Pakistan - News and Discussion -7

[Naresh]

<b>An odious comparison</b>

About 20 years ago, my cousin went to India for a pleasure trip. On his return, he said we keep cherishing the ambition to be like Western countries although in reality, <b>we should have dreams of following India. He used to say that we are many decades behind India.

Now after 20 years, I have realized that his analysis was solid. India has left Pakistan far behind in virtually all fields. Its foreign policy, economic development, human resource, software and atomic developments are all enviable.</b>

Yes, its population is touching more than one billion but despite its many cultural/ethnic/religious problems, it is emerging as one united nation. Their army is like a servant in the house; it never dares to impose its will on the representatives of the people. Its democratic system is safe from the incursions of the 'adventurers' that blight Pakistan every now and then.

Look at us in comparison; we got Pakistan in the name of Islam. It has a 98% Muslim population, a lot of God-given resources. But we have never been one nation. We lost half the country in 1971 and are rated as the 9th 'failed state' of the world in 2006. There are question marks on everything we are doing; Our militarised state, our laqck of democracy, our failed foreign policy, our lack of transparency (remember Steel Mill? Remember the earthquake?) our lack of unity (just look at the Balochistan crisis), our lack of law and order. Everything is a question mark. –<b>ASHFAQ AHMAD, Toronto, Canada, via e-mail, July 6.</b>

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->