‘Pakistan can defy the odds’

* Report says weak Pakistani state can be rescued by reforms and global support

LAHORE: Pakistan is being seen as a failing state and questions are being raised about the safety of its nuclear weapons in case of a Taliban or Al Qaeda takeover, but a US think tank report released at a congressional hearing on Monday says the country has the ability to “defy the odds”.

Pakistan is “a democratic society trapped inside an undemocratic state”, according to the report on the future of the country report by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding titeld ‘Pakistan Can Defy the Odds: How to Rescue a Failing State’. The briefing was sponsored by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson. The approximately two dozen suicide bombings in 2009 so far, 66 in 2008, and 61 in 2007, are a matter of concern in the context of the evolving crisis in Pakistan, according to the report. But “terrorists need far more than suicide bombers to get hold of nuclear materials”, the report said.

More alarming is the expanding influence of the Taliban in FATA and NWFP – that the report blames partly on “poor law enforcement capacity and inadequate counterinsurgency know-how on the part of Pakistan’s army” – and “confused threat perceptions and popular conspiratorial thinking” that “encourages the denial of reality”. But although these threats along with failing infrastructure and absence of good governance show a dismal scenario, there is another side of the picture, according to the report.

The “courageous and sustained lawyers’ movement” has “inspired ... thousands of Pakistanis to struggle for the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and the supremacy of the constitution”, and “a vibrant and enthusiastic electronic and print media” helped the cause “though sometimes at the cost of objectivity”. A large number of Pakistani writers, artists, poets, and intellectuals are readying people to face challenges including religious bigotry, the report says, and a number of women are joining Pakistan’s army and air force as soldiers and fighter pilots – “something inconceivable for many Pakistanis just a decade ago due to cultural as well as dogmatic religious worldviews”. These examples, according to the report, show a “picture of hope and change”. In this context, the report says dealings between the US and Pakistan “increasingly fraught with resentment, miscommunication, and a sense of caginess” should be improved to “build a deeper, sustainable, and long-term strategic engagement with the people of Pakistan”.

The report ends with a quote from Professor Robert I Rotberg: that weak states (or states in crisis) “may be inherently weak because of geographical, physical or fundamental economic constraints; or they may be basically strong, but temporarily or situationally weak because of internal antagonisms, management flaws, greed, despotism, or external attacks. Weak states typically harbor ethnic, religious, linguistic, or other intercommunal tensions... Urban crime rates tend to be high and increasing... Schools and hospitals show sign of neglect... GDP per capita and other critical economic indicators have fallen or are falling... Weak states usually honor rule of law precepts in the breach.” daily times monitor

(Daily Times)