Dear Mr Prime Minister …
By Dr Tariq Rahman

When Saadat Hasan Manto, our great Urdu short story writer, wrote his letters to “Uncle Sam”, he knew that the American president would not read them. I am also sure, my letter will not be read by you, but let me just indulge myself. So, please bear with me Mr Prime Minister.
As you acknowledge yourself, you have two major threats: insurgency and the energy crisis. Both can be tackled at the same time with the same speed. I am sure that the energy crisis is easier to solve though it might take up more time. But if your government reduces power outages, increases industrial production dependent on energy and major projects under construction, you will probably win at the 2018 polls and then go on to become energy sufficient. You could begin by buying fuel to produce electricity for the next four months of summer. Perhaps, the monsoon rains will bring in enough water in the rivers to help you, but what if the monsoon fails …! But, let us not be so pessimistic. The point is that we should create some insurance against failures of rain by storing more water, which you can start doing straight away. I know the most logical thing to do is to build the Kalabagh Dam after assuring Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) that it will not harm their interests. But this is no longer a matter of logic; it is a matter of emotion. So, perhaps the best thing at the moment is to invite the comments of saner elements from all provinces about this issue, while starting work on all other imaginable projects in as many locations as possible. Also, to begin with, please take steps which will go down well with the people: stop all free supply of power to Fata (install metres) and uninterrupted supply to powerful figures of government, including the ministers’ enclave and the presidency. Another way to generate some power is through run-of-the-river and waterfall projects. One hears that even five feet of waterfall in places like Swat can generate enough power for a small locality. And then, there are alternative means of generating power, which may not be cost-effective but are certainly better than having no power at all. Wind, it appears, is not such a bad option once the initial investment is made on the coast of Balochistan and Sindh and on the mountains of the north where the wind comes howling every now and then.
But while all this is going on, please attend to the insurgency in the country. I know you did not create it but you did abet in its creation in several ways. You supported some of the religious groups … but let us not rake up these things right now. I am sure you know that the attacks on Pakistan’s armed forces, police and citizens, are not only because we are fighting America’s war. You must have read the Taliban’s own statements and those of their ideological mentors that they want to create an Islamic state in Fata and elsewhere in Pakistan. After this, they aim at the conquest of “Khurasan” and then, if the dead journalist Saleem Shahzad is to be believed, the conquest of India. This means that their attacks are not a reaction to drone strikes, nor to the presence of our army in their areas. They are there because democracy itself is an infidel ideology for them. You must also know that we have people, who lament the death of Taliban commanders and Osama bin Laden much more than of our innocent citizens and uniformed personnel. This being so, you have tough choices. First, tell the public that our sovereignty is violated by the militants, who use our soil to attack our neighbours and terrorise our citizens. In addition, the US does not violate our sovereignty as it is our ally and we want the drones to kill our mutual enemies. Also add that, to reimpose the writ of the state, you will take whatever aid you deem necessary, including drone attacks. This, after all, is exactly what has been happening but, since our governments kept lying about it, they have given the space to propagandists to mislead the people into thinking that our enemy is the US and not the militants. But this solution is too radical for you also. The next alternative is to seriously tell the US not to use drones any more. You will then get even more of your own soldiers killed in this war, which you should own clearly. Of course, air force jets, gunship helicopters and cannon will kill more innocent tribesmen than drones do, but this is the price of lying in the first place. The last alternative is to talk to the Taliban, who will not lay down arms but who may stop killing us in exchange for tacit recognition of their Islamic Emirate of Waziristan. In that case, you will have bartered away territory and your citizens and they will get the rest and respite which they badly need. But please do not accept the clause to impose what the Taliban call the Islamic law in Pakistan. If you do, the religious right will impose dress codes on women, stop their entry into co-educational institutions and offices and so on. You might think these are just symbolic measures. Symbols have a momentum of their own as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s similar symbolism did have. So, dear Prime Minster we are with you; we wait for wisdom not rhetoric this time!

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2013.