Daily Times

McCarthyism is the practice and the art of making accusations of treason without any evidence. Pakistan is in the whirlpool of easterly, westerly, gusty winds and the local Chinooks. McCarthyism at play everywhere. Most of the developed and developing countries entered 21st century around 2008, initial eight years were the lining up of thoughts ,ideas and reflections. Pakistan at that time was fighting the war against terror that was the Hobson ‘s choice. Existence of the state was challenged. Pakistan missed some opportunities and is still missing the few. In 2008 appeared the i phone, android technology, artificial intelligence, edifice complex through invention of over 200 stories lifts, string theory, DNA retails ,bullets that shoot bullets, synthetic organisms, bubble photography, internet of things, Einstein’s fridge , smog eating cement, enhanced finger prints, CRISPR ,deep thinking machines and revolution in robotics. 2008 will be known as the year in the history of mankind which changed everything. Unfortunately Pakistan missed this decade fighting primordial physical wars and internal political fights. Even now it seems that people are under the influence of broken windows theory, where everyone points out the broken windows but there is no one to start repairs. Less than three decades away from 2047 with already missing the decade of opportunities, Pakistan has tough choices to make. This write up is an attempt to identify the broken windows. Shall we start the crescendo ? First window is to identify the sustainable development goals (SDG), as millennium development goals(MDG) are already missed in the last decades. The different indexes of hail , happiness and progress are to be reset by not acquiring technical advises from Harvard return don Quixote but from the common practitioners of agriculture, cottage industry and local political economy which no government gives any importance to. Second window is to increase the DQ(digital quotient) of the nation, how that can be done. In India all middle school children are studying the computers programmes writing language ” Python” . This will become the basis of applying artificial intelligence and will be the tool to communicate with smart machines, Indian primary students in villages use tablets for home work and every college and university student can be found with an Indian version of kindle, are we there, absolutely not. Third window is improving the sports facilities for the nation. Modi has just completed 10000 grounds for kabbadi, which is the game to train players in judging and predicting the moves of the opponents. Gujranwala which was the world capital of this sports has no more earthen grounds, the urban jungle of bricks and cement has taken over everything. Eight years back with the help of few friends from cottage industry, this, scribe tried to revive the game but only become the laughing stock for all and sundry. Fourth window is the redefining of the national narrative without it being laced with ultra nationalism. In this a new narrativity is to be found where all the state organs come into a harmony of functionality rather an ongoing effort of immune-o- suppressive rejection. New horizons of legal dispensation for masses lie in the social sphere rather than searching it somewhere at the Cicero’s legal chambers. The state has to be first socially correct before being politically correct. Fifth window is economic and trade agreements of state, CPEC is a good omen but as being a north south trade corridor, it should have some space for the east west trade activity. The TAPI, SCO , SAARC, agreements with turkey , textile concessions from USA or EU ,these all needs to be reoriented towards pakistan’s interests as supreme. Trade agreements are trade agreements, part of macro economics, not politics, as the CPEC is over politicised and publicised for the reasons known to heavens. Sixth window is the collective narcissism through which the concept of the most intelligent people in the world, the best business men and even the geographical euphoria of strategic depth emerges. Little narcissism is good as it keeps your alpha waves perked up but over dose leaves you stranded on the shore even when the year 2008 was passing by. Morgenthau had already defined that there is no enemy or friend for a country, it is a realist world and the play book is pragmatism, the idealism, liberalism and constructivism in all their neo forms are just lenses. Conclusively the 21st century is the century of inner reflections. Nations riding the band wagon of technology will enter the tunnel of progress, rest will circumvent to nowhere. The chaos theory has a caveat, it only functions once the schisms are converted into wedges of ethnicity, despondency, non assimilation, social failures, legal deficiency both in the system and the dispensation and the over securitisation in which everything is seen through the lens of internal and external security . Compatriots these six windows are to be cleaned, washed, painted and then opened for all the winds to pass through, north, south, east and west.

Published in Daily Times, October 14^th 2018.