Islamabad (Courtesy The News): Pakistan may face mass protests in the next 5 to 10 years, or even sooner, observed most of the participants of a discussion forum on ‘Pakistan’s Future: Expectations and Realities?’
The forum was arranged by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) here on Sunday. The group comprised former diplomats, retired Army officers, economic and political analysts and academics.
The group warned all key pillars of the state to develop a clear vision for the future of Pakistan failing which the country will continue sliding into political and economic chaos and anarchy. If forces of status quo refuse to change, the common man, already pushed to the wall, would surely explode one day, they observed.
The group was of the view that a civil war-like revolution may not be the right answer to the country’s current critical situation, a direct consequence of growing extremism, militancy, abject poverty, faulty economic infrastructure and callousness of the rulers. The solution lies in improving and strengthening the existing democratic system.
Along with the judiciary, the media and the rights-based groups in civil society, intellectuals and academics also need to work in tandem to build pressure on the government to deliver, said the experts. If the people are not provided with basic necessities, they will take the extreme step, they said.
The group agreed on the close nexus that exists between rising poverty and militancy, extremism and terrorism, and the urgency of the need to tackle them together on an urgent basis. One of the participants pointed out that absolute poverty in Pakistan is now measured at 51% (Oxford Poverty Research), while up to 74 per cent of the country’s population lives off less than $2 a day.
On the economic front, corruption in the public sector will have to be controlled and the existing limited revenue base will have to be expanded for propping up the national economy, which is on the verge of default, the experts stressed, adding that the people living below the poverty line will have to be provided with the basic needs, social protection and safety nets. The group called for reformed and universal, free and compulsory education, employable skills and employment generation on an urgent basis.
The feminisation of poverty (3:1 ratio) will have to be addressed head-on, along with genuine land reforms and much higher investments in irrigation and agriculture especially basic food crops in order to prevent mass hunger, suicides, anarchy and chaos in society.
The group demanded urgent public sector reforms to minimise financial bleeding, stop wasteful expenditures, increase productivity and expand revenue collection by enhancing tax base, ensuring that all those already in the tax net pay their dues and without increasing taxes/duties’.
The group of opinion makers warned that to prevent the masses from taking the extreme step, the country will have to be transformed from the current national security state to a human security state in which the entire establishment will have to serve honestly and transparently.
Describing American, Nato and Isaf presence in Afghanistan and the CIA-designed drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas as a major cause of unrest within the country, the participants said that the United States cannot shift the responsibility of its failure in Afghanistan on Pakistan.
This also required policy makers to tailor foreign and defence policies based on the national interest — as resonated by the representative Parliament — instead of acting upon foreign dictation, they said.