By Imran Khan
LAHORE, December 2: As a cricketer I toured India several times
between 1977 to 1989 and I felt that it was a country going nowhere,with its highly centralized and over-bureaucratized
inefficientgovernance system. I had never seen such poverty anywhere in the
world. The infrastructure was decaying and Delhi and Calcutta were so polluted that playing cricket there was not a pleasant
experience.
Compared to India, Pakistan looked a developed country. Our economic
growth rate and per capita income had been higher for the previous
four decades. Though Pakistanis were crazy about Indian films, our
television was far superior, and we would thrash them regularly at
hockey, squash and cricket despite being seven timessmaller. Not surprisingly, the Indians had a Pakistan complex.
In the last year my two visits to India have come as a bit of a shock. India has overtaken Pakistan in per capita income while its economy is growing robustly at 8 per cent. Delhi is being cleaned up, while Bombay is one of the most expensive real estates in the world.Poverty is decreasing. But above all and what is most striking is the growing self-belief of Indians. The Pakistan complex is gone and the Indians see themselves as a future superpower, as, indeed, does the world. They view their future with optimism and hope.
India has achieved this remarkable turnabout due to the strengthening of their democratic institutions. The self-corrective
mechanisminbuilt in democracy has led to the evolution of two vital
institutions: the Election Commission and the Judiciary. The other great quality of democracy is its capacity of debate and consensus building. Hence, around a decade ago, the political parties came to a
common economic policy consensus to open up the stagnant socialistic model that had existed since independence. This insulated the investors from the political process and paved the way for investment
and growth.
Secondly, the weakening of the Congress party and the emergence of regional players allowed decentralization and
devolution of power enabling provincial chief ministers to compete against
each other for investment. It was this healthy competition that led to the emergence of Bangalore as a software-exporting city.
Additionally, and unlike Pakistan, India has no political uncertainty as a powerful independent judiciary and Election
Commission have always ensured a smooth transfer of power. In this year’s election some 350 million people went to the polls, knowing that their vote mattered. Only three constituencies complained of
irregularities and a sitting government gracefully conceded defeat.
In stark contrast, since the 90s Pakistan has been going around in circles and heading nowhere. Our institutions and our
democracy are sadly in an advanced state of decay. According to the UN Human
Development Index Pakistan has slipped 20 places to 142 behind Nepal (which had 1 per cent literacy in 1947) and angladesh. During the 9/11 Commission hearings in the US Senate, it emerged that Pakistan’s
state school structure had collapsed.
According EFA (Education for All), Pakistan has not met any of its targets and is bottom of the pile along with sub-Saharan Africa. In my constituency, Mianwali, out of the 470 government schools, 20 per cent exist only on paper (i.e. there is nothing on
ground), while 50 per cent are closed, as there are no teachers. What future does a
country have which does not invest in its people while the tiny elite hogs all the country’s resources?
Additionally, while every country in the sub-continent has reduced its poverty, in Pakistan it is rising sharply - especially in the last few years. The governance system too is deteriorating as reflected by the finding of Transparency International; according to it corruption has gone up 20 per cent in the last one year. And there
is not much chance of governance improving when ministerships are not
given on merit but dished out as political bribes.
India, with its huge size has 26 federal ministers to Pakistan’s 136 army of ministers and those holding ministerial status.
The way things stand today there is little hope. We have a military dictatorship with a democratic facade propped up by its civilian collaborators. When a military dictator tries to gain political
legitimacy he can only do so by destroying all state institutions - in the process doing far more damage than a straightforward
dictatorship. Hence the constitution can only be mutilated through apliant judiciary that endorses the Doctrine of Necessity.
The Election Commission could only rig the elections to get the desired results by first installing a discredited election commissioner. When the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is used
for keeping crooked politicians in line and victimize the opponents, it means another institution bites the dust.
The local government system too has been created to support the military dictator rather than devolve power to the
grassroots. Not only has the system failed to empower the grassroots but it has also
resulted in being far more corrupt and inefficient than the previous system. In India the governance system has mproved
considerably through a genuine devolution of power from the center to the
provinces, to the districts and right down to the village level.
However, the greatest damage done to the country is when, to perpetuate military dictatorship the establishment chooses `controllables’ to fill the top slots in the
country. Since the easiest to control are crooked politicians whose files are lying
with NAB, they have been installed in the most important positions.
Also controllable are those who are incompetent or who do not have
any power base in the country.
How can any country or even any institution work if such are the
criteria of those running the show. Are we surprised today if there is a moral collapse and the message to the youth is that crime pays?
No wonder the law and order situation is deteriorating at an alarming rate.
Perhaps the most damaging blow dealt to the country’s self-belief and self-esteem is the shameless way our leadership has abandoned its sovereignty and forced a reluctant nation to be co-opted in a phony
and immoral war on terror.
Since the days of the Cold War the US realized that it is much easier to control, pressurize and manipulate dictators to
serve their interests rather than democracies. Hence, while lecturing the world on the merits of democracy the US has supported, amongst others, all
four Pakistani military dictators. But even the US government must have been taken aback by the way the current military
dictator obliged to fulfill every US wish.
Hence the fundamental rights of Pakistani citizens were violated as they were picked up and handed over to the FBI without
allowing them to appear in a court of law to prove their innocence.
There were extra-judicial killings of others, while under US pressure our own soldiers and our own citizens are being killed in
Waziristan every day in the so-called war on terror with far reaching adverse
consequences for our federation.
All this is being done under the Musharraf no choice' doctrine. The nation is being scared into submission and told that unless we bow to every US demand we will be Tora Boraed’.
Moreover, to serve US interests and accept total subservience and loss of sovereignty, a new terminology has been invented to put to rest troubled consciences and moral outrage at the injustices being done against Muslims in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya and Kashmir. New
terms like Pakistan First', pragmatism’ and `enlightened moderation’ are being coined to make slavery more palatable.
In its attempt to convince the West that we are a moderate country the regime is promoting the blind aping of western
culture. Hence a modern Muslim is not who has an enlightened understanding of Islam
like the Great Iqbal but who is a western clone. Both Raza Shah in Iran and Kamal Ataturk in Turkey tried such superficial attempts at modernity by forcing western clothes on their people.Both failed.
Can a country ever modernize when there is no quest for knowledge and when its education system is decaying?
Since 9/11, through the servile behavior and fear-driven policy U-turns of our current leadership, national self-confidence has been badly shaken and is at its lowest ebb. In fact, the very reason for the creation of Pakistan is being questioned.
A few days ago while visiting India the leader of a major coalition party in government rubbished the Two-Nation Theory and hence the reason for our existence by claiming that the
partition of India in 1947 was a great injustice to the people of the sub-continent. Such is our state of demoralization today that even the custodians of
our `geographical and ideological frontiers’ are silent at this outrage by a leader of the coalition cobbled together and patronized
by them.
India, on the other hand, fiercely protects its sovereignty and allows no interference by the US in its internal affairs. When some US official visits India they meet only their counterparts in rank, while in Pakistan they are received by President
downwards and every official literally falls on his knees to pay his respects. Can a
nation without a clear vision, self-esteem and self-belief have a future?
