War of Another Kind

As a Pakistani belonging to the third generation, I grew up listening to the stories of the Afghan ‘jihad’ that was, I was told, being waged to ensure our survival on the map of this world. According to the widespread belief in the 1980s, the war had to be fought so that we could be saved from the clutches of a communist world power that was bent upon turning us into non-believers and encroach upon our resources. We later realised that that was perhaps not our war, exposing us to gun culture and the menace of heroin addiction. Fast forward to the present day, we are only beginning to understand that the on-going war on terror on our western borders is nothing but a repetition of the same story. Will we ever learn timely lessons? That is not to say though that delayed political decisions lose their significance entirely.

The federal government is taking shape and the leaders have already shown their willingness to go an extra mile to find a political solution of the crisis that we tried to solve militarily and failed. And that brings us to the fast-emerging political contours of our next government and what challenges it faces.

Yousuf Raza Gillani seems to know what he is up to. He is quite aware of the fact that the going is going to be tough for him. As a prime minister, he inherits a country that has only recently remained deeply divided on political, ethnic and social lines, where real economic issues were put on the back burner and cosmetic fiscal arrangements were cobbled together to show a healthy face of the country’s economy. Gillani certainly faces the uphill task of putting the country back on the track of economic and social development. The lid has been blown off our economic indicators that boasted of over 7 percent economic growth over the last few years and coffers overflowing with foreign exchange reserves. This happens in our part of the world; the man behind the figure-fudging is winding off somewhere in the US.

Despite the enormous relief that the general elections brought for the people, the situation remains somewhat tense, even worse in economic terms. This is only a natural outcome of the fact that with our western border almost entirely sealed in order to fight the war on terror efficiently. We have lost many opportunities to increase our volume of trade with Afghanistan and Iran only because our attention is turned towards the law and order situation at the border and not economic activity. Add to it the absence of foreign and local tourists from the scene. We still have to find a tourist who enjoys bullets buzzing past him and bombs deafening his ears.

One of the major tasks before the new government is to kick start the rusty economy but that cannot be successfully done unless there is considerable investment in the country. Even a simpleton would know that an investor has no attraction in a place where suicide bombing is the order of the day. In this context, over-arching all these issues is the double-edged sword of the war on terror that hangs on our heads. The US was not in any way impressed with the way we were fighting its war that became ours as it simply went beyond our ability to control. Now that a democratically elected dispensation has taken charge from a military government, the US is even more worried on this count. The newly-elected leaders’ statement that they want to talk to the local Taliban amounts to throwing a spanner in the US’s scheme of things.

Agreed that it is not going to be easy for Gillani, or for any other person in this capacity for that matter, to drag the country out of the present mess; still, he will have to show his guts. This is besides the political challenges that he faces, such as the question about whether he is going to remain in the seat of the prime minister for the next five years and whether he will be able to take the opposition along. One reassuring factor for Gillani is that it is going to be a coalition government where all the major political parties, despite the minor irritants between them such as the PML-N expressing their disapproval at the cooperation between the PPP and MQM at the federal level, have posed in their trust in him and have assured their support.

Pakistan is in the throes of a political change, hopefully for the better. The harrowing recent past now looks like a nightmare that began with the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, the ensuing political mayhem, the bleak law and order situation and the seemingly unending crises of electricity, flour and potable water. At one time, it looked as if that agonising rough patch in our life was not going to be over in the foreseeable future. Thank God! Things have moved on ever since.

History is certainly being made as Pakistan is finally off to a start, however slow but surely in the right direction. The fact that we are entering a new and a noticeable chapter in our history can be confirmed by having a look at our not-so-distant past. Never before the major political parties have exhibited a high level of maturity and deep understanding of issues that confront them. While some factors that bridged the differences between the PPP and PML-N are the most tragic aspect of our political history, they do promise a better future for the long-forgotten middle and lower middle classes. Those who think we are going to make a new beginning have to be encouraged, but those who warn of the bumpy road ahead cannot be dismissed entirely. As long as our leaders continue showing political maturity, there is no crisis big enough to stop us from emerging stronger from the present situation.