this former ambassador of bakistan says that survival of bakistan is an act of God (not Allah )
bosting in full ...
Although an act of God is defined as ‘something no reasonable man can expect’, so many things occur that no reasonable man could ever have expected that it appears that God has much to answer for. For example, a federal minister claimed that the Baloch people have as much a right to be corrupt as the people of other provinces. To blame God for his utterances amounts to blasphemy. Nevertheless, it does seem miraculous that this country is functioning without a government, amidst rampant corruption, an economic meltdown, double digit inflation, record unemployment and a high number of people committing suicide daily. Clearly, somewhere, somehow, a divine hand must be at work because otherwise survival would be impossible.
One explanation is that the vicissitudes through which this nation has passed has made us so inured to adversity that survival no longer poses a problem. We no longer need either the government or regulation and all the other requisites of a functioning state including law, order and justice. All of these can be dispensed with, as they mostly have been. Indeed, we have reached that stage of individual and collective autarky that few societies do. We look after ourselves from the cradle to the grave. We may not be a welfare state but we have arrived at the point where we can say farewell to the state and none would be worse off for it. In fact, it would not be surprising if we were visited soon by would be foreign PhDs for further research on doctorates researching ‘the withering away of the state in post-modern societies’.
The saga of Pakistan is indeed riveting. The country came into being almost by accident, out of nothing. Those responsible for its creation, the real heroes, were, as it happened, her worst enemies. But for their stubbornness the idea would never have reached fruition and, once in being, but for their unremitting hostility it would never have become the deadly force that it has. We owe them a lot. No friend could have done Pakistan a better turn than her enemy. Of course, whenever we ran out of enemies, or they became quiescent, we created our own enemies from amongst ourselves, thereby ensuring that we never let our guard down.
So much so that even though we are a bankrupt nation, our battlements are in good order. Our unique contribution to defence strategy has been the notion that one way of defending a country is to retreat to another country and fight the enemy from there. This is called ‘strategic depth’. Another novel contribution to the defence strategy has been the unique discovery that the best deterrent is to commit suicide. Tactically, too, we are path breakers. We have mastered the art of playing chicken. We take up our position in the middle of the road and dare anyone to displace us because that for both would be suicidal. As a result many do not, which we take as proof of our masterful tactics.
Another remarkable achievement, for a relatively young nation, is the manner in which we insist — and very successfully — that the world owes us a living. We have borrowed far more than we can ever pay back and yet such is the skill of our emissaries and especially their persuasive powers that the world’s coffers remain open. Money readily oozes out of them and when asked how these funds are to be spent we take umbrage even if we have not a clue.
Similarly, we insist on not taxing the rich, or not as much as we should and, as a result, the poor who we feel would not do anything but spend their money on themselves are made to pay for the amenities that the rich also enjoy. This naturally encourages the rich to invest not in new plants and factories, where work is hard, but the stock exchange, stately homes and holiday travel without fear of being taxed.
We do not pay government employees liveable wages but we compensate for that by tolerating their corruption so that they can make up for it by other means and especially by fleecing the better off, although it is mostly the poor that end up paying the cost. However, this problem is being addressed by ensuring that the number of the poor decreases by, inter alia, dying of starvation, disease and by their own hand.
But it is in the field of education that our achievement has been the most striking. We have tried hard to boost the illiteracy rate and have quite succeeded. The number of ghost schools increases each time the government makes a greater allocation for the educational sector which, admittedly, is rare. In the schools that are visible, teaching methods are novel. They often consist of the teacher telling the class to read certain chapters from their textbooks while he argues with the principal for his many wants. There is close supervision in the classroom with each pupil peeking at what the other is writing, especially during exams. To make it easy for those keen on getting degrees but who could not take time off to attend courses given their burning desire to serve the people, we make it convenient for them to acquire their degrees free of learning or taking exams.
What is even more remarkable is the manner in which we have taken to the doctrine of laissez faire, particularly in the treatment of women. They can be buried alive, murdered, tortured or whipped as much as the community leaders may wish. Of course, now and then they are called to account although there is little social stigma attached to lapses. The errant ones can even aspire to join the federal cabinet.
The minorities too are let off lightly by not being made to pay the jazia and whenever a lynching of a minority community member comes to light, the rest of the minority community is let off with a warning. Of course, the perpetrators of the crime are immediately arrested but, thankfully, almost immediately released.
And so, one can go on and on pointing out why but for the constraints of column space, were it not an act of God, no reasonable man could have expected that we would have continued to thrive.
