghan refugees who simply barged into the country and who still occupy its cities and towns in large numbers. The culture of Kalashnikovs and drugs that this peaceful land was gifted with was a side bonus that it is enjoying to this day.

For the past eight years, Pakistan has been embroiled in the War on Terror on behalf of its great friend the United States and its other cronies in the west. In return for its services, Pakistan has been gifted the menace of the Taliban who have invaded its sovereign territory and would have soon spread out to lay claim to the entire country had the Pakistan army not acted in time.

American think tanks babble about Pakistan's systemic failure but they conveniently forget that America has never engaged with Pakistan beyond its narrow strategic aims. It may keep telling the world that it is democracy and nothing else that it wishes the world's nations to pursue but when it deals with Pakistan, it would rather do so either through the drive-thru window of a military regime (Ayub, Yahya, Zia, Musharraf) or through a civilian weakling who says 'yes' to its every bidding.

However, it would be unfair to place the blame for all our failures at the door of the US alone because, as a nation, we have also done our bit in bringing the state of Pakistan to its present sorry condition.

Jinnah launched Pakistan as a secular state when he said "You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the State …" The 1973 Constitution (with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as its main architect), however, re-branded the country as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Jinnah's secular ideals simply went for a six. It has since then been said that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam and that is what our national identity is. Interestingly, the other side of the argument says that Pakistan was actually an 'accidental product' of the struggle of the Muslims of India.

Whatever its brand positioning, Pakistan has always been in the grip of a ruling elite comprising the army, the bureaucracy and the feudals. They have misled the nation under the ruse of one threat or the other, a belligerent India being the foremost, and have imposed their authoritarian rule, sometimes in military uniform and at other times in the garb of a civilian 'democracy'.

This is the key reason why we have failed to build a truly cohesive society and to inculcate a sense of belonging and loyalty in the people to ideals that Pakistan was created for. This is what led to the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971 and is contributing today to the unrest and insurgencies in various parts of the country. From one government to the other, whether it is a democratically elected civilian dispensation or a military regime, it is always a story of ineptness. The state always fails to meet the people's genuine needs and to create an environment of true national integration. Over the past decade, things have taken a more serious turn with tensions between secular and theocratic forces coming into play and creating hurdles in the country's performance in every area - a state of affairs that further bolsters the claims of 'failed state' theorists.

Now that we have come to our sixty second birthday, let us celebrate in the thought that we have come a long way because now we can make our own nukes and rue the fact that there is not a single factory in Pakistan that makes sewing needles!