The disintegration of Pakistan is taken for granted everywhere, both in Pakistan and abroad. Much has been written about how it will look like in 2015. People like Salmaan Taseer being eliminated one by one, a central government controlling the Punjabi heartland and Karachi only while the rest ruled by thugs and terrorists. Today the state has lost control of large areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. In southern Punjab and rural Sindh it is either the dacoits or the Islamist fundamentalists — in alliance with feudal-cum-politicians — who control public opinion. So the prospect in 2015 is not difficult to fathom. What is it that ails the Islamic Republic? To begin with, the foundation of the state — which is fundamentally a secular and nationalist entity emanating from western political philosophy — was based on religion. Strangely, Iqbal and Jinnah — well-aware of the western political thought — uttered it on numerous occasions that Islam was what necessitated Pakistan. And Maududi — the prophet of pan-Islamism fundamentalism — and others took it from there. The generals — unfortunately for the people inhabiting the areas that constitute Pakistan — bought into this ideology and have since propagated the same with earnest. They put forward Islam as raison d’être for the creation and perpetuation of Pakistan. This is precisely the reason that Pakistan could not emerge as a successful state. Starting from Jinnah, all the successive governments said no to diversity. They talked against ‘provincialism’ and stressed unity on the basis of their faith. They imposed on them Urdu as the ‘national language’. A language spoken by a handful of immigrants from India could not be accepted as such by great leaders of the various nationalities inhabiting Pakistan including the Sindhis, Baloch and Pashtuns. They simply could not digest the idea of abandoning their own national languages for a foreign language. Upon that the political and economic exploitation of the smaller nationalities by a clique of generals, mainly composed of Punjabis and immigrants from India, further convinced the different nationalities of the dysfunctional character of the Islamic Republic. This resulted in the declaration of independence by the Bengalis and the emergence of the sovereign state of Bangladesh in 1971. Since then the Islamic Republic is surviving on borrowed time. The generals consume most of the country’s resources on fighting wars against the Baloch and Pashtuns, apart from keeping alive their mythical threat from India. It tried — largely in vain — to divest the Pashtuns of their secularism and nationalism by introducing Islamist fundamentalism into them. They were successful to some extent, but it soon started to hit the Islamic Republic itself more strongly than anyone else. Moreover, when free elections were held, the Pashtuns — even after the military’s brainwashing efforts — overwhelmingly voted for the secular and nationalist parties of the great Badshah Khan, the Awami National Party (ANP). Secularism is the part and parcel of Pashtun, Baloch and Sindhi nationalism. Without going into proving what has already been proved many times over, the Islamic Republic can survive as a state only if it collects enough courage to accept the ground realities. The republic is currently represented by a few Punjabi generals, religious fundamentalists, feudal lords and Syeds. This clique has to decide between two options. Either the Islamic Republic is allowed to disintegrate, or it has to fashion itself according to its ground realities. If the clique goes for seeing the writing on the wall, the languages of all the nationalities will be declared as national languages. It will release its hold on all subjects except foreign affairs, currency and defence — subjects that will be looked after by a committee of equal number of members from the four nationalities. The appointment of governors and federal bureaucrats to the provinces will be stopped forthwith. The smaller nationalities will be allocated more seats in the National Assembly than their numerical strength requires. Senate will be made powerful and will be brought on an equal footing with the National Assembly. All nationalities will be given an equal chance of holding the highest federal posts (not Ghulam Ishaques), including the prime minister, president, chiefs of the armed forces and subordinate officers, judges of the central courts, heads and employees of federal bodies, heads and employees of semi-autonomous and autonomous bodies, heads and employees of foreign missions and so on and so forth. Or it can continue on the present course, in which case it continues losing its authority and ultimately ends up defending itself in their castles in the cities of Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi. But for how long can they afford to stay in these dreamlands? Where will the money come from? Who and for how long will recognise it as a viable state? Ultimately, it will complete its journey to a complete chaos and eventual disintegration. The mullahs, military, Syed and bureaucrats have to make a choice. Ironically, they stand as losers in each choice! The writer can be reached at ilyasakbarkhan@gmail.com