As we welcome the New Year, Pakistan is grappling with several long-standing issues that should have been addressed by the end of 2024, but as usual, persist with us into the next year.
On the first dawn of the 2025, we faced the same issues with the same familiar faces of incompetent and unprincipled politicians, which raises the question of proficiency to fulfil the promises they make every time before coming to power. Terrorism, climate change, overdue education reforms, political polarisation, and the list goes on, are some of the biggest unmet challenges of this year Let us unpack these issues one by one.
Terrorism Eradication: This is one of the most serious challenges Pakistan has been grappling with over the past two long decades. Each day is bringing more attacks with military and civilian casualties, thus putting their families in inconsolable pain and financial burden. In November 2024 alone, there was a marked spike in terror attacks reported last month, taking the death toll from 100 in October to 169 in November, with more than 220 people critically injured. There are some proscribed outfits like Baluchistan Liberation Army and Tehreek Taliban Pakistan that have carried out attacks inside Pakistan from Afghanistan with nefarious designs to destabilize Pakistan and undermine its national security to maintain an atmosphere of fear in the land of the pure.
To eradicate this chronic issue, some immediate steps must be taken to deter these outfits from launching attacks from Afghanistan. First, the entire Durand Line border, which stretches for 2600 km, through which terrorists and illegal immigrants enter Pakistan must be fenced. This is the need of the hour. Second, diplomatic efforts to secure the Durand line are required. Operations against terrorists sanctuaries in Pakistan must be doubled down to deracinate it. Third, Pakistan has conveyed its concern to the Afghanistan government to not let its soil be used against Pakistan but the situation has not improved. It is high time to implement the National Action Plan and reach out to Afghan government to track down these terror outfits. COAS Gen Asim Munir has expressed his commitment frequently to safeguarding Pakistan and will not wind down until the Pakistan Army eradicates terrorism from the country. Pakistan’s policy Towards Afghanistan will also play a very crucial role in terrorism eradication, as until the Afghan Government is not fully cooperative, terrorism in Pakistan cannot end.
Climate Change: Anthropogenic activities have cost the planet dearly and the upcoming years will bring unimaginable devastating climatic changes especially for the less developed countries if tangible steps are not taken now. In Pakistan, there was a marked increase from accidents to breathing diseases in children to economy and education losses via lockdowns and institutions closures when it was worst hit by air pollution recently. Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to changing patterns of climate and is still reeling from the devastating floods in 2022, causing huge damage to infrastructure in the region worth $14.9 billion and affecting 33 million lives.
According to the Climate Change Performance Index, Pakistan finds itself 31st in this year with mixed ratings high in greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, low in climate policy, and very low in renewable energy. If Pakistan wants to get out of this logjam and improve its ranking, it will have to work on investing more money into infrastructure, policy reforms, planning a fossil fuel phase-out, enforcing more renewable energy initiatives and implementing mechanisms for national climate policies with unwavering commitment and sincerity. The National Climate Change Policy 2021, National Water policy 2018 and Disaster Risk Reduction Policy are some in-depth documents to take help from to find a most appropriate blueprint to conserve Pakistan, its nationals and environment from the worsening climatic effects.
Education Debasement: The youth is in depression. Their mental health is seriously at risk and the suicide rate is increasing.
Second, the aforementioned lasting issues are not going to be solved by one party as these outstanding problems require successive governments’ collaboration, long-term planning , commitment and sincerity. No matter who is in power, they must proceed with the decisions taken by the previous governments. Lastly, the politicians must direct their attention and energy more towards bringing relief into people’s lives rather than prioritising their own interests. The sooner this is achieved, the better it will be for Pakistan and its people.
Millions of young students, holding degrees ranging from bachelors to higher levels from Pakistan’s accredited institutions, are unable to get employed and paddle their own canoe. A whopping amount is dedicated to the education sector by each government but our educational institutions have proved themselves inefficacious time and again. A whole new smooth transition of education reforms is overdue to improve the standards of education. For reforms, at first, our curriculum is obsolete and a complete new curriculum must be introduced by the concerned department. Rote learning must be discouraged at all levels and replaced by critical thinking, practical solutions and active participation by the students.
In addition, teachers must be familiarised with international standards of education, techniques and technologies, and equipped accordingly. Furthermore, vocational training is paramount to boosting the confidence and brushing up the skills of the students, and personalized panel interview sessions must be conducted to help them better prepare before they enter the job market. Unless these steps are taken, right after some years, the new crop of students will be experiencing the same issues, thus putting more onus on the government.
Instead of establishing new institutions, the existing ones must be improved and leveraged first Otherwise, the government will continue setting up new schools and universities and the outcome will be the same.
Political Instability: Dynastic politics has been taking a toll on Pakistan and its economy for the last many years. They have consciously divided the state , people, power, opinions, institutions and now are ruling over them separately; Punjab belongs to PMLN , Karachi comes into the purview of PPP, KPK is in control of PTI , Balochistan is ruled by CM Mir Sarfraz Bugti, and the establishment is ruling the roost over these politicians and Pakistan. If any party tries to intrude into each other’s territory before elections, it is treated with full might and then whataboutery and bickering continue indefinitely, leading to more waste of time, resources and damage to the country. Politicos’ vested interests override Pakistan’s and its citizens’ interests. They have stooped so low to stay in power that their consciences are ‘dead’. The irony is that they know which opposition party is speaking Ill of them and how to retort to them but they don’t know the prices of vegetables, lentils and stationery. They are too busy in this feckless activity that they have forgotten for what purpose they have been entrusted with the power by the ‘people’.
The future of Pakistan’s youth is bleak. The aggravating effects of climate change, political polarisation, education degradation and terrorism are here to stay. So, what is the trajectory of coming out of this seemingly irresolvable situation? First of all, there must be a consensus among all mainstream political parties to let bygones be bygones and stop blaming each other once and for all since it will take them and Pakistan nowhere.
Second, the aforementioned lasting issues are not going to be solved by one party as these outstanding problems require successive governments’ collaboration, long-term planning, commitment and sincerity. No matter who is in power, they must proceed with the decisions taken by the previous governments. Lastly, the politicians must direct their attention and energy more towards bringing relief into people’s lives rather than prioritising their own interests. The sooner this is achieved, the better it will be for Pakistan and its people.
