Pakistan is confronted with four fatally bleeding wounds which, if allowed to fester further, would push the country down the precipice where it has been precariously perched for half a century. No leader, no political party, no government has ever shown the resolve and courage to treat these afflictions, fearing a severe backlash from the forces asphyxiating the society. The fatal diseases are 1) the sick economy standing on the crutches of loans, dole-outs and aid; 2) the self-created political instability; 3) the wrought security situation since the Afghan Wars (1982–2021) spanning over 40 years; 4) the ever-growing corruption gripping the national life.
Pakistanis of my generation have never seen Pakistan with a strong and stable economy. We have only witnessed cyclical booms and busts. The country has chronically faced a shortage of foreign exchange reserves, food insecurity, stagnant exports, rising imports, dire balance of payments, ever-expanding non-developmental expenditures, reckless wastage of resources, uneven landholdings, unsustainable burden of defence budget, unending obsession with loans and foreign aid, unjust taxation and exploitative practices for recovery of taxes.
We face the unchecked growth of population, the unplanned expansion of our cities and the swelling number of unskilled youth with no jobs or livelihood. They seek employment abroad, and only fall prey to human smugglers and die a helpless death in foreign waters.
We have been facing backbreaking inflation for the past five years. The poverty ratio has grown to 45%. The foreign exchange reserves have hovered around 14–15 billion dollars, the bigger part of which consists of safe deposits or rolled-over loans of some friendly countries. We face the humiliating conditions imposed by International Financial Institutions on our sovereign autonomy, but avoid drastically reducing our non-developmental expenditures; abolishing privileges of the elite that devour over $17.5 billion, and taking other structural steps to reform our economy and live with honour, dignity and pride instead of kowtowing to friendly friends for dole-outs.
Did we ever have any political stability conducive to the free exercise of our fundamental rights as provided in the Constitution, with free and fair, non-controversial elections under an independent and impartial Election Commission? Again, the people of my generation fought long political battles against the curbs on political activities by Ayub Khan, One Unit, Basic Democrats; they witnessed the political agitation against Ayub Khan resulting in the imposition of Martial Law and finally the holding of the ever-free and fair election of December 1970. The results of this election were not accepted by the ruling military junta and the PPP leader Z.A. Bhutto. As a consequence of the Civil War, the greater part of the country seceded.
This jihad project made us self-sufficient in drug production, drug addicts, Kalashnikov rifles, and religious militancy
The Bhutto rule from December 1971 to July 1977 was not ideal. But the new Pakistan owes its existence, Constitution, parliamentary form of governance, impregnability of defence with nuclear deterrence, recognition and vibrancy of the nation to the late Z.A. Bhutto. The military regime that took over Islamabad in July 1977 was a national disaster. It damaged the country in every sphere of national life. It destroyed the judiciary, molested the Constitution, mauled the parliamentary system, exploited religion, and the pulpit to plunge the nation into Afghan Jihad.
The civilian governments after 1988 were axed by civilian presidents. The military regime of General Musharraf from October 1999 to February 2008 was another disastrous experience with all those fake elections and fake civilian governments. The PPP regime from 2008 to 2013 under Asif Zardari, though corrupt to the core, maintained an aura of stability despite earth-shaking events and hot air blowing from the twin garrison city. The political instability from 2013 to this day has continued giving us sleepless nights with controversial elections by a highly biased Election Commission in 2024.
There was no security issue before our plunge into the first Afghan Jihad. From 1982 to 1985, we recruited, indoctrinated, radicalised, trained in camps on our soil and launched into Afghanistan for guerrilla warfare a force of over 85,000 mujahideen. These jihadists came from different Muslim countries. The credit for this spectacular task was claimed by General Zia and General Akhtar. The Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, but these jihadists remained here as the countries of their origin refused to take them back. Many had married local girls and were allowed to settle down in the tribal agencies.
This jihad project made us self-sufficient in drug production, drug addicts, Kalashnikov rifles, and religious militancy. In 1985, we could boast of having 1.5 million heroin addicts, while this scourge was non-existent in 1978. Again, we became part of the anti-terrorism war in 2001 and lost over 80,000 precious lives of our security personnel and citizens in terrorist attacks and suicide bombings.
This jihadi culture generated several militant organisations for jihad in Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir, many of which were patronised by the security establishment for their strategic use. Many jihadist organisations were banned by General Musharraf after the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2002. They turned against Pakistan, and General Musharraf merged into one organisation called TTP.
The National Accountability Bureau cannot look into corruption cases involving less than Rs. 500 million. This single law whitewashed the sins of many mortals, dressing them in saintly robes. The corruption from top to bottom has seeped into every sphere of national life. No national department or institution can claim to have a clean and corruption-free administration. Surprisingly, the most corrupt departments today are education and health, which used to be saintly national duties.
The police have become the breeder rather than the preventer of crimes. Prostitution, gambling, drug peddling, smuggling, kidnapping, and street robbery are done under the nose of Station House Officers. A SHO earns Rs. 2.5 to 3 million a month, and every officer in the district gets his share according to his status. The parliamentarians take their lion’s share from development funds; the patient-welfare funds fill the coffers of greedy doctors; education is infested with corrupt officials; the district administration kowtows to the elite and behaves like Pharaoh with the middle and lower classes.
How long can a patient survive with such bloody wounds?