Mirza Shahnawaz Agha
HERE is some political analysis based on what, we located in Pakistan, should perceive of the situation around us and how we may get impacted. Ideally our status as an Islamic Republic, our geopolitical location and our friends-in-essence, have been referred to as the bedrock and the explanatory alibi for all our actions and inactions, towards our foreign policy paradigms. These assumptions filter down to the fear of the loss of the Dollar stream, the non-availability of spares for F16s and the need to remain compliant with sundry forums and institutional platforms that determine our country rating and acceptability as business partners. This is hog-wash. Then we have the Western cast democracy syndrome to fear too with consequent ‘sanctions’ that may ensue. Another fake political syndrome for public consumption. We are seemingly walking tightrope from inception; that again, with the audacity of aligning ourselves with an ideology that our leaders have remained adamant, in time, to have us the ignorant, die for! ‘Islam is a great religion and we are proud to be Muslims so here is our take: you go get yourself killed’! ‘Be patient, starve’! The clergy is saying this without martyrdom, the political and bureaucratic leadership is sermonising the same without leading by example and we the people are imploding with sacrificial ecstasy!
Whilst the region, barring the North, is predominantly sharing a common plight with us and are doomed to surrender their existence recurrently to international pirates, we are in a myopic way, playing the rat in a warehouse. All global politics ironically revolves around usurpation, and this is referred to as a ‘vital economic interest’, by usurpers. Despite our third world status, poverty and glorified mismanagement we do not seem to have found a port to anchor our ship of economic existence. The region is rich and we are centre stage, equally rich and equally fool hardy to sit vulnerable for the last seven decades plus. This is the pathetic scenario internally. Externally the road-map and destination is identical. We have witnessed the economic destruction of North Africa, followed by Yemen and then Syria which is now up in smoke. It seems that a prediction of fourteen hundred years ago is unfolding with scathing precision! While it can disturb anybody close or far from the action taking place, our focus has to be on survival. This domino effect is coming at us, in the Islamic Republic of sorts, at a wreckless speed like meteor one cannot avert.
To remain economically viable has been survival in every day and age and therefore surrendering our economic destiny in the hands of any one or several international players will remain foolhardy. We have to absolutely, without loss of time, anchor in the economic high seas all on our own. We will have to lean on ourselves and establish a quid pro quo for recognition and global acceptability. Depending on alien institutions and powers, or institutions of the State subservient to them, will certainly not change our reckless speed to damnation! The principal stakeholders of any economy are the people that own the economy and for clarity the owners of this Islamic Republic are the people that belong here. The green passport holders! Of course an economic road map free of the ‘currency based support structures’ and an impregnable defence are the keys to our autarky and survival. More importantly and fundamental is the entrepreneurial liberty, that has to be made available to the people through a democratically setup independent judicial system. The right to enterprise for the people, within and outside of this country, in any tangible medium of exchange must be permitted by the government and upheld by the judiciary.
The blessing available to our very politically polarised existence is our ideology and we have to anchor our ship of destiny on to this pier with absolute faith, that ships do not and will not sink here. It is not an act to convince ourselves that our ideology is ideal, it is to tell the world that it is so. Most certainly, a notion anti our ideology of following clerics of any branded Islam, is not being suggested here. What is essentially being stated is the exercise of ‘free will’ given to us, the people, by our Creator. I am talking of the permissible limits Islam offers greater than any other known social order that was, or is available on the planet. Let us resolve to shun lethargy and tighten our belts to build our paradise. For a change let us the people enter the arena and let the institutions take a back seat in real terms. The freedom to trade any value for another tangible, is real independence!
— The writer is an entrepreneur and author based in Karachi.
