From the Book: The Pakish Identity: Re-imagining Pakistan through Intelligent Design
It is often
seen as small country, armed with nuclear warheads under an unreliable
government and elusive opposition along with a powerful military, struggling to
deal with extreme elements that are embedded in the nation on every level.
Pakistan,
since the beginning, suffers from an acute problem of identity crises that has
in fact grown over the years. Missing or conflicting information about the idea
of Pakistan, ambiguous interpretations of being her citizen, its twisted
history, highly fluctuating economy, multiple foreign influences, rumors,
trauma of partition, refugee influx, terrorism and wars, all have contributed
to such a crisis. The most important reason is the failure of iteration and
reiteration of a robust and clear identity by the primary leaderships. Leaders,
who were supposed to interject the meaning and reasoning to exist, ironically
found themselves entangled in the indirect battle to justify their own
existence instead of engaging in defining and promoting the identity of the
nation. The dilemma is that most of the leadership has failed to realize that
this battle was not even the real battle. Assuming the title of a winner just
for sustaining oneself in power for as long as possible is not a goal. Until
today Pakistan finds herself in a heart-breaking disagreement with the
reflection she sees in the mirror.