How Pakistan is Spiraling Towards its Doom

How Pakistan is spiraling towards its doom

Greetings readers! This is my first post (of many more to come), and in these I shall be expressing and sharing my various views on the world order, and significant events of the past and present. Do feel free to share your feedback, so I may improve my blog! Also, a note to all readers: I do not wish to hurt the sentiments of any particular nation or social group, and whatever I write is purely, the  rumblings of a wandering mind. 

In this article, I wish to explore the path that our neighbor, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has taken in the spheres of internal governance and foreign policy, and what seems to be its future, judging by its past and present actions. 

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, as we all know, was created on the 14th of August, 1947, following the violent partition of the former British colony of India. Ever since then, the two nations have shared a turbulent history; for the scars and differences of the Partition and pre-independence politics between the Indian National Congress (INC) and the All India Muslim League (AIML) never seem to have healed. 

Now, all of this is common knowledge, but to discuss the following, an acknowledgement of the aforementioned facts is necessary. Even though the basis of the creation of Pakistan was that of a homeland for Muslims, its founders prioritized the safeguarding of the rights of minorities in Pakistan, i.e., the non-Muslims. This obviously contradicts the ideologies of most of the Islamic extremist groups that we see in the world today, that the Pakistani government [read: military] covertly sponsors today. In fact, foremost among the arguments given by the members of the AIML for the creation of the Islamic Republic was that India would be incapable of safeguarding the rights of the non-Hindu minorities, in particular the Muslims, and which was why the creation of a separate state for Muslims was necessary.  

So then why do Pakistan's leaders covertly support terrorists and extremists in direct violation of this ideology of protection of minorities? Well, obviously, because of the bitter struggle for the territory of Kashmir. Kashmir is strategically a very important location, and coupled with the fact that it has a Muslim majority population, Pakistan has always considered it a priority to capture Kashmir by any means possible. After its failures in Hyderabad, Junagadh, and most importantly, in former East Pakistan (today Bangladesh), Pakistan's leadership is determined not to lose this state to India. Despite its multiple defeats in its various military conflicts against India, Pakistan has been desperately trying various routes to wrench away the territory from India, going from sponsoring warfare by tribals, to supporting terrorists and proxies. 

Due to the dominant position of the military in Pakistan' governance, military goals have always seemed to be a priority over domestic welfare and diplomatic concerns of Pakistan. This is reflected by the following- in 1985, an average Pakistani citizen had better standards of living and was around 15% richer than an average Indian. Today, an average Indian earns around 15% more than an average Pakistani. This is a consequence of increased military spending by its government, and increased sponsorship of militants and proxies. For decades, Pakistan continued this trend of actively supporting militancy in Kashmir and even indulging in direct military action in the conflict, emboldened by the support of the United States of America. 

But times changed, and a certain al-Qaeda started blowing up American embassies and flew planes into the WTC Twin Towers. America began its 'War on Terror', and Pakistan suddenly turned into a threat, while India began to be viewed as a useful ally. Today, Pakistan faces great scrutiny by the global community for all of its actions, having sanctions imposed on it and getting greylisted by international agencies. 

Pakistan is now stuck in a vicious cycle. On one hand, terrorist groups have now established a strong foothold in Pakistan, openly recruiting young boys from towns and villages, and having huge stocks of armaments. They have been allowed to reach a stage where they are capable of throwing the country into anarchy, should they wish to do so. As a result of this (not to mention the added desperation for Kashmir) Pakistan's military has no choice but to continue sponsoring these groups using taxpayers' money. As a result of this, the remainder of resources is insufficient to ensure the welfare of the people, and issues like education, unemployment etc are not addressed. These high levels of unemployment and illiteracy, coupled with a large population and high population growth, provide a fertile breeding ground for radicalization of youth, thus aggravating the situation.  At the same time, they are working (or at least want) desperately to please the global community, which demands unconditionally that Pakistan must take action against these groups. 

Now consider an example to better grasp the above situation. Hafiz Saeed, amir of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) one of the largest South Asian terrorist groups openly resides in Pakistan. The LeT is a UN-designated terrorist group, while Hafiz Saeed himself is on the UN Sanctions List, and the INTERPOL has issued a red corner notice against him. Now, Pakistan has failed to take sufficient action against him, due to which it has faced reprisals from the global community, and also the USA. If however, Pakistan was to try and take substantial action against Hafiz Saeed, then they would face serious and violent reprisals from the LeT and its allies. Such a situation was created when the Pakistani military attempted to take action against the Taliban, al-Qaeda and their associates, leading to a war-like situation in North-West Pakistan, which has lead to the death of thousands of civilians. 

Pakistan is thus embroiled in a vicious cycle, and it now has allowed it to go too far, and is consequently facing an existential crisis today. Pakistan cannot keep up this state of affairs any longer, and the cost for its mistakes will catch up with it sooner or later, and the first ones to suffer its painful consequences will be its own innocents.