DECEMBER 25, 2024 has prompted me— a prolific freelance columnist for the last four decades— to realize that if I write the truth as I’ve experienced it, most newspapers will not publish my articles. I can’t write that our policy bodies and their governance are laudable, as it would be unfair not to stand with the suffering masses, who make up over 78% of the country’s population.
As a first-generation Pakistani who has witnessed everything firsthand and participated in national politics for nearly two decades, I was closely associated with the making and breaking of PNA, MRD, and PDA alliances. I witnessed the exploitation of religion, and in 1996, I resigned from the government due to the cumulative effects of our national apathy and callousness, which failed to forge unity among the federating units.
After the death of our founding fathers, bureaucrat Ghulam Mohammad usurped power, destroying national unity and weakening the foundations of our newly-born country, especially amid challenges from India. India threatened war over water by blocking Pakistan’s water supply from the Upper Bari Doab and Dipalpur canals, which triggered the phobia of a water war.
In 1954, the World Bank and the USA supported escalating this water war phobia. A shady deal proposed by a one-man Commission led by David Lilienthal was rejected by both India and Pakistan. A Joint Commission ultimately drafted the Indus Basin Treaty in 1960, dividing control of three rivers—Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej—between India and Pakistan.
This deal has been a natural resource misallocation, and the bureaucrats, working in league with the World Bank, sought to burden Pakistan with loans under the guise of dam construction and canal projects. The Mangla Dam was the only successful project, but others, like Tarbela, backfired. The resulting water-logging and salinity destroyed agriculture, forcing Pakistan to seek wheat assistance from the US under PL-480.The youth had hoped for national prosperity, and during General Ayub Khan’s era, industrial and economic development advanced under a five-year plan. Yet, the West, jealous of the progress, initiated a conspiracy to spread propaganda about the 22 families controlling the country’s wealth.
Bhutto capitalized on this, creating doubts around the Tashkent Agreement in 1966. His actions led to the destabilization of Ayub’s government and the subsequent rise of General Yahya Khan. Bhutto later nationalized industries, but this drove capital away, leading to economic decline. His daughter, during her second term as Prime Minister, became entangled with international donors and the World Bank, which led to the approval of IPP contracts, benefiting a few billionaires. Elhawan, a World Bank Director, played a key role in the capacity payment scheme for IPPs, which burdened Pakistan’s finances.
Unchecked corruption, aided by donors, has torn the national fabric. Looters and plunderers, acting as proxies for Pakistan’s enemies, enjoy the spoils of their corruption while the country faces an uncertain future. With shifting global powers—China and Russia emerging as key players— and the decline of the US, UK and Europe, the situation grows dire. The US and European countries face consequences for their blunders in Ukraine and the Middle East. Once the SCO and BRICS dominate the global financial system, the fruits of social justice will trickle down, dismantling capitalism and the corporate agenda.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Karachi.
(balti1551@gmail.com)
