Islamabad: At the time of the partition of India in 1947, Nehru, Gandhi and Azad were of the considered opinion that Pakistan would eventually reintegrate into India.
Some international powers (US and UK) may have helped us to avoid this fate due to their vested interests. They needed a country like Pakistan to counter the communist and socialist agenda of Russia and China as well as to curb Nehru’s socialist tendencies.
Just like the US was saving South Korea and South Vietnam from communism.
Liaquat Ali Khan’s establishment of preferential relations with the US and later our movements to join SATO and SATO were again steps in the same direction.
This attempt to prevent the nascent state of Pakistan from reintegrating into a united India was the easiest and most convenient option for senior politicians and military elites during the years from 1950 to 1988.
The huge military and financial aid received during this time was thoughtlessly squandered by these powerful elites in the manner of reckless autocrats.
US/West European aid and support for Pakistan as an anti-USSR tenant state is probably the main reason for past and subsequent adverse national decisions.
After the Indo-China War of 1962, Pakistan’s growing inclination towards closer ties with China provided us with another opportunity to expand our aid/loan acquisition portfolio.
If we had to fight for our survival without the opium of international aid, perhaps today we would not be a nation always waiting for help, anxious for loans and unfamiliar with industry and craftsmanship. We could have been poor, yes, but at least a sovereign nation makes responsible decisions.
The governance of the country has been faced with many dilemmas which stem from the fact that we have never had to fight for survival or undergo the basic social and democratic process of evolution.
The short-sightedness of the leadership, the obsession with cheap popularity and the drive to retain power led to a series of decisions that sowed the seeds of theocracy. The plant, now a deeply rooted tree in our society and politics, has made us dogmatic, fanatical and extremist in our religious attitudes and practices.
It is beyond the scope of this text to describe the long series of irresponsible, senseless, though allegedly sincere, decisions that perpetuated personal power from August 1947 to December 1971.
Not that there was no agricultural and industrial development during this period or that the people and government were not prosperous, especially compared to India and neighboring countries until the 60s, but the whole edifice was as fragile as a house of cards. The rot it created is still eating away at our organism.
Moreover, to get a broken Pakistan back on track, we took some good but mostly bad decisions like nationalization from 1972 to 1977, then we again indulged in US dollar aid from 1979 to 1988. And then from 2001 to 2010, when our frontline services kept us away from real economic, social and political evolution and progress.
To make matters worse, until the 90s, and from 2010 until today, when there was no foreign aid, our lifestyles, decision-making and national habits continued to follow the same spending pattern as the aid dollar. There was recognition. Day.
Only this time aid was replaced by high-interest foreign loans, but the lifestyle of the elite and the spending habits of the government remained intact. As Albert Einstein once said, “Insanity is making the same mistakes and expecting different results.”
In my view, this absence of the process of evolution and the struggle for survival has, to a large extent, led us to the misery and mess we are in today. If these international crutches had not been provided to Pakistan at various times, we would have thought a hundred times before signing a free trade agreement with China, the precious reserves of needle gas in CNG vehicles would not have been burnt and above all the governments The expenses of Will be kept in check.
According to the latest budget, the expenditure of the provincial and federal governments is about 14 trillion rupees, in which the non-defense and non-development expenditure of the federation and the provinces is 5.5 trillion rupees.
Again, reliance on aid and later loans did not force us to improve governance. If we were a nation dependent on our own resources, we would make wiser and less expensive decisions instead of expanding the size of government, installing hugely expensive power plants and building huge offices and unnecessary infrastructure.
In such a case, we might have been poorer, experiencing load shedding, we might have been managing with a less brilliant government with relatively moderate spending habits and less consumption of imported goods. But we could have avoided the current sharp budget and current account deficit.
Education and health, on which the government spends about Rs 1.5 trillion every year, would not have been in such a pathetic state that even lower middle class families would have been forced to opt for private schools and hospitals.
Likewise, our tax system could have been simpler, fairer and more efficient. Our administration and police would help the people instead of helping the government to exploit them. Our foreign relations would have been based on trade, investment and global friendship instead of hostility and begging for help.
There may be other reasons for the reverse growth trend we are facing, but Pakistan’s history of not making good decisions, ignoring opportunities knocking at our door and decelerating into a state of Newtonian inertia is the list. I am at the top.
And so this country and its multitudes are stuck in the state they are in and will remain in until they find the will, direction and energy to break out of this stifling orbit of stagnation.
As Faiz said, a visionary friend is, indeed, desired, but a wasal yar is not just a matter of desire.
