Who is Pakistan’s biggest enemy?

For the last 70 years, we have been constantly fed on one story that Pakistan is under siege from its external enemies. We have been repeatedly reminded that hostile secret services of foreign countries have been conspiring against Pakistan. The role of CIA, RAW, NDS and even Mossad has often dominated our national discourse. We have been given the impression as if Pakistan is the only country in the entire universe that our enemies have been busy discussing and planning on how to tame.

There is no denying the fact that states often operate covertly in other territories to further their designs. The US and Russia still accuse each other of interference. And this is not something unusual given the intricacies of international politics and power play. Our region is infested with such dirty games more than any other part of the world. Surely, many hostile agencies must be operating on our soil covertly and through their proxies given our hostilities with our neighbours. Like other states, Pakistan also must have assets in enemy’s territory to safeguard its geo-strategic interests. But laying the entire blame on your external enemies at times takes you away from the root cause of your real problems. And this is exactly what is happening in Pakistan. The over-exaggeration of external threat has done great disservice to Pakistan and its core interests since this has desisted us from identifying and dealing with our real enemy.

The debate is still raging who is our real and number one enemy? Many would say India. Others point a finger at the US. Few even go as far as blaming Israel. But none of those countries are Pakistan’s biggest enemies. Whether one likes it or not, Pakistan’s biggest enemy is Pakistan itself. Many would find this answer baffling because a) how can we destroy ourselves, b) there have been countless arguments and in some cases there is evidence to substantiate the role of external forces in undermining our stability. But despite those external factors, we have to look inside and not outside to find the way out of the current quagmire, because external players merely exploit our internal weaknesses to thrive. Our external enemies would find it extremely difficult to make inroads if we address our internal shortcomings. What happened in Islamabad recently is a classic example that how our internal weaknesses put us on a self-destructive path and hence make our external enemies’ job far easier.

Who were the protesters that paralysed and laid siege to Islamabad for three weeks? Were they Indian or American spies? Who asked them to burn their own country? Who were telling them to damage public and private property? Did police action fail because our external enemies never wanted to see the dispersal of protesters? Did our enemies send a group of well-trained men to ambush the police the moment they were about to accomplish the difficult task? Was the incompetence of the government linked to our external enemies? Were our opposition parties asked by those enemies to turn a blind eye towards the reemergence of merchants of hate? Was India or the US behind the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s policy of appeasing protesters while castigating the government? Was the Peoples Party paid by our external enemies to remain quiet while Pakistan was set on fire? Did our external enemies push the state institutions to compel the government to sign a document of surrender with a cleric who was until now living in oblivion? Did our enemies advise us to make peace with those who are indoctrinating the public with harmful ideology? Were our enemies holding our hands so that we could not act decisively against such elements? Were our enemies responsible for our policy of appeasing few individuals at the cost of the entire country and its future? The honest answers to all these questions can help us pinpoint the underlining cause of our failures provided we are ready to face the truth.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2017.

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