Pakistan faces internal and external threats

Miangul Abdullah
Domestic violence plus separatists pressure, Pakistan is plunging into a perfect storm of threats
on the two frontsinternal and external. The internal threats are economic stagnation, growing
poverty and inequality, lawlessness, the pervasive corruption, regional conflicts, ethnic divides,
sectarian killings and clash of institution...s. The external threats are the imposed conflicts with
the ever ready enemies to destabilize the country by organizing themselves against Pakistan on
Eastern and Western fronts.
A close look into the prevailing situation makes all too clear that Pakistan is passing through one
of the most troublesome periods of instability in its history. The rising extremism, failing economy,
political instability and chronic underdevelopment are intensifying feelings of hatred among the
masses against injustices meted out to them in almost every field of public activity, which are
resulting into unprecedented political, economic and social disorder.
The country seems to be on a downward course due to the fact that its leadership is not
adequately addressing either internal violence or the needs of the people. The governments
policies are self-serving and far from meeting needs or expectations of people, due to which there
arises problems on all levels of national development.
The internal wrangling always mired efforts of dysfunctional civilian governments to control the
situation. The elites give preference to their interests over population and help institutionalize
deep-rooted patronage networks, widespread corruption and significant structural distortions in
tax collections etc. And it is because of their willingness to exploit ethno-sectarian divides for
political gain that caused further violence and instability.
Thus the government reforms are impeded by strong organizational resistance, which continues
to exert pressure all time. As a result corruption, service politics, nepotism and favoritism, power
brokers, entrenched feudal interests, and a marked civil-military imbalance continue to hold
influence at the cost of public interest.
The external threats have also taken its toll no less than the internal wrangling when both
combine to affect the structural reforms. Due to its involvement in the war against terror, Pakistan
faces challenges virtually in every aspect of its external relations.
As regards the fluctuating relations with India, there can hardly be traced any period where one
can assess that both Islamabad and New Delhi have shown enough maturity to decide the major
issues between them in better interest of the people of the two countries. The Indo-Pak border,
which is secured by the two countries through nuclear weapons, is one of the most tense borders
on the planet. Cross border violence causes escalating the prospect of full-scale war between the
two sides.
Besides, the role which the two countries have to play in Afghanistan is another episode that
causes escalation in the fluctuating relations between Pakistan and India. Actually Pakistan has
different perception and national interests on Afghan security and stability, which further escalate
its relations with the United States and causes cross border violence.
To weigh all factors we can conclude that the increasing security concern causes diversion of
massive amounts of resources for defence purposes, living a little room for internal problems to
be resolved. Pakistan currently invest a major portion of its resources in the name of security as
the anti-state forces are combining themselves on all fronts to weaken the country by dividing
people along political, ethnic and religious lines besides fueling the flames to turn the already
volatile conditions into a major flare-up.
An in-depth study of the factors involved behind the fiasco in broader context shows that the antistate violence and sectarian intolerance is increasing with the growing demands of the society

and consistent failure of the government to meet the needs of people over a period of decades.
The gap between the rich and the poor is widening and there exists nothing in reality to plug the
gap except official rhetoric without any real-world performance.
Thats why despite robust military operation and improved counterinsurgency efforts, there seems
a little success and the gains are likely ephemeral because the root causes of militancy remain
unaddressed that is political instability, lack of administrative control and economic stagnation, all
poses a major threat to the future stability of the country.
Every government that came into power tried to approach the problems with selective attempts to
address public grievances, which could not work to alter the fate of people. Instead these threats
kept on increasing and left governments with a little breathing space to accomplish the much
desired objectives of peace and progress, besides they led to the fear of disintegration along
political, ethnic and religious lines, which poses a danger to everyone and may turn into a huge
collapse to the unity of Pakistan.
Actually the efforts of governments were always faltered and many reform programs ended up
remaining rhetoric due to political opportunism with the government making only superficial
attempts to rectify many of its deep-rooted structural problems. The government of course spent
money, but it has placed too much emphasis on allocating resources with little emphasis on
ensuring a meaningful outcome.
What is in fact needed is a comprehensive strategy to invest on people through public welfare
activities, besides urgent planning for ending the ever increasing crisis in order to bring peace
and stability.
Therefore, the need is to devise a national policy that could bring peace in the country. And the
same would be possible with open mindedness, which can be expected when the countrys
political leadership comes up with some consensus decisions and strategy to deal with militancy
that has severely affected the national economy and caused huge losses to human lives.
Now there should be a major shift in policies to tackle the situation like this. The leaders must
focus on investing in its peoples welfare to address their core grievances.
They should give priority to internal needs over dealing with external threats by devoting
themselves to the welfare and future of the people. As such there must be a better planned and
well managed stabilization strategy to address the causes of extremism, which would need a
large scale reforms.