A failed state – or not (II)

DALLAS: This is with reference to Madiha Kark’s article “We are not a failed state’. The writer is correct about not comparing Pakistan with the US. But what about countries like Israel and China? The latter became independent in 1949 and the former was established in 1948. Comparing their progress with Pakistan’s paints a grim picture. A brief analysis of our country’s track record is a story of paradoxes. The only Pakistani to bag a Nobel was unceremoniously disowned because of his beliefs. The man who led the national cricket team to a World Cup victory was vilified. India made its nuclear scientist its president while Pakistan placed the father of its nuclear programme under house arrest.

Suicide bombings, sectarian clashes, poverty, injustice, lack of education and health facilities, decades of dictatorship, civil wars and energy crises dog the nation.

If all these factors don’t make Pakistan a failed state, then what does? I admire the writer’s patriotism but let’s not fool ourselves.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2010.