Pakistan, which was an economic role model for countries like South Korea in the early 1960s, lost that status because of a long list of short-sighted politicians who played in the hands of a few greedy army generals derailing democracy and making the field ready for repeated army takeovers.
The 9/11 gave a new turn to global politics dividing the world into Muslims and non-Muslims. The Muslims were described as terrorists. Pakistan was caught in the middle because of its sensitive geographical placement on the map and it being the only Muslim country with nukes. In situation like this when sectarianism, ethnic discord and terrorism are gaining strength, Pakistan as a state has to re-evaluate its priorities, otherwise it will sink in a whirlpool created by its military cum civilian policymakers.
To begin with, we should understand the principle of the Two Nation theory under which Pakistan was carved out of greater India. It was the genius of Jinnah who used religion to separate the Muslim minority of the sub-continent from the Hindu majority. Reading his writings and listening to his speeches, it becomes clear that he wanted a separate homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent where they would not be exploited by the Hindu majority. Influenced by Iqbal's concept of Muslim nation, he motivated Muslim public as one nation, linking religion with nationalism thus making the movement politically nationalistic. Otherwise, he himself was neither a practising Muslim nor a fanatic religious hate monger. The Muslim religious parties of that time were aware of Jinnah's plans and were fervently against the concept of Pakistan.
After creation of Pakistan, Jinnah's dream was destroyed by the ill-co-ordinated civil-military relationship that resulted in the loss of a major portion of the country in early seventies. Instead of giving a fair chance to ethnicity-driven nationalistic Bengalis to play their due role in the country politics, the politicians from the West Pakistan drew a line between 'them and us' and made them play a marginal role. They felt deprived which created a gap that kept on widening until it reached a critical mass of no return. The rest is history.
The sad part of it is that our top politicians haven't learnt any lesson from the tragedy and keep strolling on the road which disintegrated the country in the first place. They ignore the genius principle of Mr. Jinnah who projected religion in the garb of nationalism or vice versa. They forget that Pakistan harbours many Muslim nationalities with strong cultural and customary differences. Such feelings are surfacing in the remaining Pakistan and the politicians are busy amassing personal wealth through corrupt practices and closing their eyes to the repeat of the history.
Recent history has shown resentment appearing among the public of smaller provinces after seeing the inequalities that have been committed by the political custodians of a large province. Luckily, it hasn't reached a critical mass yet. But if the self-centred political players didn't realise this fact, soon the country will touch the critical mass and we will find ourselves in worse scenario than we were in early seventies.
The question is can it be prevented.
To answer that, we must revisit the principle followed by Jinnah by making more provinces based on ethnic nationalities without challenging country's integrity, people's religion and ongoing democracy. Once these provinces are given self-governance, the burden will be shifted on to them and the age-old grievances will fade away in today's cyber space world, where facts and figures cannot be hidden for too long. If the politicians want to see a progressive Pakistan, they must follow that principle and find that nine provinces can be carved out on ethnical statistics as follows:
1. North Pashtunistan: to include the current KP and FATA excluding Hazara and Chitral, with the capital at Peshawar
2. South Pashtunistan: to include majority Pashtun region of the current north Baluchistan with its capital at Quetta
3. Chitral: to include current Chitral with its capital at Chitral City
4. Hazara: to include current Hazara and Kohistan with its capital at Abbottabad.
5. Gilgit-Baltistan: to include current Gilgit-Baltistan with its capital at Gilgit.
6. North Punjab: to include all the current north Punjab excluding the Seraiki belt with its capital at Lahore
7. South Punjab: to include all the current southern Seraiki Punjab with its capital at Multan
8. Sindh: to include all the current Sindh with its capital at Karachi
9. Balochistan: to include all the non-Pashtun area of the current Balochistan with its capital at Gwadar
As such a change would need constitutional amendments, the entire political map has to be re-worked. Among other things, the provinces may be renamed as the autonomous states. Thus, Pakistan will be a federation of nine autonomous states with its federal capital at Islamabad
-- Each state should be self-generating and disbursing its own revenues. The short falls will be compensated by the federation through decades-old NFC award and the 18th amendments.
-- Each state will have its own assembly similar to what exists now in present provinces.
-- The federation will be responsible for the national security of the entire country, the foreign policy, the education and health. It will also maintain a single currency.
The new Pakistan will erase the myth or reality that the biggest province has always deprived the smaller provinces of their rights and privileges as it controls the federal government because of the number of seats it holds in national assembly. This will also put an end to the discussion of independent Baluchistan or Pashtunistan especially emanating from the two neighbouring countries.
The Pashtuns of northern current Balochistan could attain their identity as Pashtuns and not be confused with the Balochis. At the same time, the Balochis will not get confused by linking with Pashtuns as is done in present set-up of Balochistan. Since Quetta is majority Pashtun it could go to South Pashtunistan. Balochistan then can move its capital to Gwadar which has a tremendous future as a strategic and trade hub for all other federating states and the entire region.
The new Pakistan will nurture in trade, economics, inter-state political understanding and intra-state ethnic and cultural harmony. It all will be done in the domain of Islam and the requirements of democracy. This is just a food for thought.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017