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In about a month’s time, Pakistan will be marking the 77th anniversary of its independence. This will be a moment of celebration but also reflection. While the country has made strides in many areas it is far from having achieved its promising potential. It is even further from fulfilling the vision of its founding fathers of a stable, liberal democracy responsive to the needs and aspirations of its people.

In the 77th year of its independence Pakistan is at an inflection point, locked in a state of instability with optimism about the future in short supply. Today it faces multiple overlapping challenges – governance, economic, political, security, educational, demographic – which are converging to reinforce each other and create a polycrisis more formidable than any single crisis.

Pakistan’s search for stability has been frustrated by lack of governance, rule without law, political disruptions that saw the country alternate between military and civilian rule, visionless leadership and of course the headwinds from a volatile neighborhood that has posed enduring security dilemmas. The confluence of these factors has grievously retarded its progress and left the country trailing behind its regional peers and neighbors in just about every indicator of economic progress and human development.

In the 77th year of its independence Pakistan is at an inflection point, locked in a state of instability with optimism about the future in short supply.

- Maleeha Lodhi

Arguably the single most important factor that has held the country back is a narrow, oligarchic power elite that has long dominated its politics and........

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