Seeking the state’s statehood

LAHORE: According to the established principles of modern political philosophy, a polity must possess an adequate degree of sovereignty before claiming to be a state. Likewise, a state is also presumed to have an effective control over its entire territory. Analysing things in this perspective, the status of Pakistan as a state is suffering from some grave disqualifications. On the ground, a few thousand armed non-state actors have challenged its writ as a state through their disruptive activities. In the air, another foreign state is openly violating its sovereignty by aggressively conducting drone attacks on its territory. Most parts of Balochistan, some parts of rural Sindh, the city of Karachi and all of Fata have almost become ‘no-go areas’ for law enforcement agencies. Besides the absence of the rule of law, there exists a general state of lawlessness in the rest of the country in the face of a rapidly-decaying coercive apparatus of the state.

On the economic front, Bretton Woods institutions like the IMF and the World Bank are dictating our economic policies in the name of structural adjustment. Diplomatically, our foreign policy is framed on phone calls from abroad. Under international law, there are many inferior-status states such as vassal states, protectorates, confederations and condominiums. All these states are often dependent in their external affairs but have sufficient autonomy in their internal matters. Regrettably, unlike all of them, Pakistan seems to lack such freedom in both areas. Now, the debate about Pakistan, whether it is a failing or failed state, has become somewhat irrelevant. Therefore, Pakistan somehow needs to find some new raison d’etre for its existence as the very pedestal upon which the whole edifice of its statehood rests has seemingly crumbled.

Mohsin Raza Malik

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2013.

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