Many of us might not have
noticed it, but we live in a post-revolutionary world. A bloodless revolution, yet one that has changed the world no other had in recorded history, has taken place. It is the revolution of information technology. Just over three decades ago, news of what happened in Islamabad never made it to most of Pakistani households. There were no mobile phones, no television set in most households, no computers and no internet. Therefore, rulers in Rawalpindi/Islamabad easily got away with all their misdeeds.
No longer so, thanks to the massive spread of television sets/channels, cellphones and internet. Now the majority of people are able to keep a keen eye on political developments. The said information technology gadgets educate them fast without formal schooling.
But the Pakistani state does not seem to have realised the change that has taken place. It still behaves and acts as if it operates in the old order. It still represses ethnic minorities and hangs on to the medieval feudal social systems. Modern man — a man with access to tv, internet and cellphone — cannot be satisfied with the mere existence of his forefathers. He wants all the amenities of modern life including clean streets, well-maintained roads, a clean house and a well-paid job. More important, he wants political and cultural rights for himself and for the group he belongs to.
Education brings with it the sense of identity and nationalism. It teaches one the importance of one’s mother tongue, culture and history, and its importance for the progress of the group to which he belongs. A Baloch, Pashtun or Sindhi — with access to internet, tv and cell phone — cannot accept their languages and cultures to be subservient to any other. Nor can they accept the exploitation of their resources by outsiders. Only if the Rawalpindi/Islamabad-based establishment could understand these simple facts. Unfortunately, it does not, and that is why the Baloch insurgency is gaining strength; voices of separatism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh are gaining momentum; and youth is joining religious militant groups to escape from the miserable existence of powerlessness, poverty and joblessness.
Countries incapable of understanding the pros and cons of the revolution that has taken place risk extinction from the map of the globe. The only option to cope with the changed world is to adjust to the requirements of the new age.
Such adjustment may be difficult, but not impossible. In order to secure the survival of the country, the Rawalpindi/Islamabad-based establishment has to ignore its vested interests and introduce radical reforms in the economic, political and constitutional structures of the state, so as to adjust to the needs of the new world. A robust economic growth — one that can cater to the job needs of the booming population — is an absolute necessesity. Only the provision of modern education and well-paid jobs can halt the phenomenon of the youth joining religious-militant groups.
In the realm of politics and the constitution, the days of centralism are over. Baloch, Sindhis and Pashtuns are no longer willing to be ruled by Islamabad. They want maximum political autonomy in which they are given back their birthright of governing themselves. They want the system of appointment of governors and senior bureaucrats in their provinces by the central government discontinued and the same function entrusted to them. Their long-standing demand that all the powers of governance, except the printing of currency, defence and foreign policy, be given back to them needs to be heeded for the sake of the survival of the country. A mechanism — evolved by the genuine representatives of the four nationalities inhabiting Pakistan — needs to be agreed upon according to which the federal subjects can be run. Foreign and defence policies need to be formulated according to the will of the elected representatives of all the nationalities.
Pashtuns, Baloch and Sindhis have very old and rich cultures. They cannot be expected to accept the extinction of their cultures and languages. Therefore, the state needs to promote these cultures and languages as much as it does so for any other language or culture. It needs to declare these languages as national languages. Equal air time needs to be given to all these languages on official tv channels.
At the central level, these nationalities need to be equally represented as far as federal posts are concerned. These include the offices of the federal president, prime minister, cabinet ministers, judges of central courts, federal secretaries, generals of the armed forces, presidents and staff of autonomous and semi-autonomous federal bodies and so on.
The provinces that have lagged behind in terms of economic development due to past exploitation by the Rawalpindi/Islamabad-based establishment need to be compensated for the same so as they can catch up with the most developed parts of Pakistan.
And finally, the federal parliament has to be reformed to reflect the true nature of the Pakistani population. The Senate needs to be empowered and given the powers of initiating money bills, acceptance or rejection of budgets, and confirmation of federal appointments.
The writer is from Waziristan and can be reached at [email protected]