Yash Kumar: Geopolitical Challenges and Natural Resource Dilemmas and the Struggle for Economic Prosperity in Pakistan

Introduction:

Despite being bestowed with enormous resources including coal, copper, gold, human resource and access to vast ocean, Pakistan has failed to harness the benefits, its resources could offer to boost its economy. Although, there have been numerous causes behind its ill performance in utilization of its natural resources in national prosperity but geographical factors contribute the most to it. First of all, being located at the heart of hostile neighbors particularly, India and Afghanistan, it has been compelled to divert its attention on its security. Moreover, by virtue of its proximity with China and being in vicinity of Russia it has remained as transit route for global powers for their vested interests. Its mountainous terrain, climate change vulnerability, poor infrastructural development, instable region, terrorism and growing population have turned what could be a geographical blessing into geographical curse. Resultantly, Pakistan is suffering at every front which has hindered the economic prosperity by hijacking its upward flight.

Pakistan a land rich in resources: An Overview

“While history has been very unkind to Pakistan, its geography has been its greatest benefits” {Stephen Phillips Cohen}

Pakistan is a land of natural resources, its four provinces provide a vivid landscape and vast minerals, underneath their respective land. It has been a fourth populous country with more than sixty percent population below the age of 30 years. For instance, Balochistan encompasses dry terrain and covers one of the largest reserves of Gold, Copper, coal and other precious metals in the areas of Chaghi, Rekodik, Mach, Naushki and Dalbandin. Similarly, this provinces became the first to equip Pakistan with energy resources like gas from Sui in 1952.

Moreover, Sindh accounts as a vibrant land for agriculture and is endowed with world 9th largest coal reserves in Tharparkar. Likewise the Kirthar range is also known to be house of gypsum, limestone and other minerals. Besides, Sindh nowadays is the key indigenous source of gas for domestic use of entire Pakistan. Also, these two provinces make vast 1046km coast line that opens it to world and blue economy from south.

Simultaneously, Punjab and KPK are the house of salt, marble and precious stones respectively. Overall, Pakistan geography is blessed with the golden sparrow which has been restricted by its very neighbors and its overall mismanagement.

Geographical Factors hindering the utilization of natural resources in national prosperity.

Pakistan and its Neighboring Countries a) Surrounded by hostile and uneven neighbors:

Pakistan located at the crossroads of Asia is connecting point for entire region. It can open the landlocked Central Asian Republics to the world and provide the shortest route to enhance connectivity. Similarly, its multitude of natural resources can also get way to world`s market, fulfil indigenous requirements and boost Pakistan`s economy; however, this geo-political potential and endowment of natural resources are yet to be exploited to attain sustainable development. As this very geography is hindering the utilization of natural resources and strategic location in achieving the peace and prosperity.

Indian evil aspirations and destabilizing tactics against Pakistan:

India has been the focal point for foreign policy of Pakistan, Sardar Patel right after independence remarked that ‘Pakistan will crawl back to rejoin India’ and India since then has been lobbying against Pakistan and has diverted its attention towards security and defense of the state. Moreover, India is sponsoring terrorism and igniting separatist elements particularly in the province of Balochistan which is land of hidden treasure. Balochistan`s Gawadar a deep sea port is golden sparrow to make Pakistan a transit hub for entire region. But India`s destabilizing tactics which have been substantiated by the arrest of Indian Naval officer spying and financing terrorism in Balochistan.

Unstable Afghanistan: a Pandora box of regional instability:

Afghanistan, the western neighbor has also been a key hurdle in exploitation of natural resources. Afghanistan’s destabilization has always preoccupied Pakistan with plethora of other socio-economic ills including Kilashankov culture, smuggling of narcotics, and disturbance in social fabric, refugee crisis, terrorism, and security concerns. Similarly, the ripples of Afghanistan conundrum and its instability have incurred huge cost on Pakistan. By

virtue of being Afghanistan’s neighbor Pakistan was left with no option by the USA but to be front ally in global war against terror resulting in a complete mess in social, economic and political terms.

Transit hub for cold war rivals:

This location has always served as the transit route for global powers, during the time of British India, this location was considered pivotal for great game in between Soviet Russia and British. Simultaneously, after independence the cold war rivals the USA and Russia stuck here when Washington joined hands with Pakistan to push the red army back in Afghanistan. Overall, this location besides being land of opportunities has also been an open ground for global players to contend for their vested interest but in disguise it has left Pakistan to lag behind in prosperity.

Sanctioned Iran: a bottleneck towards connectivity:

Iran on western southern west is a fluctuating friend, although we enjoy good relations with infrequent border clashes but Iran being under strict sanctions of West has been a hurdle in attaining a sustainable connectivity and interdependence towards Europe. Hence, this unsound Iran has been matter of concern and has diverted Pakistan’s attention from harnessing its resources to improve its economy.

Giant China: An opportunity under surveillance of west:

There is no denying fact that China is all-weather friend and a great contributor to Pakistan’s economy. This rising superpower has always stood by with Pakistan in every situation, the launch of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is nothing but a lifeline for Pakistan’s economy. It offers win-win situation to both and has the potential to uplift Pakistan status by making it a transit route for entire Asia. However, the USA and India having their nefarious designs against China’s rise have been propagating propaganda against CPEC by naming it debt trap. Similarly, the separatist elements are ignited in the province of Balochistan to sabotage the progress on this giant project

Climate change vulnerable country:

Pakistan is among top climate change vulnerable countries, it has witnessed more than 152 extreme weather events since the turn of 21st century. The mega floods of 2010, heat waves of 2015-16 and super floods of 2022 are instances in point; besides, droughts, famine, locust attacks, glacial melts, erratic rains, low yield, sea-erosion, water scarcity have been norm of day. Overall this hydra-headed monster has diverted Pakistan’s resources to unwanted and unpredictable events for which Pakistan has been unable to invest in exploitation of natural resources subsequently lagging behind in national prosperity

Mountainous terrain: An infrastructural deficit:

The landscape of Pakistan is characterized by formidable mountainous terrain surrounded by Himalaya, Karakoram, Hindukush and Takt-Sulaiman range where these majestic peaks contribute the breathtaking beauty of the country, they also present significant challenges in unraveling the mysteries of nature in exploitation of natural resources. Moreover, this has been unfortunate that Pakistan has been unable to establish a viable infrastructure throughout the country resulting in inability of Pakistan in utilization of its untapped resources for economic growth.

Terrorism and Security concerns:

The menace of terrorism has hit Pakistan hard. The rise of non-state actors and their subsequent presence in Afghanistan and free movement through porous Durand line. The fight against terrorism has cost Pakistan billion and thousands of innocents hence, security has been the prime concern and a lot of resources are being exhausted to curb this. Consequently, Pakistan has been distracted from the path of industrialization, and resource extraction rather because of this danger the existing industry is shifting abroad.

Over-population a time ticking bomb:

Pakistan’s population has grown considerably and it has been fourth populous country with no infrastructure, pitiable industrial sector, poor governance and lack of employment opportunities. This rapidly growing population has been a liability on already depleting resources and Pakistan has been pre-occupied with accommodating this huge population and is unable to explore and exploit new resources to cut on its imports and increase exports. This has given birth to new spiral of deficits.

Power mess in Indian ocean: A coastal liability

Indian Ocean is in the south of Pakistan and according to Zbigniew Brezezinski ‘An arc of crisis stretches along the shores of the Indian Ocean’ it is because big powers are eyeing to the untapped resources and key chock points of Indian Ocean and the great game of Indian Ocean is already in play. India in Indo-pacific Strategy of the USA has been signified as the strategic partner to contain China and the militarization of Indian Ocean by activating Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and AUKUS has been a security concern for Pakistan. The campaign of empowering India against China has been a serious security concern increasing the security dilemma pushing Pakistan towards arms race to ensure its security. Hence, with these state of affairs the power mess in Indian Ocean has been a coastal liability for Pakistan.

Deconstructing the concept of geographical curse with respect to Pakistan: A Critical perspective.

There is no denying the fact that Pakistan could use its geography as a boon and could be among top performing economies of the world keeping in view its geostrategic location. Pakistan holding the crown of being a junction point between the resource-efficient and resource-deficient countries in the South Asian region. However this has not been the case the geostrategic location has been turned out to be geographical curse and Pakistan has been the prisoner of its own geography. The nefarious designs and porous borders in the east and west of country preoccupied it badly and posed serious existential threats distracting it from attain the path to sustainable development by utilizing its enormous natural resources for its national prosperity.

Conclusion

To conclude, states can change their friends and foes but they cannot change their neighbors. Similarly, Pakistan is a potential country, a critical juncture for connecting the Asian region and opening the gates of interdependence between the energy haves and energy have-nots and offer its own vast natural resources including gold, coal, copper, and precious minerals to secure not only economic gains but also sustainable peace and prosperity.

However, evil intentions of surrounding countries particularly India and Afghanistan and continuous instability in the latter states has caused huge losses to Pakistan and have redirected entire attention towards security and defense of borders. Resultantly, this very geography has been a curse as Pakistan is helpless to fully exploit its resources and is heavily engaged in security and diplomacy related issues.

Yash Kumar, Research Assistant, PIIA

The finance minister’s only remaining function is to get more loans to repay past ones

“Any finance minister of Pakistan has only one very simple task of how to get more loans to repay past loans. That is the only function of the country’s economy left. There will, of course, be long statements about revenue generation, development, industrialisation, education, health, etc. But these are all fairy tales because there is no money for anything. And nothing will happen,” said eminent economist Dr Kaiser Bengali during our recent seminar.

Speaking at a seminar — The State of Pakistan’s Economy: What Next? — organised by the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) here on Saturday, Dr Bengali said that the Pakistan he knew no longer exists. 

“The revenue your latest budget claims to collect will never be collected. And the items on which the expenditure has been allocated will never be spent because we don’t have the money,” he said. 

“The only thing that we need to do now in terms of managing the economy is how to get more loans to pay past loans. And since we will not get all loans to pay all our past loans, we will sell our assets. Everything is on sale here. We already have a banking sector that is 80 per cent foreign-owned, we have a telecom sector that is 100 per cent foreign-owned but more is to come.

Shabbar Zaidi calls for correcting NFC award, creation of new provinces, putting an end to smuggling from Iran, Afghanistan

“We have just announced the privatisation of a port terminal in Karachi, a Saudi team has visited all our airports and three major airports are about to be handed over to foreign interests. We use all kinds of terminologies to say we are not selling them we are just outsourcing them but basically it is handing over control of these assets. More and more will follow,” he pointed out. 

Dr Bengali said that two windows have closed here, perhaps permanently. “One is the economy window and the other is the security window,” he said. 

“Soon we will be employees of Chinese, Saudi, Emirati and other employers as Pakistan will be owned by them. We lost our economic sovereignty. It didn’t happen today. From 1993 onward for 16 years three State Bank governors came from outside Pakistan. They were employees of international organisations, they had not served in Pakistan for more than 10 years but now that we are burying our economic sovereignty in a more formal way, the economy window has closed. 

“The security window has also closed. The international geostrategic architecture has changed. For some 60 years of the last 75 years of Pakistan’s existence we cashed in on the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union. Pakistan did all the dirty work for the Americans and got paid for it. But the United States does not need our services anymore. If the confrontation is with China, the Americans need Indian, not Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan is an irritant in the process,” he said, adding that the irritant has to be tamed and de-fanged. 

“And if we are defanged then of course there is no security role to play, no wars to fight. Then what will happen? The economic footprint of the military will increase. They are already into services and industry. That will increase. So we achieved independence from British colonialism and we are entering the phase of cantonment colonialism,” he concluded.

Adding to the economic gloom, former chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue Syed Shabbar Zaidi said that Pakistanis don’t even realise that they have ruined themselves. 

“We don’t even have the money for repayment of our foreign debts of US $130 billion as per schedule. Some 85 per cent of our bank’s debts are used by federal government loans, inflation is on the rise, there is subsidy on electricity of over Rs1,000 billion, the state’s own enterprise losses are over Rs1,000 billion, there are unfunded pensions to be paid, over 50 million children are not getting education and on top of all that we have the highest population growth in the world,” he reminded. 

His solutions to the economic problems included taking a strategic u-turn on the country’s location advantage and see China as our supplier and the USA as our buyer. 

He also asked for transparency on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an end to smuggling from Afghanistan and Iran, correcting the National Finance Commission Award, enforcing Article 140A of the Constitution by empowering local government, revival of the ‘Planning Commission’ with a non-political chairman and creation of new provinces, at least 10 instead of just four.

While sharing his opinions on the issue of the economy of Pakistan, Assistant Professor of Social Development and Policy at the Habib University, Dr Aqdas Afzal said that the country’s decline began when it opened free trade. 

“But can we even do the trade? Do we even make anything exclusive that the world would want to buy from us? No one here talks about investment in human capital. We don’t have a skilled workforce and we opened free trade,” he pointed out, adding that other countries are now into strategic trade and value added trade.

“The United States only aims to compete with China. It makes whatever China cannot make,” he said while providing an example of strategic trade. “We should also identify winners and pick them to compete with the rest of the world,” he said. 

PIIA chairperson Dr Masuma Hasan also spoke.

Published in Dawn, 16 July 2023

Book Launch: A General in Particular: Interactions with Pervez Musharraf

The closed-door dialogue on March 25, 2000 between US President Bill Clinton and Gen Pervez Musharraf, which is included in former Senator Javed Jabbar’s recent political memoir — A General in Particular: Interactions with Pervez Musharraf — became the topic of discussion at the book’s launch at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs here on Thursday in the presence of Dr Masuma Hasan.

Reflecting on the aspects of that dialogue and the prospects for the future of Pakistan-US relations, Senator Jabbar, who was part of the cabinet of Gen Musharraf until 2000, said that when we talk about the two countries, we are talking about two very different countries. 

“Our relationship will always be in the foreseeable future. A relationship of inequality. A bilateral relationship in which the two are not equal but then that applies to every other country of the world. The US is so far ahead of other countries in terms of economy, in terms of the military that no country today, even China, is able to say that they can match the US in every respect. So, if every other country on the planet will have an unequal relationship with the USA, the challenge for Pakistan becomes how do we manage that inequality? It is not as if it is a hopeless situation. Other countries, which are also not equal to the US, have also shown that they can manage this inequality in a way that works for them.

“There are also symmetries when there are so many asymmetries. In the United Nations General Assembly, we are two equal nation states. There is also symmetry in the fact that the US and Pakistan are one of only nine nuclear powers of the world out of 200 nation states and that’s not to be disregarded,” he said, adding: “Our nuclear power does give us a semblance of symmetry with the US” and moreover quite positively:

We are nowhere near as powerful as the US but demeaning ourselves and losing self respect and self confidence is one of the worst things that we can do to ourselves when we are dealing with the US. We are very capable with tremendous potential. There is so much good in Pakistan

Moving to the dialogue between Gen Musharraf and President Clinton in 2000, he said that before the US president came he was the only one to oppose his visit due to the US ambassador’s outrageous conditions such as no photographs, eight hours, addressing the nation, etc. But he was overruled. Clinton was here to convince Gen Musharraf to spare ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The meeting, which was to go on for only 35 minutes, went on till 85 minutes. 

“Musharraf began tentatively but he very quickly acquired confidence as he spoke. Clinton was also very stiff in the initial part but lo and behold, within 15 minutes of the dialogue, he actually started to relax and smile. The meeting proceeded towards cordiality rather than tension. Conversation moved very smoothly, there were chuckles even. The president’s aides were surprised that the president was enjoying a conversation with a military dictator. It was the charm of Pakistan, obviously. Even after the 85 minutes, the two leaders wanted an exclusive one-on-one meeting. 

“I was not a part of that meeting but I suspect that General Musharraf must have conveyed to him obviously the need to avoid the death sentence or execution of Nawaz Sharif and he must have kept in mind the fact that not too long ago another US president Carter had appealed to General Ziaul Haq not to execute Z.A. Bhutto and that general had ignored not just the US president but virtually all other leaders who had also appealed for Z.A. Bhutto’s life. So Clinton’s wanting assurance from Musharraf was perfectly understandable. Musharraf, from what we know of him, did not ever have the temperament of being a cold-blooded, callous kind of killer. He was not built that way. His psyche was not of that kind,” he said.

Published in Dawn, 10 March 10, 2023

Former federal minister and former senator Javed Jabbar on Thursday launched his latest political memoir “A General in Particular: Intonations with Pervez Musharraf” at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, revealing the closed-door dialogue between former American present Bill Clinton and the late former president and army chief Gen Musharraf.

Addressing the book launch ceremony, Jabbar uncovered every aspect of Pakistan and US relations and also shed light on the dialogue and prospects for the future of both countries. “We should stop supplicating before the US. We have to establish strong diplomatic ties with the US rather than demeaning ourselves,” said Jabbar, adding that the reality is that the US helped us on various occasions but not that much which we were expecting.

He suggested that we should make collective efforts to transform Pakistan into a strong and stable state, and we have to stop blaming India, IMF and others.

Highlighting the role of the military, he said that the military has strong interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan, but this is not an exception, as the militaries of power countries also have a say in foreign relations and policies of their countries.

Talking about former US president Bill Clinton’s visit to Pakistan in 2000, Jabbar said that India had tried to create hurdles in the visit of the US president to Pakistan. For this, India even staged an attack on the Sikh community in Kashmir and started blaming Pakistan, but that idea didn’t work.

He said that before joining the camp of the war against terror, Clinton held a series of meetings with Musharraf and discussed various issues in a very tentative way. The former US president, at that time, informed Musharraf that terrorists can pose a serious to Pakistan. “A meeting between Clinton and Musharraf was scheduled for 35 minutes only, but when it started both the leaders took around 85 minutes ignoring all the reminders to end the meeting.”

Jabbar said Musharraf had no intention to execute Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif because he knew that General Zia had committed a mistake by executing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The former senator, while speaking about Musharraf’s progressive polices, said he brought massive reforms to the electoral system and one of them was that the minorities got the right to contest elections on general seats. This was the reason that three people from minority groups in Sindh won the general elections against their opponents.

He said Musharraf also tried to strengthen the Election Commission of Pakistan and introduced local governments. In addition, he said, the former president increased the number of seats for women and established several cultural centers. Above all, private TV channels flourished during the Musharraf era. “The electronic media enjoyed unprecedented freedom in Musharraf era.”

Jabbar, however, said that many unfortunate things also happened during the Musharraf regime. They were the tragedy of Lal Masjid, the dismissal of then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the issue of missing persons, and the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation. “Musharraf had no intention to kill Bugti.”

He said Musharraf was a president in uniform and also some of the generals became part of the cabinet, which created difficulties for him and the people around him. “I joined Musharraf because I thought there was a possibility to implement something positive and make reforms. I believe that Musharraf was a man with a constructive personality.”

Published in The News, 10 March 2023

The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs

Video Footage of our 75th Anniversary Conference: Pakistan and the Changing Global Order: Day Two, Parallel Session on Kashmir

‘Seeking Global Peace’: Masterclass in Diplomacy by Mushahid Hussain Syed

Video Footage of our 75th Anniversary Conference: Pakistan and the Changing Global Order: Day Two Sessions

PIIA Conference: Climate change can pose existential threat to Pakistan, CM

In our landmark 75th Anniversary Conference, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah explained that Pakistan is strategically situated on the map of the world on Pakistan and the Changing Global Order in the PC Hotel, so it has a significant role to play in international politics.

“With access to the Arabian Sea, its Gwadar Port is important to Pakistan due to its prime location. It’s also important to China, Pakistan’s all-weather friend that has made massive investments to provide world-class facilities of docking at the port, thereby increasing the existing economic and strategic interdependence between the two countries.”

The Sindh CM stated this on Wednesday while speaking our 75th Anniversary Conference on Pakistan and the Changing Global Order. The CM said that climate change could be an existential threat to countries like Pakistan. “Overflowing rivers, melting sea ice, food insecurities — all are threatening our future and creating new tensions among competing powers in the world,” he said, adding that experts were now studying the convergence of climate change and national security.

He said that in recent years they had seen the shift of geopolitical power from the West to the East, and had witnessed the rise of Asia, especially through ASEAN, a resilient Africa, and more importantly, China with its expanding outreach through its Belt and Road Initiative.

He said the PIIA through its conference had put on the table every issue of contemporary importance in the changing global order, as the moot would be addressed by a galaxy of scholars and diplomats from Pakistan and abroad.

He added that it was a good decision that the subject related to peace in the fluid global order would be issued at the end of the conference. “The changing world order will take time to find a new equilibrium,” he said.

The CM said that the world was mired in conflicts and divisions for reasons which were historical and geographical. “Hence, a concerted approach to all issues and challenges within and outside Pakistan is the need of the hour,” he suggested.

“We ourselves are beneficiaries of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC], which will bring vast economic benefits to our country,” he said, adding that CPEC highlighted the significance of the development of the Gwadar Port for the economy of Pakistan.

The CM said that Pakistan’s own region was beset with unsettled issues. “The unresolved Kashmir issue and the unrelenting brutality of the Indian government against the Kashmiri people is a cause of universal concern,” he said, adding that their suffering continued unabated and so did their resolve to decide their own future.

Shah said that stability in Afghanistan was a challenge for all players in the region. “Pakistan faces its own challenges not only of border security but also of water and food security,” he said.

He told the audience that Pakistan was the fifth largest country in the world in terms of population, and had been an active and progressive power on the world stage. He said that in the changing global order, it was one of the nine declared nuclear powers. “It’s a responsible nuclear power that has always used nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” he added.

Even as a young nation, Pakistan stood by countries struggling against colonial rule and lobbied for their independence from their colonial masters, the CM said. He added that it is a member of many treaties dealing with support to developing and least developed countries and humanitarian laws. Pakistan is one of the foremost providers of peacekeepers to United Nations forces, he pointed out.

He also said that Pakistan was a member of intergovernmental organisations such as the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

The CM said that he was glad that the PIIA conference addressed the issue of climate change. “Many countries of the world, including Pakistan, which is not responsible for the emerging climate catastrophe, are afflicted with the effects of climate change,” he said, adding that experts were now studying the convergence of climate change and national security.

The CM said that climate change had ravaged the country during the recent massive flooding. “Bringing relief to people displaced by the floods and made homeless has been a major challenge for my government. But we have put our hearts and souls into the efforts to retrieve their homes and livelihoods and to rehabilitate them,” he added.

Shah said that his government had been a leading force in enacting progressive legislation in many spheres. “We have given legal protection to women, the minorities, the marginalised and children,” he said, adding that over the last few years the Sindh government had adopted many pro-women laws.

According to the CM, Sindh is the first province to enact a law against domestic violence, ‘The Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act, 2013’, and the landmark ‘The Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013’. The provincial chief executive hoped that the recommendations of the conference would help in the formulating of policies which could help resolve the contemporary world problems.

‘Dissolving PA at whim’

Talking to media persons after attending the conference, Shah said the constitution does empower the chief executive of a province to dissolve the provincial assembly, but such a power can only be exercised in extreme conditions as described in the constitution.

The CM said the constitution did not grant unbridled powers to the chief executive of a province to dissolve the PA at his whim just for creating a political or constitutional crisis or void in the country.

“There’s definitely a provision in the constitution empowering a chief minister to dissolve the assembly, but it shouldn’t be the case that a CM one fine morning wakes up from sleep and all of a sudden makes up his mind to take such an action or else he decides to dissolve the assembly after being asked so by someone else for creating a political crisis in the country,” he said.

He told the media persons that the constitution did define the circumstances in which a CM could take the extreme action of dissolving the PA. These conditions are: either the CM thinks he is unable to govern in the province and run its affairs as per the constitution or he has lost the confidence of the majority of the members of the assembly.

He hoped that the CMs of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also very well knew that the assembly could only be dissolved in such circumstances. Shah, however, said that no constitutional crisis would be created in the country if the CM of a province decided to dissolve the PA.

The Sindh CM hoped that better sense would prevail and no CM would opt for the dissolving of his assembly before the completion of its tenure. “If in case an assembly is dissolved, there won’t be any issue for us because we’ll contest the elections,” he said.

Replying to a question, the CM maintained that the official plane of the Sindh government had not been used to bring the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s imprisoned Senator Azam Khan Swati to the province.

He said the concerned political stakeholders should sit together to find solutions to serious economic problems faced by the country due to a number of global factors.

Responding to another query, he agreed that the natural gas shortage faced by the industries of Karachi was a major issue, as it could lead to the closure of industrial units and increase joblessness in the province. The chief minister said that he was in touch with the relevant federal authorities to get the issue resolved at the earliest.

Video of Book Launch – Pakistan in an Age of Turbulence

Pakistan in an Age of Turbulence

All parties look to establishment to gain power, says Rabbani

While mainstream political parties in the country claim to be true democratic forces and entities, former chairman of Senate and senior PPP leader Senator Raza Rabbani made a candid admission on Saturday that all key political stakeholders “look to the establishment even today” to gain power and allow the establishment to violate the Constitution for that objective. 

The strong remarks by the PPP stalwart came with the insistence that there was ‘no exception’ in this even including his own political party, and expressed the regret that the powerful establishment in Pakistan was now enjoying a “creeping dominance” everywhere. 

At the launch of a memoir titled Pakistan in an Age of Turbulence written by former ambassador Dr Masuma Hasan held at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, Senator Rabbani candidly shared his experiences as a political worker, a parliamentarian and a concerned citizen who had witnessed the fast eroding space for the true democratic forces in the country. 

From the perspective of Dr Hasan’s book, he referred to the state suppression of those segments of society which could have built a ‘counter narrative’ and talked about fizzled out culture of tolerance.

“To achieve this target of suppression,” he said the establishment had made a very loud and clear plan decades ago which was still effective and providing the desired results. 

“After the fall of Ayub Khan, the establishment sat to rethink what were those factors which brought down the powerful government,” he said. 

“First it was the student unions which were seen as vanguard of democracy. So they decided to go after that and eventually banned the unions. Second thing they saw was building a counter narrative about the culture of coffee houses. So you saw how that cultural space [coffee houses] were targeted across Karachi and Lahore through a deliberate design and it all came to a stop. The third one was labour unions. The real platform of struggle and raising voice for rights of the suppressed came to naught.” 

Lauding the role of Dr Hasan as a mother, senior bureaucrat and rights activist, former president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association Shahab Sarki went back to his student life when he along with his father Nuruddin Sarki personally witnessed her struggle when Fatehyab Ali Khan, her husband, who was a lawyer, social and political activist and president of Mazdoor Kisan Party, was put behind bars by General Ziaul Haq. Shahab Sarki said:

The key differences in past and present is that, in the past our elders like Masuma Hasan and Fatehyab Ali Khan always challenged the status quo while these days we see activism as a way to pamper the status quo.

He said:

This book [memoir of Dr Hasan] as I conclude doesn’t only make you aware of the true history or political landscape, but it will also teach you experiences and give you inspiration to move forward.

Calling her mother Sughra Begum, “anchor of my life”, Dr Hasan paid her tribute for her contribution in her personal life and professional career. 

She also mentioned her father Sarwar Hasan and brother Arif Hasan, who’s a renowned city planner and architect, for their supportive role in her success on different fronts of life. 

She got quite emotional while mentioning a chapter in her book describing it as the “most painful and sad chapter” of the memoir. 

“‘Farewell to Panipat’ [her birthplace] is the most painful and sad chapter of my life and this book. It’s the place where our ancestors lived for seven centuries in the same neighbourhood,” she concluded. 

Senior journalist Zubeida Mustafa also spoke.