By Zeeshan Shah
Over the last few decades, Pakistan has gone through a major paradigm shift, both within its strategic placement within the region and with its allies all over the globe. Some of the major breakthroughs that the country has witnessed are its increased presence as the “Underdog” in world politics- as the key player in the war on terror. Even with formidable security, being the world’s fourth or fifth largest army and the only known Islamic Nuclear Power, the country is struggling to maintain regional dominance.
Post-1947, the country forged its map as an independent unified nation for the Muslims in the sub-continent eyeing for being the Islamic Republic. The nation is dominated by its Sunni population and a significant Shia minority, making it the 7th most populous country in the world. Having a nuclear arsenal makes it a powerful state, but its state-within-a-state policy makes it vulnerable to proxy wars.
The war on terror brought huge capital gains for the government of this country and magnified the Armed Forces while the people of the country were deprived tremendously on peace and stability. Financial Corruption, Health emergencies, smuggling, a weak immigration policy and poor border controls within the country has damaged its economic artery as unfriendly states like India are taking advantage.
Pakistan is a victim of changes leading to a civil war. Crimes are rising leading the country towards disintegration, with journalists, lawyers, doctors, teachers & children suffering the most vicious attacks ever witnessed in its history.
The legal system is crumbling as deception and defection remain on the rise. Pakistan has one of the lowest conviction rates in the world, crimes are underreported and the justice is scarce. Legally, we stand nowhere as long as the law provides legal and constitutional cover to crimes and perpetrators.
In in 2008, there was a moratorium enforced where no one was put to death. Today we need to reconsider it in the overall legal context. This kind of amendment hurts the legal system making it dysfunctional as legal order is threatened and criminals roam free and find new ways to flee the system or flag it to failure. Reputational Risk remains a threat to the country’s global image as an unsafe tourist attraction. Secondly, there is a clear lack of a proper foreign policy mandate announced by the government.
Who is the enemy? We must first learn about motive.
Israel was formed in 1948 through CIA support for its creation as a protective body a year after Pakistan’s independence. The fall of Dhaka was another conspiracy further created to ensure division among Muslims by the third party. Iran was countered and sanctioned along with Syria to further cut off support to Pakistan while China was ignored as inferior by the USA, a mistake that stands out today. This has given us the clarity on the “motive” as to why external imperialistic powers succeed to gain internal control in Pakistan. In fact, whoever commands the government controls the nuclear and may eventually the power to manipulate it.
Today Iran and Pakistan have a mutual recognition of Israel as a non-entity from formation to current existence and must engage others in EU to join them and unite against Israel. Recently, Saudi Arabian foreign policy has taken a U-turn. Once a haven for Pakistan job seekers, the Kingdom has now decided not to shift focus away. This affects our foreign exchange, affects inbound remittances to the country and creates a huge unemployment gap within- all part of the pressure tactics to ensure our allegiance to the Kingdom against rising threats like China, Iran and Russia.
CPEC is also becoming a challenge as the Chinese want security guarantees in the region changing the dynamics in South Central Asia Region-SCAR and the Afghanistan Pakistan Af-Pak equation posing affects within the IOR –Indian Ocean Region. Pakistan’s coast line, stretching from Jiwani in the West to Keti Bandar and beyond in the East, offers a multiple strategic advantage for free ports, air and missile bases, radar and intelligence gathering stations and communication centers et al. It dominates the IOR and adds value to GMER- Greater middle-east region.
To attain a country specific benefit, we might actually need to continue being part of this proxy war for now. Eventually, we have to allocate a significant part of the country s budget to health and education instead of defense as we are a nuclear power and should act like one, with a no-compromise on the health and future of our people. Future focus must be enforced making Pakistan livable, financially independent and loan-free. The enemy within Pakistan must be isolated.
New elections through a swift interim government must be conducted early next year with a technically sound team that will ensure economic and social justice. We need to quickly move away from being a morally intolerant nation to being a dominant leading Islamic state and seek greater powerful relationships with allies, to rise against the enemies of the state and clearly see behind enemy lines.
About the writer: Zeeshan Shah – runs a Recruitment & Advisory Firm and is Former Director of Sindh Healthcare Commission. writes on IR, Governance & Public Policy.
