PAKISTAN skates too dangerously on thin ice. Despite the blunt-bladed incompetence of its governments, it has managed to wobble and stumble for 77 years.
Today, many Pakistanis wonder how long it can continue to defy the laws of economic gravity and ignore the need for a national purpose. How long can our state sustain this war with itself — the judiciary vs its brother black coats; the state vs its public; the legislature vs its electorate; impetuousness vs common sense?
We survive each day in an uneasy condition, the very opposite of Chamberlain’s peace with honour.
In many countries — certainly those with a burgeoning population the size of ours — political parties prepare a plan on the essentials of governance before coming to power. Others with less foresight wait until they are in government and then announce national strategies. The foolhardy prefer the doctrine of arrière-pensée, steering themselves by using the rear view window.
We survive each day in an uneasy condition.
Take the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. In 1947, the water system was bifurcated, with headworks located in India and downstream canals running through Pakistan. After six years of desultory talks, Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and our president........