On August 14, 2008 Pakistan will turn 61; there will be celebrations all around. Rich tributes will be paid to our national heroes. Seminars, conferences and rallies will be arranged and commitments will be made to make this country greater and stronger. But lets take a look at today’s Pakistan. The motherland we achieved after tremendous sacrifices is marked by economic instability, political volatility, defunct judiciary, social polarization, religious bigotry, plagues of sectarianism, ethnic frictions, inter-provincial disharmony, institutional paralysis, upsurge of extremism, unabated growth of terrorism and state’s apathy towards its subjects.
2008’s Pakistan is a rudderless boat lost in troubled waters. It is a land where girls schools are dynamited, barber shops are bombed, CD shops are burnt, alleged criminals are publicly executed in ruthless and callous manner, where religion is exploited for vested political interests, where states are created within state, where parallel judicial systems run, where different laws exist for different regions (read Fata), where constitution (the most sacred document of any state) is molested for personal gains, where peaceful law abiding citizens are put behind bars for raising voices against tyranny while those who plan and plot events like 9/11 roam at large, where force is used against its own citizens for demanding their constitutional rights, where media is banned for daring to speak and support truth, where Mukhtara Mai is raped for sins she never committed, where Dr Afia is handed over by law enforcement agencies meant to protect her to CIA along with her three children to be raped and tortured by American soldiers at Bagram air base.
On top of this myriad of problems Pakistan finds itself in undoubtedly lies the over-flow of extremism and terrorism in our Northwestern region. Today we are in international media spotlight for all the wrong and unenviable reasons, thanks to legacies of Zia era. Seeds of religious extremism and sectarianism sowed by him are now yielding the crop. The misconceived policy of strategic depth in Afghanistan is taking a heavy toll on our polity. The Frankenstein monster that we nurtured is now trying to devour its own master. The criminal negligence showed towards Islamic fundamentalist who was invited from all over the Muslim world is continuously haunting us. The chickens are coming home to the roost. The reckless manner is which this problem has been dealt with by the erstwhile military regime and current political dispensation makes one’s heart bleed. While Musharraf regime paid lip service to this problem to prolong its military authoritarian rule, current regime is all at sea to deal as how to deal with this daunting task? While PM Gilani won many applause for his crisp remark “Its not Charlie Wilson’s war it Benazir’s war,” practically his regime has done very little to prove this lofty claim. The so-called three pronged strategy of reconciliation through political dialogue, socio-economic uplift through development process and use of force, as a lost resort is neither here nor there. It has neither been discussed parliament nor been implemented in troubled areas. The same old pattern of on-against off-again use of force followed by deals from a position of weakness necessitated by the inability to subdue the militant groups is clearly visible.
Second most persistent predicament that continues to wreck havoc with our national fabric is political instability. From the time of our inception till date only one government, quasi-civilian dispensation of Shaukat Aziz completed its term. The old vicious cyclical pattern of inept-short lived civilian rules followed by a decade long military reign does not seem to go away. While our Eastern neighbours, who started their journey with us have institutionalized democratic norms and strengthened their institutions we are still going through transition from dictatorial to civilian rule.  Today there is a leadership crisis in our country. This old band of politician seems incapable of steering the country out of troubled waters. The indecisiveness and confusion of the newly elected civilian regime has furthered added to already conflated and complex situation. By looks of things it seems that we have adopted the ostrich policy of hiding our heads in the sand and pretending that no storm is coming while storm is staring us right in the face. While Rome was burning Nero was playing the flute, our leaders seem to be doing the same appalling act  
Ours is a land of strange norms and traditions as nothing seems to move our political leadership whether civilian or dictatorship. We have learnt nothing from history. Despite knowing the fact that increased reliance on foreign aid has weakened our economy in the long run, we continue to ask for more foreign aid. Pakistan’s economy has witnessed initial but temporary spurts whenever we got external aid but it remained confined to few sectors. The so-called trickled down effect was never realized which in turn blessed a limited class of few chosen  (22 proverbial families of Pakistan) at the cost of larger geographical masses who were driven from pillar to post to make both ends meet. This approach over the years created cartels, which hijacked the fruits, and benefits development, which never reached the common man. The flip side of this approach is when it collapses it affects the poor in terms of inflation, higher taxes. Instead of formulating policies that in the longer run drive us towards self-sufficiency we continue to rely on foreign aid to avoid rough patches and tight spots. Remember, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it and we are exactly doing that.
Inter-provincial disharmony is another pertinent issue which calls for remedial steps on war footing. Due to discriminatory policies of not acknowledging the due rights of our erstwhile Eastern Wing and subjugating their demands for equal treatment and representation cost us half of the country in 71. Come December every year and our hearts bleed but do the policy managers of this country pay heed? We not only continue with our unfair and prejudiced policies towards smaller provinces namely NWFP and Balochistan but state authorities are using force against those who raise their voices for their legitimate constitutional rights. If history is anything to go by, suppression through use of force and unitary policies by keeping maximum decision-making powers with center only aggravates the flames of ethnicity. It is policy of cooption and accommodation by giving stakes to alienate and disenchanted segments of the society that paves way for solution. Reckless and ruthless use of force in Balochistan and FATA is only adding to complications and multiplications of problems and not the solutions. But do we pay heed, do we learn from history?
A society can survive with tyranny but not with injustices. For the first time in our chequered history when judiciary was functioning independently without favor of fear, it was obstructed, intimidated and ultimately removed from functioning for performing its duties judiciously. A military dictator removed more than 60 judges with one stroke of pen for saving his own skin. Ironically, the newly elected government voted to power for change and against policies of the military ruler seem reluctant to reinstate the deposed judges. Conspiracies have been hatched to dent the lawyers’ movement. Instead of moving towards the solution problem has been allowed to linger on making it all the more complicated and unsolvable puzzle.
If we want to rise in the comity of nations, if we want to turn this descendant path into an ascendant path then we have to depoliticise military and demilitarise politics, evolve our own home-grown counter-terrorism strategy tailored to our needs, restore pre-November 3 judiciary, remove discriminatory laws like FCR, give suppressed segments of society their due share by granting them more autonomy and creating stakes for them in the centre and putting economy on solid foundations moving away from increased reliance on foreign aid. Choice is ours let us define history and become memorable and let the history defines us and be damned. Our tomorrow begins today.