Sir: Pakistan has been facing various multidimensional crises. It has been facing a political crisis because politics has become a lucrative business. There is an economic crisis because the gap between the rich and the poor is growing, principally due to rampant corruption. Then comes the social crisis, because tolerance has been replaced by extremism. Due to a cultural crisis, modern ideas are considered anathema to our outdated traditions. Any change is treated with contempt. The decay is intellectual because our prolific writers craft lengthy stereotypes without developing a national narrative in sync with the spirit of the new age. The crisis is moral because what we say, we do not do, and vice versa. The crisis is diplomatic because our foreign policy is frozen since 1949. Pakistan is at war with itself and with the rest of the world. The portraits of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal are displayed everywhere but their philosophy has been shelved. We find scapegoats and blame others for anything that goes wrong with our make-believe worldview. The crisis is larger than life and beyond the limited capacity of our leaders to respond to. No wonder that no lessons have been learnt from our past tragedies — including the fall of East Pakistan. Unforgiving history knows how to react to national blunders. SADIA KHALID Karachi