Conspiracy theories popular in Pakistan to the hold the security establishment is major issue in the country.
MARDAN: This is with reference to Asad Munir’s article of January 17 titled “When will we stop blaming the rest of the world?”.
The reason conspiracy theories are popular in Pakistan is because this is directly related to the hold the security establishment has over some major issues in the country. I am speaking with reference to the Kashmir issue in particular. Let’s look at China’s example, which has a territorial dispute with Taiwan. China’s leaders realise the importance of the economy and have put the territorial issue on the backburner. They understand that in the 21st century, it is economic might which determines a country’s strengths.
In Pakistan, however, we have back-breaking poverty and we are still obsessed about the Kashmir issue, as if we didn’t have enough of other problems. Why don’t our politicians and military understand that we cannot afford to be in a conflict with any country, least of all a neighbour which is far larger than us?
I am not saying that we surrender our claim on Kashmir but we can surely re-order our priorities and place greater emphasis on socio-economic development. If we follow such a policy in letter and spirit, the results will begin to show in a few years.
We should not blame our politicians for all the ills that we have, we should give democracy a fair chance. Other than the economy, primary issues include growing extremism and militancy.
Mumtaz Gul
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2011.
