Pakistan's Internal Security Challenges and the Army's Ability to Overcome Them by Shaman Chodha

Author:Shaman Chodha [Chodha, Shaman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Comparative Politics, Political Science
ISBN: 9789388161862
Google: tXQhygEACAAJ
Goodreads: 51981411
Publisher: VIJ BOOKS INDIA
Published: 2019-01-15T11:56:08+00:00

CHAPTER 3

Policy Perception for Pakistan

The internal security threats to Pakistan will continue to persist unless serious and concrete steps are taken to overcome the existing shortcomings of the state institutions of Army, paramilitary forces, police, administration, judiciary and media. The poor internal security situation of Pakistan gets compounded due to its multi ethnic, economically unstable and religiously fundamentalist society. Successive governments have further failed the country due to their petty and narrow minded politics. Politicization of the government machinery/institutions for vested interests and rampant corruption has further weakened the nation’s ability to face the serious challenges. Restructuring and de-politicization of state’s institutions of army, police, judiciary, paramilitary forces and other administrative machinery is needed on a war footing.

Before giving out “Policy Prescription” for Pakistan, It will be interesting to briefly compare the progress made by Pakistan with that of Bangladesh after its liberation from Pakistan. Half a century back Bangladesh was born as a poor country. It was still coming out of trauma of a bloody and costly liberation from Pakistan; it was politically and administratively instable. Unlike Pakistan, it also did not enjoy any geostrategic assets which could attract world powers. In fact the country had a history of natural disasters, resulting in famines and persistent poverty. In the initial years it faced political violence, military interventions, institutional vacuum, poor governance, corruption and a polarized society. Despite these handicaps, Bangladesh emerged from depths and made steady progress in economic and human development indices.

Today Bangladesh is competing with India as one of the fastest growing economy. In financial year 2017, its economic growth rate of 7.28 percent surpassed even India’s rate. In FY 2018, its growth rate was 7.8 percent, way above Pakistan’s 5.8 percent360. The debt per capita for Bangladesh ($434) is less than half that for Pakistan ($974) and its foreign exchange reserves ($32 billion) are four times Pakistan’s ($8bn). As per IMF, Bangladesh’s economy will be at a healthy figure of $322bn by 2021. As per Bangladeshi economist Wahiduddin Mahmud his country is on the verge of becoming the next Asian Tiger. He is certainly not off the mark.

Besides economic revival, Bangladesh has made significant progress in its social indicators. Bangladesh has been able to control its population growth, a field where Pakistan has failed miserably. In 1951 Bangladesh population was 42 million, while Pakistan’s was 33.7m. Today Bangladesh has a population of 165m and Pakistan has 200m! Bangladesh has maintained a 1.1 percent population growth rate — about half of Pakistan’s 2 percent. Despite being a Muslim country, Bangladesh has never faced opposition to immunization and birth control programmes as faced by Pakistan’s administration. While controlling the population growth Bangladesh has also increased its life expectancy. Today its Life expectancy of 72.5 years is higher than Pakistan’s 66.5 years.

Why is it that Pakistan with its geostrategically important location, huge population, nuclear assets, vast army and super power friends is lagging behind Bangladesh, once considered their poor cousins? The answer lies in the national policies and interests followed by both countries.

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