Failures of state

All of us, living life in Pakistan on a day-to-day basis, are aware that much is wrong within the country. But it still comes as something of a shock to have this reaffirmed by reports and studies or to find just how badly Pakistan seems to fare on the list of nations.

A new index, prepared annually by the independent Fund for Peace organization and the magazine, Foreign Policy, places Pakistan ignominiously amongst the ten most dysfunctional countries of the world. Iraq, still an occupied country, is the only other non-African state included in the ‘top ten’, of which the most dysfunctional nation is Somalia. Each of Pakistan’s Asian neighbors do considerably better. The index uses a set of social, economic and political facts to assess the standing of nations. Rampant terrorism and political disarray go against Pakistan.

In other words, the new survey states that almost the entire world is doing better than Pakistan. This is a sobering thought. It is also one that should make us all – and particularly our leaders – feel deeply ashamed. There is no doubt that it is decades of mismanagement that has brought Pakistan to this plight. Indeed, given that compared to the African nations it ranks alongside, Pakistan has a sounder economy and more resources, forcing the nation down to this level is quite a feat. The need now is for a Herculean effort to push it out of the depths to which it has fallen. Pakistan’s leaders must make this their mission. This is after all something they owe to the people of the country who deserve much better governance than that meted out to them so far. Indeed they need such direction and guidance rapidly so that when next year comes around, Pakistan has managed to raise itself above the bottom-ranking nations of the world and has become a little less dysfunctional than is the case at present.

Posted on: 30-June-2008

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