Daily Times

Sir: Dr Mubashir Hasan has clearly outlined the two choices facing the Pakistani state and society: reconstruct or perish. (“Reconstruct or perish”, Daily Times, October 31) Indeed, we have been sitting on top of a decaying system that offers no opportunity to move forward or stability to even maintain what we have. Dr Hasan correctly points out that we don’t lack the raw materials for a great nation, a great economy and a great society; it’s just that our state is inefficient, exploitative and anti-people. These negative attributes need to be eliminated and can only be done so through a complete overhaul of the state. This does not mean, in my opinion, introducing a theocracy or some other authoritarian system, but simply putting in place institutions that every state requires and desires, and to ensure that those institutions then do the tasks they are supposed to do with the maximum efficiency and transparency possible.

If we do not begin this process soon, we may be doomed.
NAUMAN SHAHID
Islamabad