Opinion
 
Challenges at the threshold of 2012
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The political elite have to intuitionalize and democratize their political parties. They have to increase the stake-holders’ number in the democratic political systems by immediately restoring the elected local body system in the provinces. They have to develop their think-tanks and devise well-thought out manifestos. The first thing, which all the political parties need to reform and gradually chuck-out, is their internal dynastic style of governance and fraternity.
As the year 2011 comes to a close, I have more pessimistic conclusions rather than optimistic outlook for the 2012. The realistic review of Pakistan’s internal and external developments underscores that both the government and people of Pakistan should realize the perilous challenges to the national security of the state. The political analysts or opinion-makers need to focus on harmonizing the institutional functioning in the country instead of encouraging, directly and indirectly, the tussle between these institutions in 2012. The domestic political stability and vigilant well-thought out policies would only ensure Pakistan’s national interest’s prosperity in 2012.

The internal and external challenges to Pakistan’s national security are interlinked, and, thereby, we cannot address them separately. Of course, one can debate them separately and devise a strategy, which promises the preservation and promotion of the national interest.

The military challenges to Pakistan’s national security have been multiplied in 2011. In addition, the internal political situation is also depressing. The economic fragility due to the decade long war on terrorism, domestic political upheaval and institutional mismanagement restrain the government of Pakistan to provide needed finances to modernize its armed forces.

Though the non-traditional threats to security have been receiving significant attention in the entire world, Pakistan remained concerned about its traditional security paradigm. The volatility and unpredictability of its strategic environment necessitates Pakistan’s military modernizations.

Ironically, many pacifists and civil-society analysts have been demanding the decrease in defense budget of the country without realizing the military challenges to Pakistan’s security. Many believe that the weakening of the armed forces by decreasing the budget would improve the Civilian control on the Pakistani armed forces. They failed to realize that politicians can only enhance their control on the civil-military bureaucracy by improving their style of politics.

The political elite have to intuitionalize and democratize their political parties. They have to increase the stake-holders’ number in the democratic political systems by immediately restoring the elected local body system in the provinces. They have to develop their think-tanks and devise well-thought out manifestos. The first thing, which all the political parties need to reform and gradually chuck-out, is their internal dynastic style of governance and fraternity.

Importantly, only the parliamentary system of government and the political parties having democratic culture and hierarchy based on merit are capable to perform. The internal reforms of the political parties, certainly, revolutionalize the participatory political culture of the state, which is essential for the smooth functioning of the democratic political system. Notably, the dynastic political parties not only generate the culture of individual loyalty and personality worship instead of preserving and promoting the merit system in the party, but also cultivate the subjective political culture in the society.

The societies having subjective and parochial political cultures are always susceptible to civil-military bureaucracy governance. Hence, without reforming the political culture of the political parties, one cannot change the political culture of Pakistani society. Without changing the political culture of Pakistani society, one cannot aspire for a stable democratic political system in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s strategic challenges on the Western border have been multiplied in 2011. The Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, Islamabad, reported that from 2007 to 2010, NATO forces and the Afghan National Army violated Pakistan’s borders at least 194 times. It added that in 2011, as many as 67 such incidents were reported in which 57 Pakistani soldiers were killed. This report indicates that the frequency of such attacks increased in 2011.

Although, (according to the reports) Pakistan has set up more than 700 security check posts along the Pakistan-Afghan border to prevent the terrorist groups’ border crossing, in reality, it is very difficult to completely monitor 2,600 km Afghanistan-Pakistan border and prevent illegal border crossings.

The May 2, 2011, killing of Osama Bin Laden, and martyrdom of 26 Pakistani soldiers at the Salala check-post by the NATO helicopters and fighter jets underscored the fragility of the Pakistani defensive fence on the Western border. Admittedly, these two incidents were different, but they flashed an identical weakness of Pakistani strategy i.e. Western border defensive apparatus is outdated. It was neither successful in detecting the penetration of the American helicopters on May 2, 2011, nor capable to prevent its soldiers, deployed at the check-post which was located within the Pakistani territory, from NATO’s two hours air operation on November 26, 2011.

Many Pakistani strategic pundits believe that once American forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan completed, the Western border’s fragility will automatically be improved. Agreed, Kabul would not dare to strike on Pakistan, once it lost the US, NATO and ISAF military support. The disturbing factor here is that Kabul has constituted a strategic partnership with New Delhi. The Indian presence in Kabul should not be underestimated. Secondly, the terrorist syndicate led by Al Qaeda remnants would remain in this part of the world for years to come.

Therefore, the need for a comprehensive defensive fence of Pakistan on the Western border necessitates that Islamabad should increase its military presence on the Western borders. Its Peshawar and Quetta Corps structure should be reformed. Both Corps must be given modern weaponry; particularly the air defense capability on the Western border should be improved.

To conclude, Pakistan has been adequately monitoring and updating its defensive mechanism on its Eastern border, but the defenses on the Western border cannot be ignored in 2012.

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