"What Pakistan is where it is" - excellent piece by a Pakistani columnist

[liberalpragmatist]

This is an excellent piece that explains, in very easy-to-read fashion, why Pakistan is at the position it is. The author is a Pakistani columnist, Ifran Husain, who writes for Pakistan's largest English-language paper, the Karachi Dawn.

A couple notes: the reference to "Zia" is to Gen. Zia al-Huq, Pakistan's military dictator in the '80s, who is the one largely responsible for "Islamicizing" Pakistan and subsidizing extremist groups -- all with U.S. and Saudi money given to him to fight the Soviets.

Why We Are Where We Are
By Irfan Husain

IN the middle of Karachi stands the concrete shell of a 30-storey building. This is the structure of the Hyatt Regency hotel started in the mid-seventies, and which has remained a building site since work was abandoned in 1977.

In a sense, this hulk is a metaphor for Pakistan: a state launched with much fanfare, enthusiasm and good intentions, but which can neither be completed nor pulled down.

Any state has a number of prerequisites to function effectively: settled borders; an accord on the measure of autonomy to be exercised by the federating units; the official language; and a broad consensus on the nature and direction of the state. Another element relates to national identity. Finally, any modern state must establish its monopoly on the use and means of violence.

...

The last six decades have amply demonstrated the difficulty inherent in building a national identity based solely on religion. Talk to any conservative Pakistani today, and he will assert that as Pakistan was created in the name of Islam, the Sharia should be the law of the land. It would be futile to point out that Jinnah visualised a secular state in which all Pakistanis would be equal citizens. This lofty vision would be scant comfort to the Sikh families who have had to flee their homes in the tribal areas because demands for jaziah, the old Muslim tax on non-Muslims, were made by de facto Taliban rulers.