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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June 2009, page 67 Waging Peace The Situation in Pakistan
MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE (MEI) president Wendy Chamberlain introduced Dr. Mohammed Farooq Sattar, federal minister for labor, manpower and overseas Pakistanis for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, at a March 12 event. She took the occasion to note MEI’s new Center for Pakistan Studies, focusing on economics and development. Dr. Sattar expressed his determination for “sharing my concern and my vision with people in Washington, DC” in order to attract the world’s attention to Pakistan. The people of Pakistan face a crossroads, he observed, in deciding whether the country “belongs to the founding leader of Pakistan [Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah]…or is it a country that belongs to radical Islamists?” He held “no personal grudge,” Dr. Sattar clarified, “but representatives of an ideology that has become a real stumbling block in the way of the dreams of the founding fathers” are, in his opinion, preventing a modern, democratic Pakistani state. Despite U.S. presence in the region since 2001, the speaker implied that the situation in Pakistan is worse than that of Afghanistan and Iraq combined. “Economic crisis and meltdown are not addressed timely and Pakistan is just left on its own,” he lamented. “The political fraternity in Pakistan could not rise above…party interests,” Sattar said, and now there are two major political parties “at loggerheads.” He said his “fears are becoming a nightmare” in which terrorists are benefitting from political instability and economic turmoil. Citing the problems of feudalism, over-centralization of powers, and the stagnant conditions of life for Pakistan’s citizens who lack access to quality education, Dr. Sattar posed a series of questions: “Is it possible for a country like Pakistan, any part of its government, or its policymakers there, to really devise a political, military strategy and doctrine that could be a real panacea for the body of political instability in Pakistan? Is the system responsible, independent, and autonomous enough to be able to stand on its own feet, begin to walk, and then run?” Or, will Pakistan fall “into the quicksand of its own making”? In order for the country’s leadership to clearly conceptualize a progressive direction for Pakistan, Dr. Sattar advocated the “secular, modern, progressive political party, [with] transparency, [and] commit[ment] to the people.” As an “urban, middle-class, educated phenomenon” with a vision, he would like to see the emergence of the Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM), or the United National Movement, as a prominent political player in Pakistan. The MQM has had offices closed in Pubjab and is not tolerated by the military or by feudal authorities, the minister explained. The party has been denied a role in the Senate and National Assembly—power sectors disconnected from the Pakistani people, according to Dr. Sattar. Citing “extremism and terrorism as morphing in different forms,” the “Talibanization of Karachi on the fast track,” political groups conflating ethnic concerns with political ones, problems of industry between Pakistan and Bangladesh, the “land and drug mafia encroachment, illegal occupation of land,” and “2,000 illegal seminaries…spreading a mutilated Islam to show Islam and democracy as incompatible,” Dr. Sattar concluded, “We have to have a very clear picture of the realities when talking about the possibility of reform in Pakistan.” —Nina Hamedani |
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