Page 10 - Pakistan Link - May 17, 2019

P10 – PAKISTAN LINK – MAY 17, 2019 OPINION
In Crisis, Some Promise and Hope
n By Mosharraf Zaidi dress international concerns about

hat lies buried beneath various non-state actors such as the
the rubble of broken only to benefi t the already-rich is Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muham-
WPTI promises and the going to threaten to tear this coun- mad and Haqqani Network.
shattered hopes and aspirations try’s already fragile equilibrium Despite all this, somehow, Paki-
of quick-fi x be- apart. Terrorism, both from foreign- stan is in a unique position to help
lievers in Imran funded terrorists leveraging ethnic forge a generational moment that
Khan? Promise identity and home-grown Daesh could initiate and sustain a long
and hope. and pseudo-Daesh extremists across spell of peace and stability for the
First, some the urban landscape, will attempt to region. If this hope and promise
balm for the de- dismantle morale within the police, can be actualized, Pakistan’s cur-
spair. Sadly, there the intelligence services, and among rent leaders, (including members of
can be no quick fi xes. Th ere never paramilitary and military troops. To the political opposition), will have
are. Still, it is important to remem- top it off , a clumsy and unsustain- achieved something few have ever
ber that the world is not ending be- able eff ort to silence dissent, and even had the chance to.
cause a new IMF program has been lock up all potent political opposi- Let’s fi rst defi ne what the prom-
agreed. Th e world did not end on tion, will spur besieged mainstream ise and the hope really is. It is the
November 24, 2008, when the PPP- opposition parties to adopt an even possibility of a sustained peace and
led coalition signed off on an IMF more shrill political discourse. But stability between Pakistan, and two
Standby Arrangement, and it did taken together or taken separately, of its most vital neighbors: Afghani-
not end on September 4, 2013, when none of these challenges has check- stan and India.
the PML-N government signed off mated Pakistani survivability and Afghanistan is entering a cru-
on an Extended Fund Facility. Since resilience before. ers across the spectrum, including Imran Khan, thought they could cial phase in its history. Despite the
1990, Pakistan has signed up to ten Remember, Pakistan has seen talk to the TTP. It is easy to forget shrill rhetoric from many Afghans,
other IMF programs. Since then, the worse horror fi lms. In 2008, under Ramadan is the month now because the Pakistan Army the facts have always been clear: the
country has tested nuclear weapons, the PPP-coalition government, in- of miracles. Amidst the went out and won the war – but the destinies of Pakistan and Afghani-
had one military coup, enacted con- fl ation topped 20 percent (the fi rst journey here has been bloody and stan are intertwined. Th ere is much
stitutional reforms through the 18th and only time it topped 20 percent gloom of Pakistan’s return expensive. It is the blood and trea- bitterness on both sides of the bor-
Amendment that everyone used since the post-1971 economic crisis to crisis, there shines the sure that were shed on this path that der separating these two great na-
to say would never happen, and of the mid-1970s). Complicating hope that a responsible makes a return to crisis such an epic tions – but there is also much shar-
through it all became the only coun- that government’s eff orts to manage handling of relations with fail for Pakistan. ing of the burden. For 40 years, the
try to win a post-9/11 counter-in- the crisis? A full-scale terrorist in- Ideally, the PTI era in 2018 people of both countries have suf-
surgency and counterterrorism war. surgency that began in the summer Afghanistan and with should have been one of consoli- fered together. If the Zalmay Khalil-
One of the reasons for Paki- of 2007 and beheaded the PPP in India may yield a historic dating the gains from the previous zad brokered peace plan can deliver
stan’s remarkable buoyancy is also December that year before engulf- peace and stability. decade of democratic governance even a few months long window of
one of the reasons for the country’s ing the entire country in 2008 and and strong economic growth. In- peace in late 2019 and into 2020, it
perpetual return to crisis. Pakistan 2009 (the worst year of terrorist vio- Pakistan has survived stead, clumsy political engineering, will set the stage for a longer, more
is located at a geographic crossroads lence Pakistan ever saw, and indeed crises in much worse myopic and selfi sh leadership from sustainable peace in the region.
that make it both the subject of great among the worst any country ever conditions than today. The Nawaz Sharif, and a mind-numb- Putting the Taliban on a table
speculative economic hope, and the saw). Th e PML-N government that promise and the hope now ingly ill-prepared (and vindictive) with Khalilzad was the easy part for
victim of legitimate security para- was elected in 2013 managed to sup- PM Khan have conspired to strip Pakistan. Th e harder part is coming.
noia. press infl ation, aft er it topped out in is that those conditions away many of Pakistan’s advantages Pakistan will have to do two things
Crisis is upon Pakistan again – late 2013 at above 10 percent, but it themselves can be made at a crucial time for the country and to enable a longer-lasting peace in
GDP growth is slowing down, infl a- also waffl ed on the question of ter- much better the region. Perhaps worse than all Afghanistan. Th e fi rst is to enable
tion is going to rise, and the nega- rorism until the Peshawar APS mas- this has been the security infrastruc- economic activity between Afghani-
tivity of a young population being sacre on December 16, 2014. As late ture’s inability to adequately assess stan and all other nations
poorly served by a system designed as the spring of 2014, political lead- then PM Nawaz Sharif, and now PM the cost of continued failure to ad- HOPE, P28

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