Policy Challenges

Much has been talked about foreign policy challenges. There are also domestic (or internal) policy challenges haunting Pakistan. First, the concept of federation seems to have been lost on Pakistan.

It is not the Centre that constitutes its units (or provinces). Instead, it is the units that join hands to constitute the Centre. The units agree on a formula to share power with the Centre.



The units also decide on the extent of power receded by them to be enjoyed by the Centre. It is not the choice of the Centre to delegate powers to the units. Discretions enjoyed by the Centre, such as having a standing army, devising a foreign policy and running a common currency, remain at the mercy of the units.

Pakistan’s Centre has taken the concept of federation for granted, causing a perennial unrest, which has spawned multiple crises including provincialism and even separatism. Balochistan is an example of manufactured politics coupled with installed puppet governments bringing the province to this pass of piled-up, widespread, and deep-rooted resentment. Allama Iqbal Express derails near Kotri, no casualties reported Second, Pakistan is fighting a rearguard battle against awareness sweeping across the country.

Awareness is both ruthless and unsparing. Be they voices for the rights of the Pashtun or Baloch, people generally are listening to them—not through electronic media but via social media, which has connected them with each other. One social media platform can be blocked in the name of national security, but not the others.

Nevertheless, both ethnic communities decry missing persons and extrajudicial killings, which violate the basics of human rights. Led by Dr Mahrang Baloch, protesting Baloch women have rejected the formula of the development of Balochistan at the expense of enforced disappearances and mutilated dead bodies of the Baloch. With that, Balochistan enters into the phase of a deadlock.

It would not be surprising if a similar stalemate engulfs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). The surfacing of mutilated dead bodies in Balochistan is a curse, expressing a sick mind bent on disfiguring the face of the federation. Two PPP workers die in road mishap Third, Pakistan cannot brave the challenges of its economy on its own.

Pakistan has gone bankrupt, as it cannot service its debts without further borrowing. How the debts will be returned, nobody knows. Pakistan necessarily needs foreign economic assistance to stay afloat financially.

Pakistan is at the mercy of lenders. Loans are now secured in the hope of buying some time to recover the economy. Reliance is now placed on commercial agriculture farming.

Generally, it is a good idea to turn barren uncultivable lands into fertile ones. Interestingly, on the one hand, more and more cultivable agricultural land is being dedicated to housing schemes in the rain-fed and freshwater-nourished north and central Punjab, whereas on the other hand, an effort is underway to turn the Cholistan Desert—which lies in the arid and semi-arid (rain-less and freshwater-deprived) zones in south Punjab as part of the Thar Desert—into a new cultivable piece of land. This is an example of misplaced priorities, ruining the Green Pakistan initiative.

Fire breaks out in nearby village of Nawabshah Fourth, Pakistan’s western half is witnessing the emergence of no-go and no-travel areas, though currently at night. Recent attacks on the Bannu Cantt in KPK and the Jaffar Express in Balochistan indicate the space of governance retreated to the terrorists. The writ of the state is compromised.

Once again, a solution is being sought in launching military operations, starting the age-old “chicken or egg” debate: an unrest inviting a military operation or vice versa. A general conclusion is that military operations sow hatred, which begets provincialism and which boomerangs on the concept of federation. Fifth, Pakistan is faced with the challenge of a guerrilla warfare, which is creeping in from its western border, whether north or south.

The Pakistan army is trained for fighting a regular war, and not a hit-and-run combat. Recently, Pakistan has also approved the formation of the Rangers in its administered part of Azad Kashmir. It simply means that some dissatisfaction is fomenting trouble there too.

Nevertheless, the development marks the beginning of a low-intensity conflict. Instead of handling discontent politically, Pakistan has once again resorted to applying coercive measures, overlooking the fact that Kashmir is rife with the kind of militants trained to launch a guerrilla warfare. In the past, they used to unleash it on the Indian forces across the eastern border.

Now, they would replicate the same in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir. Woman opens fire after truck collides with car Sixth, Pakistan is short of funds to launch military operations and bear the economic cost of the displacement of the locals. In the past, cleansing operations in South and North Waziristan were launched by evacuating the areas first and then bombing the whole villages to erasure.

The local population was displaced as internally displaced persons. Both human (soldier and civilian) and economic costs were discouraging. Now, to avoid boots on the ground, Pakistan is relying on drone strikes, imitating the US strategy in Afghanistan.

Whereas the US deployed the strategy on foreigners, Pakistan is applying the same to its own nationals. This is a dangerous proposition. The loss of civilian lives as collateral damage is the constant which brings such strikes into the remit of condemnation.

A recently launched drone strike as a counterterrorism operation in the Katland area of Mardan (KPK) is a case in point. The collateral damage is bound to ricochet on the drone prompters, thereby intensifying the conflict locally. This is called a blunder by intent, overlooking the fact that Pakistan’s plate of human rights violations is almost full.

HESCO conducts power outages causing water shortage Generally speaking, Pakistan’s major strength lies in practising ad-hocism: buy time and seek funds to improve things. Both time and funds are consumed without introducing substantial improvements. Challenges to the concept of federation are getting intensified.

Applying coercion offers fewer solutions and invokes more problems. Dr Qaisar Rashid The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at qaisarrashid@yahoo.

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