“One of lessons of history is that you cannot take any civilization for granted. Its permanency is never assured. There is always a dark age waiting for you around the corner if you play your cards badly and make sufficient mistakes.” Richard M. Nixon

Today Pakistan is grappling with economic, power, and political crisis whereas, on the other hand it faces mammoth existential threat in the form of terrorism and nationwide insurgency. The impotency of political leadership and its inability to cope with these challenges have tagged Pakistan as a failed state. Despite all this, the situation is further compounding from bad to worse. International media has left no stone unturned to fish in the troubled waters. It is an extremely perplexing situation for Pakistan.

According to a US-based Foreign Policy journal, Pakistan is contending Somalia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, and Guinea for topping the list of failed states. The ranking was done on the basis of the following factors: demographic pressure, refugees/internally displaced persons (IDPs), group grievance, uneven development, and economic decline, delegitimisation of the state, public service, human rights, factionalised elites and external intervention. Terrorism and crippling economy are indeed areas of greater concern for Pakistan's future. Terrorism is not a disease but a symptom of many diseases. It has baffled our economy, and FDI has almost dried up. Pakistan’s economy has become war economy, and it is being propped up by IMF and the WB. Terrorism and militancy threaten everyone in the country. The perpetrators of violence are operating beyond normal and acceptable political circumstances. The govt. has been too feeble to establish its writ in large swathes of frontier. The denigrate law and order situation has strangled the country and its people in fear and insecurity. The whole society is passing through severe psychic trauma. Pakistan is the only country in the world with the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Almost 3 million persons are living away from their homes in camps where inadequate facilities have forced the IDPs to live in extremely deplorable condition. Terrorism, wretched economy, power shortage and IDPs are the real challenges ahead.

In short, we cannot simply ignore this rating by contemplating it merely as an anti-Pakistan propaganda. We have to realize that our country is confronting insurgency at home that has paralyzed our society as a whole. Terrorism is the root cause of all problems we are facing today. Our prestige in the comity of the nations and stability at home are conditioned to our success in the war on terror (WoT). It is in our national interest to fight it and eradicate this cancer by showing zero tolerance to the culprits of violence. We only need to put our house in order by adopting a multi-pronged strategy. It is a fact that terrorism poses major threat, but as a nation we have the capacity to falsify the recent rating by the Foreign Policy journal by winning WoT, rehabilitating IDPs, restoring peace, empowering democratic institutions, extending quick and cheap justice, and bolstering our economy. Though the road ahead is very thorny and tough yet we can surpass all challenges as one nation, Insha Allah. And I can see the silver lining at the end of this dark tunnel.

“God has given us a grand opportunity to show our worth as architects of a new State; let it not be said that we did not prove equal to the task.”- The Quaid-e-Azam


Pakistan Zindabad

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“What we need in this country today is more courage and more belief in the things that we have.”
- Thomas J. Watson (1874-1956)