THE IDEA OF PAKISTAN BY STEPHEN PHILIP COHEN
Excerpt:
"In short, failure is not a straightforward concept, since even the most
advanced and competent states “fail” from time to time, either in relation
to their own citizens or as political entities operating in a complex global
environment. At least five kinds of failure can be identified:
—The failure to live up to past expectations, one’s own and those of
others. Nations seldom fulfill their high ideals and early promise. Pakistan,
created as a haven for Indian Muslims, was to be a stable and prosperous
Islamic state. The discrepancy between its early aspirations and contem-
porary reality is one of the country’s more notable features.
—Failure of vision. Pakistan’s founders expected the idea of Pakistan
to shape the state of Pakistan; instead, a military bureaucracy governs the
state and imposes its own vision of a Pakistani nation.
—Economic failure. With the loss of the very poor East Wing in 1971,Pakistan expected to gain middle-income status. But the economy did not fire up, and its per capita income today is below that of India.
—Failure of leadership. Pakistan has a distinct political and governing
class: the “Establishment,” a moderate oligarchy that has presided over
many political, economic, and strategic disasters, and whose most promis-
ing leaders, notably Benazir Bhutto, have by and large disappointed their
ardent supporters, creating further disillusionment with the political
process.
—Catastrophic failure. Failing states, at one time absorbed by imper-
ial powers or neighbors or placed under international trusteeship, today
pose a highly visible and serious problem for the world, complicated by
refugees and migrants, televised holocausts, and the internationalization
of ethnic conflict. An additional concern in Pakistan’s case is the possible
spread of nuclear weapons, missiles, and Islamic radicalism: a cata-
strophically failed Pakistan would become a matter of grave concern to
many states."
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