After kicking around many ideas in my head for a long time, I think I have come up with a succinct definition for Pakistan. Here it goes,
"Pakistan is the nation-state of people living in areas where Indo-Muslim cultures predominate and who have voluntarily agreed to cooperate with each other to govern themselves"
What do you think?
I’m confused. Why would you need to define a country in “what is” term? 
Because "what is" determines what we should struggle to make of it.
Pakistan is the place where Misbah rules the roost in T20 while Umar Akmal is an automatic Test selection.
Muhammad Bin Qasim was al-hindi?
He wasn't a Pakistani either
Pakistan is a country.
**PAKISTAN is a TRUNCATED FORM of a ****Previously **MUSLIM RULED Nation called HINDUSTAN!..
Pakistan is a country where Lord Ram is celebrated through Ramadan
since there is no ethnic group called “pak”
I feel like pakistan is like yugoslavia , but with nukes !
but punjabis the serbians of pakistan were smart and big hearted enough to accept urdu as the national language and not impose punjabi on other cultures
Idk how I feel about comparison of Pak with Yugoslavia, or Punjabis with Serbs for that matter, cz u know Punjabiyan di shaan wakhri... and we have a big heart, we don't force things, despite what others may think.
What united Yugoslavia other than a strongman?
What I am trying to say is that there is something that unites Pakistanis in spite of their different ethnicities , different ethnic cultures and even different religions. All Pakistani ethnic cultures are instances of Indo-Muslim culture (which should not be confused with Urdu culture).
What differentiates us from Indian Muslims is that we live in areas where Indo-muslim culture is pre-dominant.
What we share with non-muslim Pakistanis is that they also live in areas where Indo-muslim culture is pre-dominant (even though they are not Indo-muslims)
That is why I didn't say 'Nation-state of Indo-muslims' but 'nation-state of people living in areas where Indo-Muslim culture predominates'
Lastly, the second part 'who have voluntarily agreed to cooperate with each other to govern themselves' is to emphasize that Pakistan is not imposed on anyone by force.
If the voluntary cooperation doesn't work out for some (as it didn't work for East Bengalis) they should be free to separate and the rest of us can continue the Pakistan project.
^ Bangladesh should have never been part of the Pakistan project, it would have been fine if West and East Pakistan had worked out somehow but in the end it didn't really make sense and no country can survive like that, especially when the enemy country lies in between the western and eastern side of this ambitious project.
However, we shouldn't be too hasty with claiming one is free to separate so that the project can go on, the original project is not without setbacks and shortcoming but it's fineish, the ambitious project was too ambitious.
Interesting!You should have said West Pakistan should not have been a part of Pakistan if you think that way.
Muslim League was founded in Dhaka.
Faz lul Haq was from Bengal (1940 resolution)
Majority votes were from Bengal for Muslim League in 1946 compared to other places (113/425).
Having said that, a lot of water under bridge now.
The country can only be strengthened by respecting each other’s rights and distributing resources, equally. Country can flourish if power and jobs are distributed based on abilities. Not on ethnic basis.
@krash comment is very powerful.
https:///gupshup.org/core/images/default/default_avatar_thumb.png
13.1](https://gupshup.org/forum/society/pakistan-world-affairs/16687636-what-is-pakistan?p=16688123#post16688123)
krash commented
11 hours ago
The problem was not separation or an any country in between. The problem was centralization of power by the establishment in the West. If we don’t learn this lesson from our past failure then we risk repeating this with other provinces.
Pakistan MUST exist as a voluntary arrangement in which everyone participates by freely consenting. Any imposition of centralized power by force will only contribute to undermining it.
Where does the name “India” come from? It comes from the name of the river Indus that ironically flows in Pakistan. Yes, the good old, ‘Darya-e-Sindh’, which starts in Kashmir and meets the Arabian sea in Sindh. Although Pakistan got independence in 1947 but the present day Pakistan was always a civilization of its own, much different from the rest of the subcontinent in tradition and culture. Historians refer to it as the Indus Valley civilization which is more than 4000 years old. Some famous cities of the time were Mohenjo-daro, Harrappa, Makli, and Bhanbhore. The ruins of those places give us clues about that civilization.
The inhabitants of the time were among the very best of civil engineers. Town planning and sewage systems were all top notch, second to none. They had a shipping port back in the day and traded through sea. Also were very welcoming to "others", such as Jews, Parsis, Budhists, Christians and Muslims. They were among the first, if not the first to use fire-baked bricks for construction. Undoubtedly, if they were to be brought back to life today, they will be disappointed at how far our present day infrastructure lags behind compared to rest of the world. There is an amazing book on the very subject by Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, titled, “The Indus Saga”. Translated in Urdu carrying the title, “Sindh Sagar”.
So @krash @diwana @SID_NY You think that making Bangladesh a part of Pakistan was a good idea? Or that if certain things did or didn't happen, we'd still have a happy marriage between West and East Pakistan?
I will answer the second question.
Yes.
Now for the first question you probably did not understand what I said earlier. Not sure.
You do need to change your thinking on it please. Read my earlier post.
It’s not that Pakistan included current BD as part of Pakistan. No.
**It was other way around by historical facts. ** Since current day BD was a larger part of Pakistan (by population). West Pakistan was also a ‘part’ of Pakistan just like East Pakistan.
Pakistan was made largely because of current day BD.
Not that West Pakistanis did not do anything. That’s not what should be taken from what I said.
Well if anyone thinks BD shouldnt be a part of Pak to begin with its not senseless either cuz from whatever happened in 1971, it does look obvious.
But then go back and read history more. It took 23 years for India to start exploiting the sense of deprivation in Bengalis. Lets start from 1947. Things did start smooth and then East-Pakistanis were respectful of the national leadership and even after fist and second martial-laws but in my view something happened by 2nd martial law was in spun that gave the wrong message in East Pakistan that they are not being given due value. This was the time when the initial flame could be put out but not only the west-pak leadership ignored it, but also tried to forcefully put it out. It was just the dominos effect. And by the time elections started in 70s, bengalis were in mood to give any room to ZAB then biggest contestant of Mr. Mujeeb.
And as well know, ZAB with the help of western pak establishment nailed them down by violating the basic agreement and raising “Idhar ham udhar tum”. They basically handed over the best gift to India in a ornamented plate who was ever ready to seize the opportunity as it did.
Roll everything back and start giving them the due rights, this would never have happened.
Thats what always happen when you violate basic human rights, sooner or later.
I’ve heard various theories and eye-witness accounts from all involved sides regarding the debacle. It will be living in a fool’s paradise if we think such a debacle could not repeat itself, especially when we do not have any fewer or any less capable enemies today than back in 1971. I say that because 1971, in my opinion, was not one cataclysmic failure that came about on one unlucky day, rather it was a string of failures spanning over several years. Too many opportunities to remedy things had been missed. Greed, racism, unfair power sharing, media censorship, dysfunctional judiciary, bad governance, strategic and tactical miscalculations, natural disasters, and rigging in elections were the things that had sealed the fate even before the first shots were fired by India and the rest is history.
On the other hand India had weaved the trap for Pakistan to sleep walk into, and exploited the situation meticulously. For example, December was picked for open entry into the conflict so snow will block any possible Chinese or Pakistani invasion into India’s northern frontiers for at least a couple of months. So on and so forth.
In essence he did say Idhar hum, Udhar tum. But not exact words.
He called East Pakistanis ‘piglets’ (Suar ke Bacchay) on record. The crowd in that jalsa was not with him on that one but he pretended they were.
Ayub did not transfer power to a East Pakistani Abdul Jabbar Khan, but to Yahyah Khan toe corrupt person.
West Pakistanis never gave power nor respect to East Pakistanis. And even until now there are factions in Pakistan who think like it was all good for Pakistan the division occurred.
But there is also a sense of realization among Pakistanis that they were wrong.
Hope Pakistanis get better educated and learn from their mistakes and not repeat in future.