Shafqat Mahmood

The writer is a former Senator and a former federal and provincial minister

smahmood@lhr.comsats.net.pk

The tension on the border still continues but it can be said with some certainty that a full-scale war is now unlikely. This does not mean that skirmishes on the Line of Control will not continue or that rhetoric will suddenly become friendly, but the spectre of a devastating conflict is no longer there. The Americans appear to have played a decisive role in keeping things cool, although one suspects that the Indian leadership was not overly keen on war either. It was a delicate game of brinkmanship on their part and it has worked to a degree. We can also claim some success in not caving in to every Indian demand. Honour intact on both sides, a withdrawal of forces should be the next logical step.

Having escaped relatively unhurt, so far, from a dangerous situation, time has come to look within; to indulge in some overdue introspection. We praise General Musharraf for his pragmatism in saving us from potential devastation. The same pragmatism, the same cool head must now be employed to take a hard look at ourselves and at our deeds and misdeeds. The success of our external strategies would be of no use if we continue with self-defeating behaviour in our internal management. If this nation has to go forward, as we all want it to, we will have to a do a serious rethink of our priorities.

There is little doubt that our priority since independence has been the defence of the nation. To achieve this end, we have subordinated every other ambition to the overarching imperative of national security. We have sacrificed economic development, education, infrastructure, health care, internal security, justice, in short every thing that constitutes quality of life, to the needs of defence. In the process, we created an elite band of warriors, gave them perks and privileges, lodged them in first world cantonments, and armed them with the best possible weapons, including weapons of mass destruction.

The cost of this was beyond us, but we begged and borrowed, bowed and scraped, flattered and cajoled until we got enough. Somewhere along the line we became bankrupt and it was always touch and go whether we would be bailed out. We were, again and again, not because anyone cared for us but because it suited the Americans and the West to put us in a perpetually begging mode. The accepted wisdom about Pakistan was to keep it afloat but just enough so that it does not get out of control. We were fed crumbs and kept on a very short leash.

At the end of the day we owe the world over 40 billion dollars. We built our defence to an acceptable level but the fallout is visible everywhere. Poverty is on the rise, cities are choking under population pressure, infrastructure has broken down, crime is on the increase and justice is elusive if not unattainable. Every institution of governance is in a state of decline except the armed forces. General Musharraf is absolutely right when he says that we have become a soft state, a state whose writ does not prevail.

We are in this unfortunate predicament because we never had enough left after investing in defence to build institutions of governance. The two main instruments of a state's viability, law enforcement and justice, are lurid examples of this neglect. Police is understaffed, undernourished and underpaid. Its buildings are a shambles, its transport old and unreliable, its equipment, laboratories, and communication system, archaic and barely functional. Sometimes, there is not enough money even to buy paper. Judiciary has fared no better. There is a shortage of judges, shortage of courtrooms, and shortage of all those facilities that could give this institution a sense of dignity. Yet we expect both the police and the judiciary to deliver.

These examples are important because it is the performance of these two institutions that largely determines the writ of the state. Yet, every other state institution, except the armed forces, presents a similar picture. Science and Technology Minister Ata Ur Rehman said the other day that our universities and other institutions of higher learning have deteriorated beyond measure. Why? because very little money has been available for improving higher education. On the other hand, a visit to the Command and Staff College in Quetta and the marble laden hallways of the National Defence College in Islamabad will indicate where our scarce resources have gone.

The other day an important building in Islamabad caught fire. We then discovered how little we have invested in emergency services. Our fire brigades are a joke, our ambulance services in the state sector virtually nonexistent and emergency medical help a dream. We had to call in the army to help because in the end it is the only institution that has the wherewithal to take care of these emergencies.

This paucity of resources has impacted every thing but the worst hit is the environment. Our rivers and canals have become a vast sewage network, the air we breath is half poison, and the water we drink is killing us slowly but surely. We have no money to do anything about it. The estimate to clean Lahore City's sewage before being dumped into the Ravi is over 14 billion Rupees. This is more than the province's entire development budget. There is little doubt that the brunt of our nations bankruptcy has been borne by civil institutions and public services. The begging bowl filled by foreign largess has had little impact on the people. We owe something to virtually every developed country in the world and have little to show for it.

It was not just the fear of daisy cutters that put us in the American lap after September 11. It was not just the spectre of B-52's doing carpet bombing that chilled our hearts. The Americans also had an economic stranglehold over us that left us no other option. Our state of the art weapons and nuclear powered submarines and F-16s were of no use. Our first world cantonments and pampered warriors were of no help. When the 'with us or against us' call came from Washington, we knew where we stood. We had no choice but to join the 'coalition against terror'.

It was honest and pragmatic of General Musharraf to understand our limitations and give in because any other course would have been disastrous. It was equally pragmatic of him to reverse a much loved security doctrine in Kashmir and move against the Jihadis to avoid a war with India. The not so pampered, long suffering people of Pakistan, appreciated the steps he took because they understood the consequences of standing up to the Americans or of waging a war with India. But, these cool headed decisions do not hide the fact that our notions of impregnable security have turned out to be a mirage. That our 54 years of investment in defence was of no help when the chips were down.

This has happened because our notions of security have been limited to weaponry and modernisation of the armed forces. We should now realise that just weapons and an efficient armed force does not provide security. Real security comes when the nation is economically strong, its civilian institutions are vibrant, and its people aware and motivated to defend national interest. This can only happen if we now change our priorities. We have to start investing in people. We have to start investing in public services and we have to invest in civilian institutions of governance.

Above all we have to change the guiding philosophy of the state. National security has to be replaced by economic security. Defence has now to take a backseat and scarce resources have to be diverted to the people. It's about time we did this after 54 years of pursuing a security dream.