A Manifesto For Change 2023

Introduction; Pakistan in 2023

I wrote original blog in 2009 and listed obvious known, proven, critical steps needed to reverse the destructive path Pakistan was on. 13 years later, it is extremely unfortunate that things have only gotten worst. This is not a surprise because rather than implementing the proven strategies, the powers to be tried to create a new illusion.

There are a lot of poignant articles and reviews on Pakistan’s situation these days, no shortage of scholarly and/ or politically correct articles. This article is a laymen’s view of Pakistan without being politically correct. The language may seem harsh towards past rulers and/ or “leaders” but reality of millions of people living in subhuman conditions due to their actions or inactions is a lot harsher than hurt feelings of elites or their followers.

 

The failures and solutions of Pakistan’s conundrums are so mind bogglingly obvious and simple that it is hard to understand the mindset of the people in power. We can only guess that either there is some international grand conspiracy holding Pakistan backward and top-level powers-to-be are complicit in this conspiracy OR all the people in power have been incompetent. Either way we look at it, it is not only extremely bad, but it is also clear that the system in place has failed miserably; an immediate and drastic reset is required.  

 

All solutions circling in the media and through different thinktanks talk about solutions in the form of wishes but no one is talking about the actual solution that require sacrifices and hard work of preparing the ground and nurturing the system long enough to produce the desired results. “Fair” elections will do nothing but ensure status quo. None of the popular solutions talk about the basic and first step, the rule of law! Any solution without first ensuring strict, fair, and impartial rule of law is analogues to constructing a tall building on sand. Current system has not and cannot implement the rule of law because absence of rule of law is how the current players manipulate the system. None of the current players have the motivation, sincerity, competence, integrity, and intellectual capacity to put Pakistan on the path of progress.  

 

If establishment, political/ religious parties, and general public is truly interested in real change, we must stop just wishing and start making SMART goals. Wishes only require dreams but goals require planning, strategy, sincerity, intelligence, grit, and commitment. Current establishment and all political parties must step aside for 10 years to “reboot” the system. How to get everyone to agree to do this is the billion $ question. I am sure we can find a solution if we collectively put our minds to it, but the process must start now. Recent polls showing highest percent of people willing to vote for a new party and pressure group like Reimagine Pakistan are encouraging right steps in this direction.

This article addresses following topics.

• Where is Pakistan today: We must look at where we are today in order to determine our future direction and destiny.
• How did we get there: The only thing we can do with the past is to learn from it. We must admit our mistakes before we can correct them.
• Solution for Pakistan: The solutions must be based on “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me”.
• How to get Pakistan back on track: The solution must be based on the proven methods rather than wishful thinking and band-aids.
• Who can do this: The tough question is how to start the process; rest is a roadmap of implementation. 

Where Pakistan is today…..

As of March 2023, consistent deterioration and weakening of all pillars of the state continue with impunity in line with ever increasing corruption and incompetency. As usual, Pakistan is at a “critical juncture”; at the verge of bankruptcy due to incompetent, self-centered, smug and extremely polarized “leaders” (for their own selfish interest only). Consecutive Inapt, morally, and intellectually bankrupt leadership has resulted in destroyed civil society, institutions, unmanageable internal affairs, high external debt, trade deficit and decimated infrastructure. The only gain to report is in already extremely high and unmanageable population by 500 to 600 million in last 13 years. Religious hypocrisy in general and terrorist sympathizers in specific have strengthen the militant narratives, organizations, and activities. Recent attacks in Peshawar and Karachi are evidence of collusion and delusion at the top level of government and establishment alike.

The most significant event of last 13 years was PTI’s rise to power in 2018 with political engineering by the establishment; establishment’s footprints were all over in IK’s change of political fortune. Even though victims and people with some insights and/or common sense knew this, general public was once again, sold on a pipe dream of a “messiah” in IK. Establishments’ collusion in the rise of IK/ PTI and protection of IK/ PTI’s incompetency was quite evident ( it is public knowledge now ) but as usual, it did not make any difference to self-righteous and gullible general public wishing for a miracle.

Einstein’s definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing but expect different result. Pakistani establishment, political elites and general public have repeatedly proven the validity of Einstein’s definition of madness. Latest wishful, foolish, and dangerous experiment in the rise of IK and PTI at first and then sudden change of heart with poorly timed and seemingly unplanned removal of PTI with incompetent PDM has caused more damage to Pakistan in last 5 years than damage caused by previous hoard of incompetent PMLN, PPP and successive military rulers in several decades; some damages may even be irreversible. Today Pakistan is a failed state, at the verge of bankruptcy and Pakistani’s are more polarized, delusional, and divided than ever before.

How did we get there…..

If wishes alone could produce results, Pakistan would be the most powerful superpower of the world where milk and honey would flow in the streams. The biggest problem with Pakistan and Pakistanis is that they like to live in alternate reality ( fool’s paradise to be exact ), created by both the leaders and the follower to hide their hypocrisy and incompetence through lip service ( Laffazi ). Over period of time the art of “ laffazi “ has become the main source of pride and narrative of Pakistani rulers and public alike. Leaders make unsubstantiated grand claims without any supporting evidence and public loves them for it. To serve the hungry audiences, the so-called leaders have cultivated forests of patriotic, religious, pride, hate and political word tree. The political leadership and workers compete based on who can climb higher on the word trees and pick the biggest words. The popularity of the leaders and the parties are based on the word shakers rather than competency; bigger the words they shake lose, bigger leaders they become. Rumors, allegations, no accountability for actions let alone verbal statements, fake narratives, media circus, bigger and louder slogans rule the airwaves every day in playing a reality show called Pakistan.

 

Instead of establishing fairness, rule of law and developing/ strengthening the institutions based on the proven cycles of nation building, the “leaders” have believed and mastered the art of selling illusion to general public since the inception of Pakistan. All rulers have consistently sold unrealistic and wishful dreams for personal gain through variety of state-controlled mechanisms. They have sold so much of the false narrative to local audiences that both the rulers and the public have started to believe in it to be the truth and try to push the same narrative to international audiences. One of those unrealistic wishes is the geographic location of Pakistan which is considered as the goldmine by all rulers and general public of Pakistan since the beginning. They all have wished for major powers to outbid each other to win Pakistan. Someone has said that the location of Pakistan is a goldmine if you know how to manage it but if you cannot, it can be the worst nightmare. So far, the geographic location of Pakistan has been nothing but a nightmare for the most part.  

 

Looking at the results Pakistan has produced in 75 years; it seems Pakistan was created to serve/ protect the interests of Muslim elites of India and/ or to serve the Muslim extremist organizations. Right after the death of the founder (just like everything else, the conspiracies surround his death), the state quickly moved to appease the religious right by passing the objective resolution rather than drafting a fair constitution. Incidentally, the objective resolution is still a part of the “constitution” of Pakistan. There were no idealogue leaders to nurture the newly created state which resulted in 7 PM and first martial law by 1959 and loss of major portion of the country in 1971, just 24 years after the independence of Pakistan. Elite appeasing was never far behind the religious right; it actually merged with it. There is no political left in Pakistan, there are only far right or right to center parties, organizations, and elites in Pakistan.

 

So far, not a single leader had the vision, competence, and courage to put the country on the right path. Every subsequent leader has pushed the country farther from reality than the previous one. Collectively and systematically all of them have destroyed the moral, ethical, and civic fabric of the society. The political and establishment elites have continued to collude in manipulating the general public and as a result, became richer and richer while poor became poorer; all laws and policies benefit and protect the rich and the elite only! Politics is one of the most lucrative businesses in Pakistan. Today, millions must be spent to win a seat in the national or provincial assembly and then several times higher is recovered back through corruption. History shows that all involved in politics from leaders to the field workers have only become richer, even workers associated with parties like MQM who claimed to represent lower- and middle-class working people have become richer.

 

 The political “waderas” and the establishment together have the choke hold on all prime real estates and businesses in Pakistan. Politics, political leaders, and policies revolve around strengthening their control; it is clear who the beneficiaries of the state are. Pakistan has survived so far by mainly three sources. One is due to cold war and then USSR entering Afghanistan in 1979 and second was the Afghan war in 2001. Each time US pumped millions of dollars in Pakistan and each time Pakistani leaders were quick to oblige to serve the interest of US above the interest of Pakistan. Ignorant Pakistani rulers destroyed Pakistan twice while they were under the illusion that they had US over the barrel. Religion was used mercilessly to manipulate the overzealous and self-righteous Pakistanis and other nationals which resulted in monstrous militant organizations and narrative. The third source of survival for Pakistan is an exceedingly high number of hard working, intelligent Pakistanis working abroad. As dumb as it sounds, Pakistani leaders boast about the brain drain as their “accomplishment”. Pakistan has been paying for the destruction of social, ethical, and moral values due to the absurd beliefs of Pakistani rulers and follower.

 

We never even try to look at our mistakes, any hint of fair analysis results in a party or segment of the society to the level of extreme violence. From Liaqat Ali Khan to Ayub Kahn to ZAB to Zia-ul-Haq to PMLN to PPP to Parvez Musharaf to IK, to establishment to justice system to religious bigots, each has destroyed the country in their own unique way, but no one can dare discuss what they did let alone criticize them. Instead of full, fair, and in-depth analysis to clearly identify the grave failures of each period listed above and to find solutions, any such effort is stopped with the acts of violence by the supporters and leaders sold on the “laffazi”. Violence and act of violence are the commonly used tools by incompetent and hypocrite “Holy cows” of Pakistan to get their way and to stop any effort to find a solution. Pakistani politicians, political parties, bureaucracy, establishment, judiciary, media, experts, theologians, and even general public seriously play a cruel charade called running the country every day. This has brought Pakistan at the cross section of Ground Hog’s Day and Nightmare at the Elm Street.  

Solution for Pakistan…..

The reasons and solutions for Pakistan’s continued failures are absurdly simple. Why then no one has been able to steer the country in the right direction? Does anyone know the secret process and/ or truly knows the logics behind the top-level decision making? Is there a dark conspiracy OR are we just a nation in denial and produce more and more delusional leaders to satisfy our fake egos? Looking at the history of revolutions and restructuring of the nations, one thing is clear, changes are always top down rather than bottom up. One way or another someone or a group of people will have to start the process of change. Any/ all suggestions are welcomed; here are my thoughts.

 

First and foremost, important step for all political leaders, party workers, establishment and general public is to stop lying for personal or party benefits!

 

Today, the politics of narcissist PTI leader IK plus his rumor mill that churns border line lies as “narrative” and incompetent/ corrupt leaders of PMLN, PPP and establishment have pushed Pakistanis farthest into self-righteous, popular slogan based delusional herd. The population is so polarized and word shakers are so skillful that no election results can be accepted by any party unless they are the winners. Lies, deceit, manipulation and hypocrisy are sold to such a level that it is nearly impossible to take a step forward.

 

At this point there must be an immediate and drastic change to the Pakistani system!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

As bad as it sounds, new elections are no solution to the perpetual impasse. First, no one will win the majority hence no losing party will accept the results. Even if election results are accepted somehow, it will, once again, bring one corrupt and inapt coalition in power and another equally incompetent opposition. The elections can bring leadership in societies where general public is “free” and capable of making an informed decision but that is not the case in Pakistan at all. Producing true leaders through election process is analogues to churning high quality butter from high quality milk. No matter how much or hard you churn, butter cannot be produced if you put anything but milk in the churning pot. We must first replace whatever it is with “milk” in Pakistani system before we can expect “any kind of butter”; the only true solution is to stop the cycle of destruction and reset the system! Looking at the history, the fastest turnaround of nations did not come through democracy but rather through dictatorship or fascist regimes.

 

If you look at the history of nation building over the centuries in any part of the world, the rule of law is the first and foremost critical step with justice, education and several other proven steps and patterns to follow. All emerging powers and existing powers have one thing in common and that is the rule of law. No nation anywhere in the world has ever become developed nation or world power without strict rule of law. If you look at today’s developed nations, all have strong to extraordinarily strong rule of law and swift justice system for masses.

 

All the pundits and politicians in Pakistan sell democracy, economy, religion etc. as the solution but without rule of law none of these solutions can be realized. The economic growth without rule of laws is nothing but corruption of high magnitude. No need to even reference religion in a country like Pakistan. What Pakistan needs is a full reset and NOT gradual improvement. None of the existing players in current system of musical chairs have the intellectual honesty, mental capacity, or integrity to bring drastic change in the system or the institutions. The formula for success requires extreme levels of sincerity, hard work, and intelligence. Just sincerity or hard work or intelligence alone cannot produce the desired change in the system.

 

There are two ways we can move forward. One is to, unfortunately, look at the establishment to take over the power and help reset the system since they are the one who have the power besides being mainly responsible for the condition Pakistan is in. We have to hope that establishment has the best interest of the nation in mind but do not have the ability to manage the country. Establishment must come up with a process to select a team of 1000 or so member of ruling team that can establish a fair and competent system in the country. Once this team is in place, establishment must help enforce the rule of law in the country. The establishment owes to Pakistan to enforce a system to help bring truly competent set of people to lead Pakistan for next 10 years without interruption, interference, and manipulation in order to rebuild the society in general and rule of law, justice system, and education specifically. The establishment must not interfere but facilitate and help expedite the implementation of difficult restructuring.  

 

The second option is through general elections, but elections cannot be held the same way as in the past because that will bring the same people back in power. All political parties must step aside voluntarily or forcefully. The elections must be held on non-party basis with strict qualification and disqualification process for the candidates. One suggestion is to not allow anyone who has participated in elections since 1971 to contest the elections OR make the qualifications in a way that requires high level of sacrifice from the candidates. Another suggestion would be to make the position extremely unattractive by taking all kinds of attractions out of the candidacy; NO money, power or perks allowed for the winners. The criteria for the candidate must be equally applied to all without any compromise or nepotism. Limited amount of money should be allowed for the campaign. Safety of all candidates must be ensured by the army. Army must also publicly demonstrate impartiality, protection of candidates and continuity of the process. Any sign of violation by anyone must result in swift, fair, and impartial justice and exemplary punishment. In 10 years, the ruling team must rebuild rule of law, justice, education, civil society, and honest/ fair narrative. This option will require full support of establishment and political parties. Establishment can help on the security and safety side and current political parties can help through advising the government and by not creating unnecessary chaos.

 

The job of the ruling team should be to continue strict enforcement of rule of law and justice system. The ruling team must publicly practice and promote modesty, civility, fairness, fact-based narrative, and decency in politics and in the society; ruling party must lead with example. The ruling team must be held responsible for performance or replace anyone underperforming. No party or segment of the society should be allowed to derail the system. Once public has the trust in justice system and rule law, the cases of high corruption should be brought against any/ all involved without any discrimination through proper channels. After 10 years, all parties should be allowed to contest elections based on their manifesto and present their case and track records to the general public. The elections must be fair and based on strict qualifications for the candidates. No party should be allowed to “buy” the seats, use threats or manipulation to win the election. All winners must be strictly held responsible for their performance. No one should be allowed to broadcast any positive or negative propaganda without documented proof. Ruling party must not be involved in vindictive agenda or unnecessary favor or revenge against any party or segment of the society.

 

One may say this is unrealistic, impossible or require a miracle but there are examples of courageous people doing impossible. The process must start because journey of 1000 steps start with one. There are some signs of hope where some people are openly talking about a technocrat setup or groups like Reimagine Pakistan are talking about the incompetency of ruling elites and all past rulers of Pakistan or recent survey that showed highest percentage of people are in favor of voting for a new party. If this does not happen, establishment will eventually takeover any way because neither PTI nor PDM will accept defeat.

 

A new setup is inevitable at this point. No matter who is part of the new setup, I hope competent people with integrity, intellectual honesty, ethics, morals, courage, and backbone are made in-charge. At minimum, people should demand immediate implementation of the steps listed in this article rather than lip service again. If first 5 steps listed below are not followed any/ all setups will fail!!!!! 

How to get Pakistan back on track…..

For the short term, we must get establishment and political parties to agree to the 10-year plan. This will help arrange for short term financing from international institutions. The changes listed below will bring long-term stability, finance, and growth to all Pakistanis equally. Once Pakistanis trust the new system and the leadership, business community and overseas Pakistanis can and will play a major role in restructuring of Pakistan.

 

For the long term, during the first year, highest level of emphasis must be placed in immediate implementation of 5 steps listed below and rest of the steps listed in following 4 years.

 

• Strict Rule of law: Complete overhaul of law enforcing agencies with Law and order enforced with zero tolerance throughout Pakistan without exception. Full safety to all citizens and visitors all the time everywhere!
• Swift and fair justice system: Complete overhaul of Judiciary and justice system where justice is observed and dispensed swiftly and equally to all citizens without exception.
• Population control: Immediate steps taken to control population growth.
• Education: Immediate and high-level investment in education system.
• Nation building: We must immediately start to rebuild narratives, ethics, civic sense, nationalism and responsibility in common man on the streets and in power corridors.

Above listed areas are foundation for nation building. The benefits of putting them in place are enormous. Details of how to maximize the benefits and how to take maximum advantage of those benefits will be discussed on the next writeup; getting everyone to demand immediate implementation and enforcement is the key.  

 

Above listed 5 steps will help incorporate following steps in next 4 years.

 

• Do not let steps 1-5 delay, derail or compromised in any way.
• Promote high level of ethics and moral values in the society.
• Implement merit-based hiring and management in all institutions.
• Tax system overhaul where everyone pays taxes based on their wealth and annual income. All industrial and agricultural businesses must pay tax.
• Immediate stop to ALL wasteful subsidies and lobbying.
• Planning and restructuring of agricultural system and irrigation systems.
• Stop all blackmailing tactics especially religious manipulations, elite protection, bigotry, and intolerance.
• Promote high level of tourism.
• Restructure all state-owned entities, especially any entity that can bring foreign currencies like PIA, steel mill, shipping etc.
• Restructure industries for maximum efficiency and output.
• Promote high-tech software and hardware industries.
• Rebuild all national institutions.
• Protect national treasures such as natural resources and human resources.

This will help get to following steps in place in following 5 years.

 

• Review and revise current constitution and introduce bill of right that will equally protect all segments of the society.
• Strong foreign policy.
• Self-sufficiency in areas of national security
• Protection of human rights for all citizens regardless of class, race, ethnicity, gender, or financial situation.
• Rebuild the society with competent politicians and political system for future leadership.
• Keep interest of Pakistan ahead of all other interests and do not get involved in issues of other nations.
• Hand over the power to next leadership in maximum 10 years.

The above listed steps will help put Pakistan on the path of progress. Each step will require competent people with ingenuity in strategizing and planning for maximum benefits.

Who can do this …..

1. Find a competent person with true leadership qualities. A person with vision, negotiation power, integrity, ethics, principles, humility, civility, and above all backbone.
   1. I do not think anyone from Pakistan can bring the type of changes needed.
   2. It is likely that a team of dual citizen Pakistanis from America can deliver the needed change.
   3. Selection process must be made public, impartial, and fair. The criteria must be clearly defined and strictly enforced.
   4. No matter who is selected/ elected, implementation of steps listed above must not be compromise.
2. Find and select 1000 personnel with similar qualities.
   1. People with Pakistani or dual citizenship should be allowed to run for the office.
3. Establishment must provide full support and protect this team and system for next 10-20 years.
4. Current political party leaders should work as advisers to the new setup.
5. No party, segment of the society or group should be allowed to derail the system no matter what.
6. Targeted consultation on how to start the process and how to maximize the benefit from the new setup should begin immediately.

Suggestions are welcome in this area.

This writeup is not for self-righteous, delusional people who live in denial and fake glory. This is an attempt to come up with real solutions without being politically correct towards any party, class, religion, cast or even history. This is a write up for Pakistan’s existence as a great country and a Pakistanis as a great nation.

“A mistake cannot be corrected until it is accepted as a mistake”

Pakistan must become a country with strict rule of law and a completely violence free society before any progress can commence.

 

Possible factors that have impacted top level decision making in the past?

 External influences:

• Nefarious influences to keep Pakistan backward.
  1. Is there one?
  2. Does anyone know about this?
  3. Who are the players?

• External interest to take advantage of weak and corrupt system in Pakistan.
  1. Religious influences
  2. Proxy wars
  3. Take advantage of Pakistani resources
  4. Money laundering and smuggling

 Internal influences:

• Incompetent/ delusional decision-making process and decision makers
• Stronghold of elites on policy making to mainly benefit elites only
• No process of bottom up accountability for anyone, especially higher up in power
• Feudal system and class system
• Religious paddling and manipulation
• Poor justice system, education, political system, and infrastructure