Pakistan: present, past and future

In an election after the second war with India in 1971, the Awami League of Sheikh Mujeeb Rahman won the majority of votes in the eastern part, while Zulfiqar Ali Bhuto’s Peoples’ Party took most votes in the western. On the whole the Awami League had the edge and was supposed to form government, but Bhuto refused. Instead, Bhuto said to Rahman “this bit is mine and that is yours” and so the Indian subcontinent was bestowed with another child - Bangladesh.

Within the continuing Pakistan, Punjab has been the main powerhouse of the country and regarded as “us” while the other provinces are the “others”. Punjab is the largest producer of food, but the importance of other provinces cannot be denied either. Sindh is known for its industrial and trading significance, Baluchistan supplies gas to the country and the NWFP provides almost 70 per cent of the country’s energy.

In exchange for their contribution, the small provinces’ population, particularly NWFP and Baluchistan, have been treated as second-class citizens, with low standards of urban infrastructure including road, rail and other forms of transportation and communication facilities, power, water and sanitation, and educational institutions including all forms of schools and universities.

Punjab and also Sindh (of which Karachi is the capital and is the largest and most developed city in the country with almost 20 million population) enjoy, in most cases, a good standard of urban facilities, although the rural areas are poorly serviced across the whole country.

For 60 years since the creation of Pakistan, NWFP and Baluchistan lobbied to receive royalties for the gas and electricity they supply to the country, but their voice has always fallen on deaf ears in Islamabad.

This inequality has created antagonism in the provinces and promoted nationalistic and separatist sentiments. Baluchis revolted against the central government two years ago and NWFP and the tribal areas, who share the same ethnicity, experienced clashes between the army and the so-called Pakistani Taliban.

Recently, the newly elected nationalist government in the province has brokered a rather fragile truce with anti-government forces. The local government believes that the revolt is a result of lack of development in the province and tribal areas. But the central government in Islamabad seems more interested in what makes the Americans happy rather than in the views of the disaffected.

The inhabitants of the province are Pashtoons, the ethnic group that comprises more than 65 per cent of the population across the Durand line in Afghanistan. Because of this link Pakistani governments have always questioned Pashtoons’ loyalty despite them proving their loyalty fighting alongside the Pakistani army against the Indians in two wars.

Neighbours

Pakistan borders China, Iran, India and Afghanistan.

The country has friendly relations with China, which has also fought with India over border issues. With Iran, Pakistan has a normal relationship and even plays a connecting role between the disgruntled USA and Iran.

In the case of India, Kashmir has been a major obstacle to normalising relations between the two countries. The Beaumont memoir constantly points to the fact that the partition was hasty and that Viceroy Mountbatten bent the borders in India’s favour.

Kashmir was one of the Muslim-majority territories that was intentionally ceded to India instead of either giving it to Pakistan or being made into a third country. On Kashmir Beaumont says the third option was “far more sensible”.