Diplomatic failure: a reflection of internal collapse

Will there ever be peace between India and Pakistan? The question is becoming increasingly difficult to answer with each passing day. The history of Pakistan-India relations is marred with three wars and several low-intensity skirmishes. Though the Pakistan military claims they have been defending Pakistan soil from Indian aggression, the truth is far uglier. The Kashmir turmoil that we sold to the Pakistan public on the sympathy platter has run out of legal and emotional value; as for its international recognition, the Kargil war proved the final nail in the Kashmir coffin. From the flak then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif received from US President Bill Clinton seeking immediate removal of all the forces from Kargil Heights to Pakistan’s policy of sheltering and nurturing the Taliban and other extremist elements, whom the US had been fighting against in our partnership since 2001, Pakistan’s narrative against India, as a country having hegemonic designs on Pakistan, has become meaningless.

It is easy to blame India for all that is happening in Pakistan. From Dr Mahrang Baloch’s sit-in in Islamabad to the TTP attack on Pakistan’s security forces and strategic assets, our response has been typical — Indian hands, Afghan-Indian collaboration, Indian-Israel partnership, and US-Indian strategic decision to keep Pakistan a weak state. As for Balochistan and Sindh, there were times when we produced ammunition carrying made-in-Israel stamps smuggled into Pakistan through Indians. This may be true. However, what has Pakistan done to secure itself against the so-called potential, apparent and hidden enemies? We produce dossiers in the UN and to the US members of Congress and their think tanks, but no one takes us seriously.

The reason is the nagging attitude, which is not complemented by any effort to improve the country’s economic and political indicators. It is as if deliberate attempts are made to bleed the national exchequer through untargeted subsidies, running inefficient state-owned organisations and, the mother of all monsters, paying capacity charges for powerhouses even when they are not functioning. The IMF’s conditionalities of increasing electricity and gas prices are accepted. The bureaucracy and the ministers know where the problem lies, but they choose the easy way of taxing the public. Electricity theft and pillage of gas have never been taken seriously. Instead, in a knee-jerk response, a few measures are taken, the one the caretaker government took after coming to office. Pulling out illegal gas and electricity connections was indeed a good step. However, will it be sustained? No. With the rising cost of energy bills and inflation, and the government institutions staffed with people without merits and running on scarce resources, there is all the reason to expect the pillage and theft to return.

During the time he headed the charge of the Ministry of Petroleum, Khawaja Asif said that by stopping the leakages alone can Pakistan earn billions of dollars. He added the money would be enough to free the sector from the IMF conditions. Since then, Asif has continued serving in different ministries, and his party, the PML-N, has been fighting to get more prime ministerial slots. Conveniently, both have brushed aside the reality.

It reflects the complete disconnect between the people bottomed out by high inflation and the cold-blooded decision-makers. The problem emanates from the electoral process, which is not linked to the parties’ performance but to the wishes of the powers that be. The so-called rigged mandate through which the government is installed in Punjab, at the Centre, and in Sindh and Balochistan, their entire tenure would be spent in keeping the establishment happy, lest a new sit-in, a new PDM or a new Project Imran is used to cut short their rule. The performance complacency that has set in due to incessant intervention has made institutions dysfunctional.

A group of scholars have argued that there is no relationship between the state and its citizens in Pakistan. They say that though the state and citizens run parallel, the lack of a social contract between them has resulted in a fractured relationship. It has been categorically stated that ‘the problem in Pakistan today is that throughout history it’s governing elite, feudal, political and those with economic power, have failed to create a sense of citizenship across the nation, creating a political vacuum where governing structures operate parallel to society, yet without many linkages.’ It is also argued that ‘there is no framework for building citizenship in Pakistan, and no language for society and state to speak to each other.’

The question arises: how is Pakistan pulling along? The answer is through patronage, social networks and multilateral debt agencies.

In the last ten years since the so-called Project Imran was started in 2014 with the dharna politics, Pakistan has fallen from one crisis to another, escaping a financial default last year by a razor-thin margin. In these years, India, Iran and the TTP from Afghanistan have crossed our borders without much effort to take out their terror targets.

We may have a highly disciplined army, we may have an atomic bomb, we may have a missile that could reach into the heart of Indian cities, but we do not have the economic prowess that could earn us respect and recognition accorded to serious and responsible nations.

As I write these lines, the woman whom the mob vigilante harassed in Lahore’s Ichra Bazar has surrendered to the will of the state to seek forgiveness from those who had intimidated her. Although the police managed to rescue her, their failure to take action against the mob reveals failure of the state.

Indeed, Pakistan’s diplomatic failure is the reflection of its internal collapse.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 29^th, 2024.

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