Let it not be said that Pakistan has not achieved anything in the 75 years of its existence, the anniversary of which we commemorated on Sunday. Pakistan may not be in the shape it was in 1947, having seen its Eastern Wing hive off and become Bangladesh, but it has been stable for half a century now, and has weathered all sorts of storms, not least has been that of militancy, something which still has not been successfully overcome. It is perhaps not much of a boast to say that Pakistan has survived, but considering that there were so many naysayers at the time of its birth, to have proved them wrong is an achievement in itself.
However, it is not as if Pakistan does not face basic existential challenges, of the kind its detractors made much of. Pakistan may not exactly face a constitutional challenge, for it has had a unanimously agreed one since 1973, but the polity itself. However, it is passing through the kind of intense political competition which has seen the main opposition party host a separate Independence Day rally, with the country still divided over its ouster from office four months ago.
It is perhaps ironic that though the party was ousted through a constitutional vote of no-confidence, there are still speculations about the role of the military in politics. At the time of Partition, the military was not counted as a factor, but the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case of 1951, was ultimately allowed by the 1958 takeover, which was the first of four martial laws. The recent bout of hybrid rule, and indeed even the present government, give the military a disproportionate place in governance.
While the political conundrum remains to be solved, so does the economic. The country’s economic crisis is based on an insatiable hunger for foreign exchange. This has made recourse to the IMF inevitable, and the country is passing through the throes of such a negotiation. One of the key components of economic success has been political stability. It has now become so urgent that foreign exchange markets are apparently using it as one metric of performance. However, it should not be ignored that Pakistan has overcome what might have seemed insurmountable problems. At the time of Partitrion, and when the country broke in 1971, the problems of the country, both political and economic, probably dwarfed those of today. If Pakistan could come through those two crises, there is no reason why it should not be able to overcome whatever is thrown at it now.
