Who can solve our Problems Columnist Ayaz Amer has rightly come to the conclusion that religion is no glue to keep a state together. Only continuous improvement in the human condition does: the disintegration of the Soviet Union and its east European satellites proves that, because they lacked upward mobility of all kinds. He has finally also come to the conclusion that only the Pakistan Army keeps the State together. Sure, but he missed an important factor that also keeps Pakistan together: it suits no one that we fall apart, least of all India. If Pakistan Balkanizes, northern India and Afghanistan at the very least will balkanize too, and perhaps Iran as well with pressure on its Baloch population to join up with the Pakistani Baloch to form a new state. The shock waves of Pakistan’s disintegration will go from Turkey to Bangladesh. If Saudi Arabia also faces an ‘Arab Spring’ as seems increasingly likely what with the rekindling of the US-Iran romance, it will put pressure on Iran’s oil- and gas-rich Arabic-speaking Shia west to join hands with the Arabic-speaking Shias of Saudi Arabia’s oil- and gas-rich Eastern Province to form ‘Arabistan’ that I first heard about in London in 1977. Both straddle the eastern and western shores of the Straits of Hormuz and give access to the energy-rich Caspian Basin. China and Russia that can only hold negative views on Pakistan’s Balkanization. Pakistan falling apart suits no one except some in its provinces who wrongly see milk and honey at the end of this low road. It is like a house whose four walls are being pushed outward by its occupants while outsiders are pushing its walls inwards. But if the occupants of a house don’t wish to stay together it is not easy to keep them together, except by ensuring that their aspirations are met and their frustrations sublimated. That can only happen when there is a new status quo, a new constitution, a new political, economic and judicial order that delivers the needs and aspirations of the people and removes causes of frustration. Perhaps that’s a bit much to expect from a simple people who love simplistic solutions. Democracy will solve all problems: actually, it increases them. An independent Judiciary is our solution: actually, it becomes hyperactive and politicized. The Army will fix everything: the army starts well and then loses its way in the maze and pitfalls of chasing the chimera of legitimacy through ‘democracy’ and we are back to square one. No, only the People can Fix their Future by taking their Destiny in their Hands.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 11:15:13 +0000
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