Pakistan is being listed as 10th among the list of failed states or states which are close to be called failed nations. Three very important factors are being considered while judging a country’s condition. It includes social, economical and political indicators. I would like to briefly discuss every factor here;

1) Social Indicators
-Mounting Demographic Pressure: Unequal ratio of population growth and the services we provide is quite visible here in Pakistan. It also includes increasing border and land disputes and government’s less control over historical and religious sites.
-Massive Movement of Refugees and Internally Displaced People: We have recently seen huge number of IDP coming from war affected areas of Swat and other Tribal areas.
-Legacy of vengeance-seeking group grievance
-Chronic and sustained human Flight: We now have a massive brain drain of intellectuals, professionals and educated people from the country. There are an increasing number of voluntary emigrations especially by educated youth which is considered as the backbone of a country.

2) Economic Indicators
-Uneven economic development along group lines: We are observing that rich people are becoming richer and richer and poor people are still in pathetic conditions with a decreasing level of basic necessities.
-Sharp and/or severe economic decline: Thanks to IMF for the support otherwise we were very near to default.

3) Political Indicators
-Criminalization and/or delegitimisation of the state: No or less accountability of our past leaders and the corrupt judiciary system is something which I need not to talk much about.
-Progressive deterioration of public services: We have failed to provide security to our citizens and we have been observing series of suicide bombings and target killings all over the country. Furthermore; police, rangers and other law-enforcement agencies seems only to provide security to country’s top ruling elites. Basic necessities like food, health, education, sanitation and transportation are also a point of concern.
-Widespread violation of human rights: No matter how good or bad it is; we always witness a military rule after every few years. Political workers are imprisoned, media is harassed, judiciary comes under pressure, military is used for political solutions and religious or cultural persecution.
-Security apparatus as ‘state within a state’: We can never ignore the situations of Swat, Waziristan and other tribal areas of NWFP where militants are declaring state within a state. A quite similar situation is witnessed in Balochistan where different tribal areas have their own armies e.g Baloch Liberation Army (BLU) and the troubled areas of Dera Bugti where people do not want Pakistani government and forces to remain.
-Rise of factionalized elites
-Intervention of other states or external factors: Indirect intervention of United States and other countries in Pakistan’s personal and political matters including the use of force within the limits of Pakistan in the name of terrorism.

Political analysts and journalists worldwide usually come with the following statements to characterize a failed state as mentioned in wikipedia:

1) Loss of physical control of its territory, or of the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force therein: Pakistan has been under severe pressure from the international community for last 8 years to act against the terrorist forces operating into the country. There has been a significant increase in American drone attacks disobeying the Pakistan’s national boundaries.
2) Erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions: We have always seen conspiracies between important state institutions like parliament, media and judiciary.
3) An inability to provide reasonable public services: Current Pakistani government seems to be too much shaken by this threat of terrorism that its focus on providing public services seem to be lost.
4) An inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community: We do try to play our role as an active member of the international community but this role needs to be broadened and improved.

I know I am very ‘negative’ here in judging Pakistan as a state. Though we are still far behind to be declared as a failed state but the factors I discussed above are just a glimpse of where we are heading. We always cry for democracy and when it comes; it works as bad for us as a military ruler does. Democracy is a system of government in which the power lie within the people but what if the people do not have that state of consciousness to decide about right and wrong? The blame for the current situation of Pakistan largely goes towards its people. Yes; these are the people who always elect these representatives when ever there is ‘democracy’ and these representatives always fails to deliver and invite a military ruler to come and lead. If we want to make this country a peaceful place to live; we have to be intelligent and capable enough to decide whom we should and should not vote for. We need to be aware and critically conscious about whatever is happening around us. There is no revolution coming and we are never going to change if we do not change our selves. I pray for my country. Neither of us want to see Pakistan being declared as a ‘failed state’ so we have to open our eyes before its too late. May Allah be with Pakistan. May Pakistan live longer….Ameen!

Headings courtesy: www.wikipedia.org

Judges have been restored. Chief Justice Ifktikhar Chaudary is back!! Will this be the change? Is this judiciary the real/honest one? Is this what we all have wanted. Were our judiciary right before their deposition? Who is at fault and who is right?

Here; I would like to post a song written by Aitezaz Ahsan and sung by “Laal Band” which is hugely marketed and promoted by Geo TV.

I forward my questions to the youth of today!! Help me out here…I just don’t know whom to follow!! I just don’t know who is right and who is wrong!! This song is abviously sung by a young singer. Is this really the youth perspective?

Blogger Jamash writes about the Sindhi Ajrak at KOEL Art Gallery on Karachi Metblogs:

Sindh Ji Ajrak at KOEL

By Jamash

KOEL, The recently opened Art gallery in the city brings the color of our traditions into the world of art with a stunning display of hand painted Ajraks in an exhibition in collaboration with AHAN.

Centuries old tradition of making Ajrak, a hand printer and dyed fabric, goes through 21 stage painstaking process till completion. Over the last hundred years with the advent of synthetic dyes the use of naturally extracted indigo and madder in Ajrak had gone out of practice. In the past two years a series of workshops were held at the Ajrak Centers in Matiari, Bhitshah, and Sehta to revive the practice of using natural dyes.

At the workshop the craftsmen were taught making Ajrak with silk, which stir great excitement because traditionally the only fabric used for the purpose was cotton. The craftsmen watched with great excitement as colors from the natural source such as leaves, flowers, roots and barks spilled partners and designs in vivid colors of the fabric.

This centuries old tradition of using natural dyes has been brought alive to stir up excitement in a display of exciting colors and beautiful geometric designs and floral patens with this marvelous exhibition “Sindh ji Ajrak” at the KOEL art Gallery.

The exhibition is open for public till 14th of March, 2009.

Koel Gallery:
F-42/2, Block -4, Scheme-5, Clifton, Karachi,
Phone: (+92-21) 5831292 & 5364013
Email:  gallerykoel@gmail.com

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Pakistanis are, without exaggeration, the only people in the world to have misused the term democracy in every possible way. The latest definition of it (and one you can see on the rear windows of many cars in Clifton) is “democracy… is the best revenge”. Inane as this sentence is; it has become a slogan of the civil society of this country. It has also become the reason I fear for the future.

You see, when the most ‘democratic’ party of Pakistan does not believe in holding fair elections within the party itself; and leadership is actually passed on via wills, then you begin to think whether anybody even knows what democracy is. It’s not a slogan. It’s not a device to get the top chair. And for crying out loud, it is NOT the best revenge (against whom? For what?! ) It’s a lot simpler, and yet a bit more complex then what we’ve been taught by the media channels.

Democracy can be divided into two categories: Direct Democracy, and Representative democracy. To understand Direct Democracy, imagine having all 170 million people of Pakistan as members of the National Assembly. Now imagine, trying to come to a decision. Direct Democracy is rarely used in any political institution since it’s impractical, and inefficient and probably very noisy.

The second category is Representative Democracy. This is what TIP (and Pakistan) claims to be. Instead of including every individual in state decisions, the individuals elect people who will represent them in the assembly. This also means that if the guy you elect screws up, he’s accountable (as you are too, after all, why’d you vote for a nut?). This accountability is the very essence of democracy; though as Pakistanis, we probably don’t believe in it.

Other than accountability, there are 5 main principles of a democracy:

1. Freedom of Debate, Speech and Opinion
2. Open, Accountable and Diverse Media
3. Economic Democracy for the People
4. Equality before the Law
5. Popular Governance, through Elections

1) Freedom of Debate, Speech and Opinion

In George Orwell’s ‘1984’, the government had a secret agency called the thought police to monitor any dissent among the people. But in a democracy, you can curse the government; hold insanely leftist views, hold insanely right views and until you do something unlawful, the government can’t do anything about it.

2) Open, Accountable and Diverse Media

Open and diverse is easily understandable, but accountable? This means that the media should actually take responsibility for whatever they show, or print and its subsequent effect on people. So you see, technically our media is anarchic (that means free to the point of lawless) rather then democratic.

3) Economic Democracy for the People

You would be surprised to know that capitalism and democracy go hand and hand. You can’t expect to have a socialist outlook on the economy and yet consider yourself a democrat. Economic democracy means empowering people with the means of creating and controlling their own money supply. This method of money creation gives great power to those private individuals and organizations that create the money. So if you see people screaming “Down with the rich! Empower the poor!” and “We want democracy!” in one breath, they’re hypocrites of the worst order.

4) Equality before the Law

Each citizen has an equal ability to seek and receive justice. Simple? Not really. For that you’d require honest judges, honest lawyers (ha!), and a law that states a trial shouldn’t last more than 2 months. Oh, and maybe a jury of honest civilians would also help.

5) Popular Governance, through Elections

Yup. Here is democracy as we know and love it. We (supposedly) elect our leaders according to their stance on foreign affairs, economy, internal affairs etc. In a Popular Democracy, the government is the servant of the people, not their master. Its job is to listen, respond and deliver to that which is demanded by the people.

But lets think for a bit, how much of what we demand is rational, and in the interest of the country? And the leaders we elect (in some cases repeatedly); is what they deliver what the country really needs?

Democracy ISN’T the ultimate governing system. It has flaws, and loopholes, and though uptil now it has been the most successful system, it is more because of the people who follow that system rather than the system itself. Honest people would even make a tyranny work for the best. Before we make it into our tagline, we should actually know what it is, and maybe then we can figure out how it works.

It all started at Fall semester 2007, when our administration succeeded in arranging a tuck shop in the sports room whereas sports room was shifted to the past apparel labs. Our tuck shop owner in addition of keeping valuable stationary items, start selling little food items like biscuits, chips, chocolates and so on. Now, as an experiment, he initiated offering Candyland lollies at the cost of Rs 5 for two pieces. It was an experiment though but you know what happened? Semi-civilized crowd start buying those lollies and in a very little time, all the stock vanished. Considering the interest, shopkeeper arranged a bunch of lollies and amazingly all of them sold in the wink of an eye. Students from all the years are now often found with a lollypop in hand in cafeteria, class rooms, during labs, in studios, computer lab and sometimes even in the library.

Ahh! I still remember that I left eating lollypops during my primary studies and for me eating a lollypop at this mature age is some thing quite abnormal. I have no problem with anyone for these lollies but unfortunately this lollypop culture gives birth to a word called Lollz! Though every one has the right to buy and eat any number of lollies and I have no right to point towards anyone for this but a bit of advice from me is that it is very immature, irrelevant, abnormal, childish and also a psychological problem. This semi civilized behavior is not only limited to these lollies but we have also noticed extreme hooting on various serious programs and debates; we have observed the rejection from students for such mature activities by calling these events a ‘Sookha’.

University life is a time to enjoy and to do as many naughty things as you can, but it is also a time to inherit some civilized characteristics and to act mature enough to be a role model for your juniors as well. Obviously, we always have some visiting faculty, we do have frequent visitors, and we are also planning to invite other universities students in our programs. Therefore, without pointing or criticizing anyone, I request my fellow students to please start acting like grown ups and keep a big heart to accept serious singing performances, debates, dramas, quiz programs and to tolerate guest speakers. Plus, I would like to drift your attention again towards these lollypops-come on! Try to change yourself otherwise I am afraid that I will too start having these lollypops on a daily basis.

Regards
An anti Lolly Pop!