Pakistan came into being in 1947 as an independent and sovereign state — the result of unyielding endeavours by Muslims for a separate homeland under the two-nation theory. The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, had visualised running the country based on the notions of ‘Unity, Faith and Discipline.’ Unfortunately, with his demise, the ruling elite forgot his vision and started serving their self-interests. The successive governments failed to provide even the essential amenities to the citizens or bring peace and stability. Pakistan remained under pressure right from the first day of its Independence. We could not grow as a disciplined nation because we failed to implement the rule of law — a pivotal factor to take the country forward. There are scores of reasons, which contributed to the weakness of the state, and the governments, but some of those can be summarised as under:
1. Lack
of Education: The inequality and lack of education among the masses remain one
key reason Pakistan failed to achieve its full potential and grow as a society.
People with no access to education cannot contribute to the country’s
development and are instead engaged in striving for survival on a day-to-day
basis. Therefore, they have no say in the country’s governance and leave this
task to the government — the minority elite — which has its interests to look
after while in power in the majority of the cases.
2. Corruption:
Although corruption is a relative term, it is rampant in every segment of
society. The bureaucracy and politicians remain hands in gloves in corruption —
financial and moral. Wherever corruption is rooted deeply in society, it harms
the economy and damages the fabric of society, thus making a country weak.
3. Non-Democratic
Norms: Since 1958, Pakistan experienced four Martial Law governments — from
Gen. Ayub Khan to Gen. Pervez Musharraf. As a result, democratic institutions
and attitudes could not be developed. Even the political government could not
develop democratic institutions or inculcate democratic attitudes among
politicians. The political governments always remained under the fear of their
dismissal by the non-democratic forces. The vested interests were always ready
to provide shoulders to these forces for their self-interests. Pakistan’s
continued political instability made us a laughingstock in the international
community.
4. Failure
to Ensure Rule of Law: The politicisation of the police and judicial activism
has denied justice to the people. The police looked towards the signals of
their masters while the judiciary partnered with the non-democratic forces.
Both these institutions are equally responsible for the rule of law, but they
have failed miserably. The result is that people have lost confidence in both
these institutions, and some cases, they resort to violence to seek justice.
There are also cases in which the judiciary releases culprits regardless of the
overwhelming evidence against them. Lack of the rule of law in any country
gives birth to simmering violence and even civil war. It is, therefore, high
time for the government to ensure the rule of law in the country before it is
too late.
5. Fiscal
Policies: Only a strong economy guarantees stability and prosperity of a
country. Pakistan’s economy has never been as strong as it should have been.
One of the reasons remains that the economy has been chiefly handled
unprofessionally and on an ad-hoc basis. The weak economy has, thus, rendered
the country vulnerable to international vested interests. The government is
hostage to the IMF and the World Bank and the mercy of friendly nations for
loans and grants. The country is being dictated to meet the demands of the IMF
in terms of raising taxes and increasing prices of basic amenities in return
for loans. How long would we survive under these conditions? The IMF is controlling Pakistan like a
colony.
6. Accumulation
of foreign debts: As stated above, Pakistan is under heavy foreign obligation
due to the poor state of the economy. The pilferage of national resources has
contributed to the accumulation of foreign debts. Corruption is one of the
contributory factors that has weakened the economy, forcing the state to seek
more and more foreign loans to keep the country afloat and repay the old loans
and the interest.
These
factors have derailed the country, and our unwise decisions made us vulnerable
to the pressure of the international powers. The West successfully took
advantage of our weaknesses and used those to serve their motives. Our needs
have made us almost subservient to them, and our internal and external policies
depend on these masters, who provide loans and aid. In such a situation, how
can we make the other countries give weight to Pakistan’s narrative?
There
is a long list of events showing how the anti-Pakistan strategy was chalked out
and implemented by the foreign powers and their local stooges. It started with
the murder of Liaquat Ali Khan, supporting the dictatorial regime of Ayub Khan,
then handing over power to Yahya khan, breaking off East Pakistan, toppling the
government and judicial killing of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, supporting the dictatorial
regime of Gen Zia ul Haq, and lately the murder of Benazir. These are sequences
of a well-planned anti-Pakistan strategy and the enemy has not yet finished its
agenda. Now we are facing a hybrid war besides suffering in terms of economy
and increased diplomatic isolation. We are the victims of an insurgency
orchestrated by the international intelligence agencies.
The hostile intelligence operations have made Pakistan weaker day by day. The deliberate planting of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan during the Afghan-Soviet War was one of the strategies of the West, especially the United States, to turn Pakistan into the turf for sectarian warfare. Without realising the consequence, Pakistan again became a tool in the hands of the United States by joining the so-called US-led war on terror. Who suffered the most because of this war? Pakistan!
Again
Pakistan was used, and we did not realise the in-built conspiracies against the
country. It was unfortunate that instead of becoming a nation of independent
thoughts adopting the natural course to drag the government out of the crises,
we started projecting the narrative of the United States instead. Throughout
our participation in the ‘war on terror and even after the abrupt withdrawal of
the US and allied forces from Afghanistan, we have been trying to convince the
world community that Pakistan was the actual victim of the ‘War on Terror.’ But
Pakistan was still doubted for its intentions, and no country accepted and
appreciated our immense sacrifices in terms of human lives and the economic
cost.
The
question is why the world does not believe Pakistan and its narrative despite
losing thousands of precious lives, hosting millions of Afghan refugees without
any external assistance and having a negative impact on our economy? To me,
there are numerous reasons for our failure to sell our narrative to the world,
including:
1. The
United States designed the war on terror for its motives and not to bring peace
in the region or in any way benefit Pakistan. The role of Pakistan was
predetermined in terms of weakening and defaming the country by levelling
allegations of supporting the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The testimony of this is the statement of Ms
Hillary Clinton before the US Congress.
2. Pakistan
failed to effectively and adequately frame its narrative to tell the world the
real story and why it suffered despite standing with the United States during
the war on terror. As part of its national interests, every country desires
that its borders are secure and they have friendly neighbours. But unfortunately,
Pakistan neither got secure borders nor friends in its neighbourhood. Why is
Pakistan being denied its sovereign right to secure its borders?
3. The
lack of resources and professionalism within the Foreign Office is another
factor that affected the narrative of Pakistan vis-à-vis the Taliban and
Afghanistan and other issues. Their help, professionalism, and ability to
effectively lobby for the interests of Pakistan have to be upgraded. They need
to be given a clear vision and policy to defend the cause of Pakistan at the
international level.
Ironically,
despite taking the brunt of an imposed war on terror, we are being dubbed as
bad boys, and India is being projected as good boys. On record, India has been
engaged in orchestrating terrorist activities in Pakistan, which is now
internationally known. The arrest of an Indian spy, Kulbhushan Yadav, further
confirmed India’s involvement in fomenting terrorism in Pakistan.
Irrespective
of what the United States and other western countries do to defame Pakistan, we
must also look inwardly. We have severe political polarisation, and politicians
have taken their disagreement to the level of personal enmity. This state of
affairs is hindering us from devising a unanimous policy to counter the United
States’ and other hostile countries’ blame game. We have not yet drawn any plan
to convince the world about our sacrifice or our role in bringing peace to our
neighbouring country. Failure to project Pakistan’s narrative to the world is a
setback for our country, which was also used against us in the FATF. We have
failed to assert our point-of-view in the world as a nuclear power state and
get our due standing in the international community.
Our
narrative about our antiterrorism efforts and the peaceful use of nuclear
technology has not been effectively communicated to the world. For an
optimistic projection of Pakistan’s image, we have to emerge as a self-relying
nation. To achieve our actual standing
in the world community as a sovereign nation, we need effective, legitimate
international lobbyists to promote Pakistan’s image. Therefore, a budgetary provision under the
title ‘Narrative Promotion Initiative’ (NPI) should be created to cater to this
need.
Our
present government should take some of the above-proposed initiatives in great
national interest. Media, including the state media, must play its role by
hosting programmes in English to project Pakistan’s positive and soft image
globally. The world needs to know that our policies, laws, and actions are antiterrorism
oriented. We are against money laundering and remain a peace-loving nation.
We
should demand that the world treat us as a victim of terrorism and not as its
supporter, given that our country is still fighting terrorism. The West must
acknowledge Pakistan as one of the biggest victims of the American war on
terror. This authentic, factual story needs to be shared with the world in the
best possible manner.
The article was published by Narratives’ in its edition of December 2021. Link to the original article- https://narratives.com.pk/musings/projecting-pakistans-narrative/
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