can pakistan live

Can Pakistan live on a Borrowed Revolution?

The most pitiable creature I know is not the beggar who asks for bread but the gentleman who must borrow a personality. He dresses in another man’s taste, speaks in another man’s phrases and mistakes imitation for refinement. He is everywhere respectable and nowhere original. Nations occasionally acquire the same unfortunate habit. Their politics become echoes, their ideals reflections, and their revolutions little more than borrowed costumes.

There was a time when borrowing was the necessity of poverty. We borrowed machines because we had no factories, medicines because we had no laboratories, and books because we had no presses. Such borrowing was neither shameful nor unusual; indeed, civilisation itself advances through exchange. The Greeks borrowed from Egypt, the Arabs preserved and enlarged the inheritance of Greece, Europe rediscovered Aristotle through Muslim Spain, and Japan modernised by learning from the West without surrendering its soul. Borrowing knowledge is the beginning of wisdom.

Borrowing identity is the beginning of decline.

There is another form of borrowing that no customs official can intercept and no tariff can discourage. It enters silently through the imagination. A society begins by borrowing opinions, then aspirations, then indignation. Before long, it borrows its heroes, its villains, its vocabulary and, eventually, its revolutions. It ceases to ask, “What does our history require?” and instead asks, “Whose history should we imitate?”

That, I fear, is the predicament into which much of Pakistan’s public discourse has drifted.

During the past several weeks, social media has been flooded with admiration for the recent political resistance witnessed across the border in India. Video clips have travelled faster than thoughtful analysis. Slogans have crossed the Wagah frontier with greater ease than ideas. Among countless young Pakistanis one question has become almost fashionable, Why can’t Pakistan have a movement like this?

The question is understandable.

It is also profoundly revealing.

Hidden within it is an assumption that our political future must resemble somebody else’s present; that history unfolds according to a universal script; that every nation matures by repeating the experience of another. It is an assumption born not of confidence but of intellectual dependency.

The tragedy, therefore, is not that Pakistanis admire another people’s courage. Every decent society can appreciate courage wherever it appears. The tragedy is that many have become convinced that courage itself must now be imported.

We seem increasingly unable to recognise our own political inheritance unless it first receives foreign approval.

This habit is hardly confined to politics. It has become the defining condition of our intellectual life. We borrow theories from European universities before examining our own social realities. We borrow ideological fashions from America before asking whether they illuminate Pakistani society. We borrow debates from social media and mistake them for scholarship. We consume outrage manufactured elsewhere and wear it as though it were tailored for our own circumstances.

We have become, in the deepest sense of the phrase, tenants in the house of our own imagination.

The irony is painful.

No civilisation lacking confidence in itself has ever become creative. Creation begins where imitation ends. Shakespeare borrowed stories but produced Hamlet. Iqbal studied Nietzsche and Bergson yet remained unmistakably Iqbal. Muhammad Ali Jinnah mastered the constitutional traditions of Britain but transformed them into a political movement rooted in the aspirations of Indian Muslims. Great minds borrow raw material; they do not borrow finished identities.

The same principle governs nations.

Civilisations borrow in order to create.

Declining societies borrow in order to imitate.

Perhaps nowhere is this confusion more visible than in our understanding of resistance.

Resistance has become one of the most romantic words in modern political vocabulary. It evokes images of heroic crowds, defiant slogans, dramatic confrontations and triumphant victories. Social media, with its appetite for spectacle, has transformed resistance into a global performance. Every protest becomes a cinematic narrative; every confrontation seeks an audience; every slogan aspires to immortality through a hashtag.

But history is not written in hashtags.

Nor are nations transformed by theatrical moments alone.

The anthropologist Leila Abu-Lughod offered an important warning nearly three decades ago in her influential essay The Romance of Resistance. She argued that scholars often romanticise resistance as though every act of opposition were inherently emancipatory. Such a view, she suggested, ignores the complex relationships of power, culture and history within which resistance acquires meaning. Acts of dissent cannot be detached from the societies that produce them. They are rooted in particular institutions, historical memories and cultural conditions.

Her insight deserves careful attention today.

To ask why Pakistan does not produce resistance identical to India’s is rather like asking why the Indus refuses to flow like the Ganges. Rivers obey their own geography. Nations obey their own history.

Every meaningful political movement is shaped by its unique historical circumstances. The French Revolution emerged from fiscal collapse and aristocratic privilege. The American Revolution arose from disputes over representation and imperial authority. South Africa’s democratic transition was forged in the struggle against apartheid. None of these experiences can simply be photocopied for another society.

History does not distribute identical examinations to different nations.

Each country answers its own questions.

Yet we continue searching for borrowed answers.

Perhaps this is because borrowed revolutions are emotionally satisfying. They spare us the difficult labour of self-examination. It is always easier to admire another nation’s struggle than to confront the unfinished responsibilities of our own. Admiration demands nothing. Citizenship demands everything.

That distinction has become blurred in contemporary Pakistan.

Our public imagination has fallen in love with the romance of beginning anew. Every few years another movement captures our attention. We invest it with almost mythical expectations. We hope it will accomplish what institutions, constitutions and patient political reform have failed to achieve. We long for redemption through spectacle.

But mature nations are not built upon permanent excitement.

They are built upon permanent institutions.

Hannah Arendt observed in On Revolution that the enduring achievement of successful revolutions lies not in the destruction of an old order but in the establishment of a durable constitutional one. The measure of a revolution is therefore not the noise it creates but the institutions it leaves behind.

Measured by that standard, Pakistan’s history appears very different from the one commonly narrated on social media.

For Pakistan is not a nation deprived of revolutions.

It is a nation afflicted by historical amnesia.

We remember the slogans of others while forgetting the constitutional milestones of our own. We celebrate borrowed heroes while neglecting those who transformed our own political landscape. We behave like the heir to a great library who spends his days borrowing books from neighbours because he has forgotten the shelves inside his own house.

The greatest crisis facing Pakistan today is therefore not political.

It is a crisis of memory.

And until a nation remembers what it has already achieved, it will forever search for its future in the borrowed dreams of others.

The French historian Ernest Renan remarked in his celebrated 1882 lecture, What Is a Nation?, that a nation is built as much upon “the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories” as upon the desire to live together in the future. Memory, in Renan’s formulation, is not antiquarian nostalgia; it is political capital. A society that forgets the struggles through which it became itself gradually loses confidence in the institutions those struggles produced.

Pakistan’s present mood invites precisely such reflection.

For several years, our public discourse has increasingly behaved as though history began yesterday. Every political crisis is treated as unprecedented, every protest as entirely novel, every generation as uniquely burdened. This historical short-sightedness is reinforced by digital media, whose memory seldom extends beyond the latest viral clip. What trends on a Monday is forgotten by Friday. Nations, however, cannot afford such amnesia. They are not sustained by algorithms but by accumulated memory.

Walter Benjamin, writing in his Theses on the Philosophy of History, warned against what he called a complacent understanding of history that merely celebrates one dramatic event after another while overlooking the deeper struggles embedded within them. Although Benjamin’s philosophical concerns were very different from Pakistan’s contemporary politics, his caution remains relevant. If we remember only spectacles and neglect institutions, we inherit excitement without wisdom.

This, perhaps, explains why Pakistanis increasingly ask why they cannot have another nation’s movement while seldom asking what became of the movements they themselves created.

The answer is uncomfortable.

Pakistan has never lacked revolutionary moments.

It has often lacked revolutionary memory.

Our first great transformation was the creation of Pakistan itself.

The Pakistan Movement was not a spontaneous uprising. It was among the twentieth century’s most remarkable constitutional and political mobilisations. Under Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s leadership, a constitutional lawyer rather than a military commander, a dispersed political aspiration was translated into a sovereign state. Negotiation, electoral politics, legal advocacy, public organisation and constitutional argument proved capable of altering the political geography of South Asia.

There is an important lesson in that history.

Not every revolution announces itself through barricades.

Some are accomplished through constitutional imagination.

To describe 1947 merely as independence is to understate its magnitude. It represented a profound reordering of political sovereignty, territorial authority and collective identity. It was, in every meaningful sense, a foundational political revolution.

Yet nations do not live indefinitely upon founding moments.

They must continually redefine the constitutional relationship between citizen and state.

Pakistan attempted precisely that in 1973.

The Constitution of 1973 remains one of the rare moments in our history when deeply divided political forces chose consensus over confrontation. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto provided the political leadership that made the constitutional process possible, but the document itself was not the property of a single party. It emerged through negotiation among government and opposition alike and was adopted unanimously by the National Assembly. That broad parliamentary consensus is precisely what gives the Constitution its enduring legitimacy.

Constitutions are among history’s least dramatic revolutions.

They unfold not upon battlefields but across committee tables, parliamentary debates and legal drafts. They rarely produce unforgettable photographs, yet they determine how power shall be acquired, exercised and restrained long after the crowds have dispersed.

Hannah Arendt argued that the distinctive achievement of the American Revolution lay less in the struggle against Britain than in the successful establishment of constitutional institutions capable of preserving political freedom. Whether or not one accepts her comparison with the French Revolution, her broader insight remains compelling—the highest purpose of a revolution is institution-building.

By that measure, the Constitution of 1973 deserves to be remembered not merely as a legal document but as one of Pakistan’s genuine revolutionary achievements.

Unfortunately, we have treated it less as a living covenant than as a ceremonial relic.

The pattern repeated itself a quarter of a century later in a different sphere.

In May 1998, Pakistan conducted its nuclear tests at Chagai. The event is often discussed exclusively in military or strategic terms, yet it also represented a profound transformation of Pakistan’s place within the regional balance of power. The intellectual origins of that programme stretched back decades. Following the trauma of 1971, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto made the strategic decision to pursue a nuclear capability. Over subsequent governments, hundreds of scientists, engineers, administrators and military planners contributed to that effort. Munir Ahmad Khan, Abdul Qadeer Khan and numerous less celebrated researchers became part of a long national enterprise. In 1998, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ultimately took the decision to authorise the nuclear tests despite substantial international pressure and the prospect of economic sanctions.

History rarely belongs to individuals alone.

It belongs to generations.

To reduce Pakistan’s nuclear capability either to one political leader or to one scientist is to misunderstand how states accomplish strategic transformations. Chagai was the culmination of decades of institutional continuity across changing governments.

It altered not merely Pakistan’s military posture but its strategic identity.

That, too, was a revolution—quiet in preparation, decisive in consequence.

Yet once again we commemorated the event annually while neglecting the larger lesson it embodied that national achievements of enduring significance are seldom completed within a single government, a single movement or a single generation.

They require continuity.

Continuity, however, has never been Pakistan’s strongest political virtue.

It is precisely this absence of continuity that would soon provoke another constitutional struggle—one not for the creation of a new state or a new strategic capability, but for the restoration of constitutional order itself.

If the Constitution of 1973 demonstrated Pakistan’s capacity to create consensus, the Lawyers’ Movement reminded the nation that constitutions do not defend themselves. They survive only when citizens are willing to defend the principles they embody.

When Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was suspended in March 2007, few anticipated that the event would evolve into one of the most significant constitutional movements in Pakistan’s history. What began as a dispute over judicial independence gradually expanded into a broader national conversation about constitutionalism, the rule of law and the limits of executive authority.

History often surprises us by choosing unexpected protagonists.

In England, the struggle for constitutional liberty was shaped not only by kings but by parliamentarians and jurists. In the United States, lawyers occupied a disproportionate place among the architects of the republic. Pakistan, too, discovered that black coats could sometimes exercise greater moral influence than uniforms.

The Lawyers’ Movement was never the achievement of a single individual. It belonged to thousands of lawyers, bar associations, judges, journalists, students, political workers and ordinary citizens who sustained public pressure over many months. Among its most visible and articulate leaders was Aitzaz Ahsan, whose constitutional advocacy gave the movement intellectual coherence and national visibility. Yet its enduring significance lay precisely in its collective character. It demonstrated that constitutional politics could mobilise society without abandoning constitutional methods.

That distinction deserves emphasis.

Too often we equate resistance with disorder. The Lawyers’ Movement suggested another possibility of resistance in defence of institutions rather than resistance against institutions. It was not a rejection of constitutional order but a demand for its restoration.

The movement contributed to the democratic transition of 2008, but its constitutional legacy reached further. In 2010, Parliament enacted the Eighteenth Amendment, perhaps the most substantial constitutional reform since 1973. The amendment repealed many provisions introduced under military rule, restored significant parliamentary authority, strengthened provincial autonomy through the federal structure and reaffirmed the constitutional balance originally envisioned in 1973.

Once again, history resists simplistic narratives.

The Eighteenth Amendment was enacted under the Pakistan People’s Party government led by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, but its legitimacy rested upon something larger than partisan success. It was crafted through the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms under Senator Raza Rabbani and ultimately passed with overwhelming support across party lines. Government and opposition alike recognised that constitutional stability demanded political compromise.

Consensus, though less dramatic than confrontation, is often the higher form of statesmanship.

That is why I regard the Eighteenth Amendment not merely as legislation but as a constitutional revolution. It fundamentally redefined the distribution of power within the federation while reaffirming parliamentary democracy as the preferred framework of governance.

How curious, then, that these revolutions rarely appear in contemporary political conversations.

We speak endlessly about the revolution yet to come while remaining strangely indifferent to those already accomplished.

This selective memory reveals something deeper than historical ignorance.

It reveals a misunderstanding of revolution itself.

A revolution is not simply the moment when crowds occupy a street.

It is the moment when the relationship between citizens, institutions and power is permanently transformed.

Measured against that definition, Pakistan has experienced several revolutions within a single lifetime. The creation of the state transformed sovereignty. The Constitution transformed legitimacy. Nuclear deterrence transformed strategic equilibrium. The Lawyers’ Movement and the Eighteenth Amendment transformed constitutional politics.

The question, therefore, is not whether Pakistan has had revolutions.

The question is why Pakistan has failed to cultivate a culture that protects the fruits of those revolutions.

Edmund Burke’s reflections on the French Revolution remain instructive in this respect. Burke feared not reform itself but the destruction of institutions without regard for continuity. His argument has often been simplified into a defence of tradition, but its deeper insight concerns political inheritance. Institutions are accumulated achievements. They embody the experience, compromises and hard-earned wisdom of generations. To destroy them casually is easier than to rebuild them.

Pakistan’s recurring dilemma has not been an absence of transformative moments. It has been an inability to convert transformative moments into enduring political habits.

We are fascinated by beginnings.

We tire quickly of maintenance.

A constitution is celebrated on the day it is signed but neglected during the decades that follow. A democratic victory excites public imagination until routine governance replaces political drama. Strategic achievements inspire national pride until they become ordinary facts of statecraft. We inherit institutions as though they were permanent monuments, forgetting that institutions resemble gardens far more than statues. They survive only through continuous cultivation.

It is here that our obsession with borrowed revolutions becomes particularly dangerous.

Every new foreign movement appears exciting because it is still unfinished. Every domestic achievement appears ordinary because we already possess it. Novelty triumphs over memory. Spectacle triumphs over substance.

The ancient Greeks told of the River Lethe, whose waters caused souls to forget their past before beginning another existence. Modern societies have discovered a digital equivalent. Endless streams of information wash away historical memory with astonishing speed. Yesterday’s constitutional struggle disappears beneath today’s trending video. A generation raised upon permanent novelty begins to believe that nothing of significance occurred before its own lifetime.

A nation that drinks too deeply from Lethe eventually loses more than memory.

It loses perspective.

And a people without perspective soon become vulnerable to the oldest temptation in politics—the illusion that salvation always lies somewhere else.

That illusion is precisely what Pakistan must now overcome.

The temptation to borrow another nation’s destiny is not unique to Pakistan. History offers many examples of societies that mistook imitation for progress. Yet the nations that eventually flourished were seldom those that copied most faithfully; they were those that adapted most intelligently.

The Meiji leaders of Japan studied Europe with extraordinary diligence. Missions travelled across the continent, examining constitutions, universities, railways and industries. Yet Japan did not become a second Britain or a smaller Germany. It absorbed foreign knowledge while preserving a distinctly Japanese political and cultural identity. Likewise, post-war Germany rebuilt itself through democratic institutions borrowed in part from Western constitutional traditions, but it anchored those institutions within its own historical reckoning. South Korea embraced global markets without surrendering its language or civilisational confidence. The lesson is remarkably consistent that successful nations borrow techniques, not identities.

Pakistan must learn the same distinction.

Our predicament is not that we look outward. Every healthy civilisation does. The problem arises when looking outward becomes a substitute for looking inward. We have become more familiar with foreign political metaphors than with our own constitutional journey. We debate the revolutions of Paris, Moscow and Tehran with impressive confidence while remaining uncertain about the constitutional debates that shaped our own republic.

A nation that cannot narrate its own story will inevitably begin living inside someone else’s.

The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges once observed that every writer creates his own precursors. Nations do something similar. They choose which memories to elevate and which to neglect. Through that choice they define the story they tell themselves about who they are.

Pakistan, unfortunately, has often narrated itself through crises rather than achievements.

Our textbooks devote far more attention to conflict than to institution-building. Public discourse celebrates personalities more readily than processes. We remember speeches more vividly than constitutions. We commemorate victories while overlooking the painstaking labour required to preserve them.

This imbalance has consequences.

Citizens begin to expect politics to consist entirely of extraordinary moments. Elections, legislation, judicial reform, local government, administrative competence and constitutional continuity appear dull by comparison. Yet these unglamorous routines are precisely what distinguish durable states from fragile ones.

Thomas Carlyle famously wrote that history is the biography of great men. Modern historians have rightly complicated that view. History is also the biography of institutions. Courts, universities, legislatures, civil services and constitutions possess histories of their own. They mature, weaken or recover according to how successive generations treat them.

The maturity of a nation, therefore, is measured less by its capacity to produce moments of outrage than by its capacity to preserve institutions after the outrage has subsided.

This is where Pakistan stands today.

Our challenge is no longer to prove that we can mobilise. We have repeatedly demonstrated that capacity. The challenge is to prove that we can institutionalise. Can we strengthen constitutional culture rather than merely invoke it? Can we value parliamentary deliberation even when it produces compromise instead of victory? Can we protect judicial independence without transforming judges into political symbols? Can we debate fiercely while accepting that political opponents remain constitutional participants rather than existential enemies?

These questions are less dramatic than revolutionary slogans.

They are also more important.

There is another transformation, however, that deserves attention.

Pakistan was created through an ideological movement. The demand for a separate homeland rested upon political ideas concerning representation, identity and constitutional safeguards. That ideological foundation remains an integral part of the country’s origin. Yet no nation remains frozen at the moment of its birth. As states mature, they inevitably discover deeper layers of historical belonging.

The territory that constitutes Pakistan today has witnessed the rise and fall of extraordinary civilisations. The cities of the Indus Valley flourished millennia before many of the world’s classical empires. Gandhara became a meeting place of Greek, Persian, Central Asian and South Asian traditions. Buddhist monasteries, Hindu kingdoms, Islamic sultanates, Sikh rule and the colonial period each left enduring marks upon the landscape. None of these histories diminishes Pakistan’s founding ideals. Rather, they enrich the civilisational inheritance available to its citizens.

Confident nations do not fear the complexity of their past.

They embrace it.

To acknowledge the antiquity of the Indus Valley or the cosmopolitan legacy of Gandhara is not to weaken Pakistan’s ideological foundations. It is to recognise that nations often stand upon several historical layers simultaneously. France is both the heir of Gaul and the French Revolution. Britain is both medieval and modern. Egypt belongs equally to the Pharaohs and the contemporary republic. Civilisations accumulate; they do not erase themselves.

Pakistan can draw strength from the ideals that inspired 1947 while also recognising the civilisational depth of the land on which the republic stands.

Such confidence carries practical implications.

A nation secure in its own history is less tempted by borrowed identities. It studies other societies without envying them. It welcomes ideas without surrendering judgment. It admires foreign achievements without questioning its own legitimacy.

That is the difference between imitation and confidence.

The former seeks approval.

The latter seeks understanding.

Perhaps this is the revolution that remains unfinished—not another upheaval in the streets, but a revolution in civic temperament. A revolution that prizes constitutional fidelity over constitutional convenience, institutional continuity over perpetual disruption, historical literacy over selective memory and national self-confidence over borrowed political theatre.

This revolution requires no barricades.

It requires classrooms that teach constitutional history honestly. Universities that cultivate original scholarship rather than fashionable repetition. Newspapers that reward thoughtful disagreement instead of manufactured outrage. Political parties that strengthen internal democracy. Citizens who recognise that constitutional government is sustained not by occasional heroism but by everyday responsibility.

Such work rarely becomes viral.

History, however, suggests that it is this quieter labour that ultimately endures.

There is an old story in Greek mythology about Janus, the god with two faces. One looked towards the past; the other towards the future. Neither face was sufficient by itself. A nation that looked only backwards would become imprisoned by nostalgia. A nation that looked only forwards would lose the wisdom that memory provides. Civilisation required both.

Pakistan today stands before a similar choice.

One path leads towards perpetual dissatisfaction—a politics permanently searching for the next movement, the next slogan, the next borrowed revolution that promises instant redemption. The other leads towards a quieter but more demanding destination of constitutional confidence, institutional maturity and historical self-knowledge.

The first path is emotionally gratifying.

The second is historically productive.

The temptation to romanticise revolution is understandable. Revolutions possess drama. They produce unforgettable images, stirring speeches and larger-than-life personalities. Constitutions, by contrast, appear tedious. Institutions rarely trend. Parliamentary committees seldom inspire poetry. Yet when the applause fades and the banners are folded away, it is constitutions—not slogans—that determine whether liberty survives.

This is precisely why Leila Abu-Lughod’s warning remains so valuable. Resistance should never be treated as a romantic abstraction detached from its social and historical context. To admire resistance without understanding the conditions that produced it is to mistake appearance for reality. Every nation must answer its own historical questions. There is no universal script for political maturity.

Pakistan’s question is not whether it can produce another movement.

History has already answered that.

The Pakistan Movement answered it.

The Constitution of 1973 answered it.

The strategic resolve demonstrated in 1998 answered it.

The Lawyers’ Movement and the constitutional reforms that followed answered it once more.

Our challenge is different.

Can we preserve what earlier generations struggled to build?

Can we improve institutions without destroying public trust in them?

Can we disagree without reducing politics to permanent warfare?

Can we cultivate citizens rather than merely spectators?

These questions may lack the excitement of revolutionary rhetoric, but they possess something far more valuable—the possibility of endurance.

The Irish statesman Edmund Burke wrote that society is a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead and those who are yet to be born. Whether one agrees with every aspect of Burke’s philosophy is beside the point. His central insight deserves careful reflection. Each generation inherits institutions that it did not create and bears responsibility for improving rather than squandering them. Constitutional government is not a gift received once and for all; it is a trust renewed by every generation.

That trust cannot survive upon borrowed memories.

Nor can it flourish upon borrowed grievances.

Least of all can it endure upon borrowed revolutions.

If Pakistan is to play a constructive role in South Asia and the wider world, it will not do so by becoming an imitation of another nation. Its contribution will arise from something more difficult and more original. It would demonstrate that a diverse federal republic can strengthen constitutional governance, deepen democratic culture, invest in knowledge, protect its strategic stability and pursue regional peace without abandoning its own historical identity.

Peace, after all, is not the absence of strength.

It is strength disciplined by wisdom.

A nation secure in itself does not require perpetual enemies to sustain its confidence. It does not measure its worth by the turbulence of its politics or the volume of its slogans. It draws confidence from institutions that function, laws that command respect, universities that produce knowledge, and citizens who understand both the privileges and obligations of freedom.

That is the revolution still awaiting completion.

Not a revolution against the state, but a revolution in the quality of the state.

Not a revolution against the Constitution, but a revolution in constitutional fidelity.

Not a revolution of borrowed passions, but one of original purpose.

We often ask what history will remember about our generation. Perhaps the better question is what our generation chooses to remember about its history. Memory is not merely an archive of the past; it is the compass of the future. A nation that forgets its own constitutional milestones will forever search for borrowed landmarks. A nation that neglects their own achievements will inevitably exaggerate those of others.

The most pitiable creature, then, remains the gentleman who borrows a personality. He may appear fashionable for a season, but he never discovers who he is. Nations are no different. They may borrow technology, learn from foreign institutions and exchange ideas across continents. Indeed, they should. But they cannot borrow memory. They cannot borrow identity. They cannot borrow destiny.

Those must be earned.

Pakistan’s future will not be secured by living on borrowed existence. It will be secured by recovering the confidence to inhabit its own history, to improve its own institutions, to honour its own constitutional inheritance and to imagine its own future.

For only a nation that remembers itself can truly renew itself.

The writer is a PhD scholar in English Literature, a Lawyer, and an International Relations analyst.

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Seventy-nine years after independence, perhaps the most patriotic thing Pakistanis can do is not merely celebrate the birth of the country, but honestly ask why the promise of 1947 has still not reached every Pakistani.

  • How much do we love Pakistan?

    Patriotism is not a loud noise that we hear only on the 14th of August. It is not only flags on the streets, or songs on television, or speeches in big grounds. Real patriotism is a quiet light that burns in the heart of a common man, every single day. It lives in the way we treat our country when no one is watching. It lives in the small choices we make from morning till night. Pakistan was not given to us as a gift. It was bought with blood, with tears, with the prayers of mothers and the sacrifices of fathers. Millions left their homes. Millions never returned. Today, the debt of that sacrifice is on us. And how do we pay that debt? Not always with great battles. Often, we pay it with small, honest, and consistent acts. Look around you. When a young boy in Lahore gets up early and sweeps the street in front of his house without waiting for anyone to tell him, that is patriotism. When a shopkeeper in Karachi refuses to sell expired medicine to a poor child, even when he could earn more, that is patriotism. When a teacher in Peshawar stays for ten extra minutes to explain one more sum to a weak student, that is patriotism. When a driver in Islamabad stops at the red light at 2 AM when the roads are empty, that is patriotism. The world may not clap for them. Cameras may not follow them. But Allah sees. And the nation grows stronger because of them. Consider our daily life. We waste water while brushing our teeth. We throw plastic on the road and then complain that the drains are blocked. We break the queue and then blame the system for being corrupt. But a true patriot asks a different question. He asks, “What can I do today?” He turns off the extra fan. He plants one tree in his street. He picks up one wrapper and puts it in the dustbin. One person doing this means nothing. But when two hundred and forty million people do this, rivers become clean, cities become beautiful, and the government saves billions that can go to schools and hospitals instead of cleaning our mess. Now look at our work. A nation is built in offices, in fields, in factories, and in classrooms. The doctor who treats every patient with the same care, whether he is rich or poor, is serving Pakistan. The engineer who builds a bridge that does not fall for fifty years is serving Pakistan. The farmer who works under the hot sun of Punjab and Sindh to grow wheat so that no child sleeps hungry is serving Pakistan. The coder in Lahore who earns dollars from clients abroad and brings that money back to Pakistan is serving Pakistan. Even the mother at home who raises her children with honesty and faith is serving Pakistan. These are not small jobs. These are the pillars of a nation. In today’s world, patriotism also lives on our phones. Every day we forward messages. Every day we post something. A patriot thinks before he types. He does not spread hate between provinces. He does not share a lie to get more likes. He speaks about Pakistan with pride, even when he is criticizing to improve. When a Pakistani student sits in London or Dubai and works hard and follows the law, he becomes the face of Pakistan. When he helps a stranger and says “I am from Pakistan” with his head high, he wins respect for all of us. We are a nation of diversity. We speak different languages. We wear different clothes. We eat different food. But we share one sky, one land, and one flag. True patriotism is when a Baloch, a Sindhi, a Punjabi, a Pashtun, and a Kashmiri sit at one table and say “We are Pakistani first.” It is when during floods, people from Gilgit send donations to people in Thar. No one asks your caste. No one asks your sect. We only ask, “How can we help?” That is the Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam. That is the Pakistan we must protect. And what about our land? Our rivers, our mountains, our air? To harm them is to harm Pakistan. The patriot plants a tree. The patriot says no to plastic. The patriot keeps his mosque, his school, and his park clean. Because a dirty nation can never be a great nation. Dear readers, let us be clear. We do not need to do everything. But we must do something. Every day. Faith, Unity, Discipline. These were not just three words. They were a plan. Faith in Allah and in ourselves. Unity with each other despite our differences. And Discipline in our small, daily actions. Do not wait for a hero to come and fix everything. You are the hero. In your home. In your street. In your office. On 14th August we celebrate. But on 15th August, and 16th August, and every day after that, we must build. With honesty. With hard work. With love. Because nations are not built by what we say in one day. Nations are built by what we do in three hundred and sixty-five days.

  • Greatest national asset

    Quite surely and certainly, Pakistan’s youth are our greatest national asset and, more importantly, the foundation of the country’s future growth. With nearly 70 percent of Pakistan’s total population below the age of 30, making the much required investment as such was not only a social responsibility but also an economic necessity. Visionary Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s focus was centred on productive employment, empowering Pakistani youth to become job creators instead of job seekers. Under his leadership and guidance, youth empowerment has been placed at the centre of the Federal Government’s development agenda. According to the relevant facts and figures in this regard available from the official sources concerned, the Federal Budget for the just commenced new financial year 2026-27 duly reflects this commitment through the largest-ever investment in Pakistan’s youth development, as Rs 40.58 billion have been directly allocated for the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme initiatives. Additionally, Rs 21 billion have also been provided for the implementation of a number of youth-focused programmes by various ministries/divisions of the Federal Government. Such a huge allocation in the new federal budget for youth development quite obviously reflects the Federal Government’s determination to provide young Pakistanis with equal opportunities in education, skills development, entrepreneurship, innovation, sports, and leadership. Federal budget allocations will hopefully further strengthen youth participation in national development. The Federal Government is in the process of building an ecosystem where young Pakistanis can create businesses, generate employment, and contribute to economic growth. This appreciable ecosystem is being built through productive employment initiatives, entrepreneurship support, skills development, and easy and comfortable access to financial resources. The youth-focused prioritized areas in the federal budget directly impacting the future of Pakistan’s young population included allocation of Rs 22.4 billion for the PM’s Youth Business & Agriculture Loan Scheme for promoting entrepreneurship and economic independence; Rs 9.9 billion for the Youth Skills Development Programme to provide market-driven technical and digital skills; Rs 3 billion for the Pakistan Education Endowment Fund for supporting talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds; another Rs 3.00 billion for IT Startups and Venture Capital support for accelerating Pakistan’s digital economy; Rs 700.00 million for Youth Development Centres; Rs 500.00 million for the Talent Hunt Youth Sports League; Rs 400.00 million for the National Volunteer Corps; Rs 300.00 million for E-Sports Arenas and Training Centres; Rs 250.00 million for National Innovation Awards; and Rs 50.00 million for the Green Youth Movement. Additionally, Rs 24.48 billion have also been allocated for expansion of the Daanish Schools Network across the country for improving access to quality education. Recognizing the fast emerging fact that the modern global economy rewards skills, innovation, and adaptability, the Federal Government has also allocated more than Rs 9.9 billion for technical, digital, and professional skills development under the PM Youth Programmes. Young Pakistanis are being trained through the Youth Skills Development Programme in fast emerging technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, data science, and other high-demand sectors, along with traditional trades aligned with market needs. The objective is to bridge the gap between education and employment and to prepare the youth to avail and explore opportunities both within Pakistan and in foreign countries around the globe. The PM’s Youth Business & Agriculture Loan Scheme duly represents the Federal Government’s commitment to ensure entrepreneurship-led growth. Through provision of interest-free and low-markup financing, the scheme is enabling young Pakistanis to establish their own businesses, expand agricultural ventures, launch startups, and become employers. This is an ongoing initiative which has demonstrated quite significant impact, as till now Rs 365.5 billion have been disbursed to over 625,740 borrowers, which has contributed to the creation of nearly 1.96 million jobs. It is pertinent to mention here that while it is hoped that funds will be allocated for the continuation of the scheme during financial year 2026-27 in an impressive and progressive manner, thereby further strengthening entrepreneurship, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), agriculture, and innovation, quite appreciably a 25 percent quota has been reserved for women to ensure that young women also have equal access to financing and economic opportunities. The PM’s Youth Laptop Scheme is also an ongoing initiative under which six lakh laptops have so far been distributed among talented students across Pakistan. Under its Phase-IV, another one lakh laptops are being distributed. In the next phase, PM’s Chromebooks will be distributed to students nationwide, including those hailing from underserved and grassroots communities, in order to further enhance digital learning opportunities. Digital transformation is a key priority of the Federal Government’s youth development agenda. The PM’s Digital Youth Hub is Pakistan’s first national youth platform for connecting young people with opportunities across the PM’s Youth Programmes and the 4Es Framework, including education, employment, scholarships, internships, entrepreneurship, and technology. With already more than 800,000 registered users, over 16 million downloads, and over 114,000 job listings, the platform is ensuring transparent and merit-based opportunities. Sports development is another priority of the Federal Government. More than 300,000 young athletes have already so far participated in the PM’s Youth Talent Identification activities. The Federal Government is expanding sports disciplines from 12 to 23 while also establishing professional facilities. The approval of Pakistan’s first National E-Sports Policy in the very near future will further open opportunities in the rapidly growing global digital entertainment industry. Furthermore, the National Youth Employment Policy aims to create sustainable employment opportunities for Pakistan’s youth, including 32.4 million NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) youth, by aligning skills development with market demands and high-growth sectors. The policy commendably focuses on youth entrepreneurship, workforce readiness, digital skills, and expanding access to decent employment opportunities, with a target of achieving 100 percent absorption of new labour-force entrants by 2030 and also increasing female labour force participation to 35 percent. Further, the National Adolescent & Youth Policy empowers Pakistan’s youth aged 10-29 years through education, skills development, employment, health, and social inclusion. The policy has been developed through consultations with 50/60 thousand youth across 40+ cities and provides a framework for youth development and nation-building.

  • Iran’s Nuclear Program: From American Partne…

    By Ali Haider Iran’s nuclear program has been frequently described as defiance of the West. But the history reveals a different picture. It appears paradoxical that the very infrastructure of the nuclear facilities in Iran was built under the patronage of the Americans during the Cold War period. The project, which initially symbolized cooperation between Washington and Tehran, became one of the most dangerous confrontations in international relations. This transformation demonstrates how alliances shift in geopolitics.   The roots of the Iranian nuclear program can be traced back to the Cold War period in which the United States and the USSR were locked in idealogical and geopolitical rivalry. In 1950s, when the two superpowers were trying to increase their sphere of influence on the planet by establishing new alliances, US President Dwight Eisenhower introduced the initiative “Atoms for Peace” in 1953. On surface level, the program was devoted to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, however, it fulfilled the geopolitical interests of Washington as well. Several countries, including Pakistan, India, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and Iran get benefited from the program. Yet the degree of aid was dependent on the strategic significance of each country. Iran, under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, became one of Washington’s closest regional allies. When Mohammad Mossadegh came to power in 1953, he nationalized the Iranian oil industry that ultimately affected British economic interests and aroused American fear that Iran would align with the Soviet Union. In order to save Iran from becoming a Soviet ally, the CIA, along with Britain’s MI6, undertook Operation Ajax, resulting in the ouster of Mossadegh and the restoration of power to the Shah. Such close relations between the United States and Shah Reza Pahlavi facilitated the signing of a civil nuclear cooperation agreement in 1957. The United States helped establish the Tehran Research Reactor, aided Iran with highly-enriched uranium to be used as reactor fuel and provided training to Iranian scientists in American universities. At that time, the nuclear aspirations of Iran did not provoke any concerns in the global community due to the fact that the country was considered a loyal ally of the United States. The technology that is now considered a threat by USA, used to be advertised by Washington itself as a tool of development. The situation changed drastically after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when Shah was overthrown and the Islamic Republic of Iran was created under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who pursued the agenda of anti-Americanism. Seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran and the resulting hostage crisis broke off diplomatic relations and transformed allies into bitter enemies. Initially, Iranian leadership suspended its nuclear program, and Khomeini showed religious concerns about it. However, soon the Iran-Iraq War changed the perspective of Iranian leaders.In the ensuing years, Iran started rebuilding its nuclear program with the help of Russia and China, while at the same time pursuing the development of uranium enrichment facilities independently. This dramatic reversal transformed Iran’s nuclear program from a symbol of strategic partnership into a source of deep geopolitical mistrust that continues to shape Western policy toward Tehran. Matters came to a head in 2002, when the National Council of Resistance of Iran revealed the existence of two undeclared facilities, Natanz and Arak. Subsequent inspections of the sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency found no evidence of an active nuclear weapons program, but criticized Iran for not reporting certain nuclear activities before. This became the core of the conflict: the West demanded transparency from Iran, while Iran claimed that its rights were enshrined in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Gradually, the situation developed into an international crisis. In 2006, the IAEA referred the case of Iran to the UN Security Council, after which the UN imposed a series of sanctions on Iran for refusing to stop the enrichment program. The US and EU imposed sanctions on Iran and restricted its banking system and oil exports, these sanctions brought Iran’s economy to its knees, causing severe damage to its currency. However, unprecedented economic pressure did not cause Iran to abandon its enrichment program.The Iranian case demonstrates that technological capability alone is rarely the real source of international conflict; rather, it is the absence of trust and transparency that transforms civilian nuclear technology into a geopolitical crisis. In 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed which was considered the most important non-proliferation deal in the modern world. Iran was willing to place strict limits on the enrichment of uranium, reduce its enriched uranium stocks, and make changes to its nuclear sites in return for the lifting of the sanctions. This deal proved that effective diplomacy can be used to manage the risk of nuclear proliferation instead of coercion. Nonetheless, this was short-lived. The success of the JCPOA, despite its eventual collapse, illustrated that diplomatic engagement can achieve outcomes that years of sanctions and pressure often fail to deliver. In 2018, President Donald Trump left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action saying that the deal overlooked the ballistic missile program, activities in the region, and the sunset clauses. America re-imposed tough sanctions and put maximum pressure on Iran. This move did not make Iran sign another deal but led Iran to abandon all of its commitments step-by-step and expanded uranium enrichment to levels of up to 60%. Indeed, the nuclear question is still relevant today. The program that was developed with the assistance of the US nearly seven decades ago has now become America’s major concern. Iran claims that its nuclear program is purely peaceful, whereas the US and its Western allies believe that increasing enrichment capacity of the country may pave the way for developing nuclear weapons. Sanctions could not prevent Iran from developing its nuclear capacities, whereas the JCPOA demonstrated that negotiation and transparency measures can be far more efficient in preventing proliferation than coercion. The history of Iran’s nuclear program illustrates two important lessons. First, it is not the technology that causes conflict between states, but mistrust. Second,

  • Rebuilding Hope Through Resilient Schools in Sindh

    The devastating floods of 2022 severely affected the education system of Sindh, damaging thousands of schools either fully or partially. In order to tackle such climate crises and floods, the Government of Sindh, in collaboration with international donors and partners such as the Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), UNICEF, and others, has designed a comprehensive and well-planned strategy to reconstruct and repair the flood-affected schools across the province in order to provide conducive learning environment and quality education to the children whose education suffered due to the catastrophic floods. According to the data of the Sindh Education Department, during the floods of 2022, around 19,821 schools were affected, impacting very badly the infrastructure and education system of the province. The media, citing official sources, reported that major reconstruction projects were initiated with significant financial allocations. Under these initiatives, thousands of schools were selected for rehabilitation and reconstruction, and work is continuing in different districts of Sindh. Around 1.4 million students are expected to benefit from the restoration of educational facilities and the reopening of repaired schools. Under the Provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP), 2405 schools were included for repair and rehabilitation. Similarly, maintenance and repair schemes were also launched to restore basic facilities in schools. Under these schemes, classrooms, compound walls, washrooms, drinking water facilities, and other essential requirements were fulfilled to ensure the resumption of education. For flood affected schools, the Sindh School Education Investment Programme for Flood-Affected Areas (SSEIP-FA) was launched with the support of the Asian Development Bank. The project is considered one of the major initiatives for the restoration of education in the province. Under this programme, 1,607 schools are being rehabilitated across the targeted districts of Sindh. The initiative aimed at rebuilding climate-resilient infrastructure, including classrooms, and the provision of quality education to the children. The plan is expected to end by 2027. Apart from this, the Government of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have also been major partners in the drive of repair and reconstruction of flood-hit schools, making the infrastructure climate-resilient and stronger enough to face and combat floods and other disasters. JICA, in this context, believes that this initiative is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Goal 4 (Quality Education), Goal 5 (Gender Equality), and Goal 13 (Climate Action). The programme includes the reconstruction of educational facilities, additional classrooms, and the provision of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities, apart from the repair and reconstruction of flood-affected schools. JICA has also supported the upgrading of 20 primary girls’ schools into elementary schools in rural areas of Sindh. Under this project, the Government of Japan provided grant assistance of 1,686 million Japanese Yen. The project aims to promote girls’ education and improve access to education facilities in remote areas of the province.The Embassy of Japan in Pakistan says that the programme ultimately aims to specially promote girls’ education and support students in remote areas of Sindh. It is commonly observed that the Government of Sindh, with the support of international donor agencies such as UNICEF, the Asian Development Bank, JICA, and the European Union, has repaired, reconstructed, and upgraded thousands of schools in the province. It is a fact that the climate crisis has badly impacted the infrastructure and education system of the province. Amidst these challenges, the efforts of the Government of Sindh, particularly the determined initiatives led by the Minister Education Department have begun to bring rays of hope and meaningful change.The rehabilitation of flood-affected schools is a major challenge, keeping in mind the huge number of damaged schools and financial constraints. A closer analysis indicates that some schools, particularly in remote areas of the province, are still awaiting reconstruction and repair, but one can’t deny the fact that, despite certain challenges and financial constraints, the Education Department of Sindh, in collaboration with the mentioned international partners, has been striving to rebuild infrastructure, provide a conducive learning environment to children, and especially focusing on promoting girls’ education in the province. The Education Department is well aware of the issues and challenges and believes that, the support of parents, civil society, and teachers, is of vital significance to improve the quality of education and provide a conducive learning environment to the children of the province. The rebuilding of the schools in Sindh following the floods of 2022 is not only about concrete-made walls and ceilings, but, in fact, it is the rebuilding of hope for a sustainable future and hope to combat the climate crisis.

  • No to the Division of Punjab

    Once again, the debate over the creation of new provinces has surfaced in Pakistan. In every political era, the issue is revived in one form or another. This time, however, there appears to be a growing push for creating additional provinces out of almost every major province in the country. The strongest argument being put forward is that Pakistan’s population was around 70 million in 1972, whereas it has now grown to more than three times that figure. Therefore, it is argued, new provinces have become necessary for administrative convenience. At first glance, this argument may sound convincing. But the real question is: can all of Pakistan’s problems be solved simply by creating new provinces? If population growth alone is a sufficient reason for creating new provinces, then why have all major countries in the world not followed the same path? The real issue is not the number of provinces but the quality of governance, equitable distribution of resources, an empowered local government system, transparent accountability and an effective administrative structure. When the basic system is weak, changing the map does not make the problems disappear. What is particularly concerning is that Punjab appears to be the main target of this debate. At different times, proposals have emerged for a separate South Punjab, Central Punjab and even further divisions. It seems that with every political season, Punjab becomes the centre of the debate over provincial division. This has understandably created a feeling among many Punjabis that the issue may not be merely about administrative reform, but could also weaken Punjab’s historical, cultural and political identity. Punjab is not merely another province. It is one of the strong pillars of Pakistan’s ideological, historical and economic foundations. The land played an important role in the Pakistan Movement, made enormous sacrifices for the defence of the country, strengthened Pakistan’s agriculture and industry, and has always played a key role in the national economy. Repeatedly dragging such a province into a debate over division is neither appropriate nor in the national interest. Those advocating new provinces speak extensively about administrative convenience, but remain largely silent about the financial consequences. Has anyone explained to the public that every new province would require a new governor, chief minister, cabinet, provincial assembly, speaker, deputy speaker, secretariat and numerous government departments? There would also be hundreds of new government positions, official residences, vehicle fleets, security arrangements, protocol and countless other administrative expenses. All of this would require billions of rupees. And ultimately, that money would not come from some separate source. It would come from the taxpayers and the public exchequer. Pakistan is already facing one of the most serious economic challenges in its history. The burden of domestic and external debt remains enormous, while a substantial portion of the national budget is spent every year on debt servicing and interest payments. The country continues to rely on programmes supported by the IMF and other international financial institutions, while ordinary citizens struggle with inflation, unemployment and rising electricity, gas and petrol prices. In such circumstances, would creating new provinces and expanding the size of the ruling and administrative machinery really be an act of national wisdom? Or would it simply place another burden on already stretched national resources? If the genuine objective is to serve the people, the existing system should first be made more effective. Local governments must be empowered, district administrations should be given adequate financial and administrative authority, bureaucratic reforms should be introduced, corruption must be tackled and the equitable distribution of resources must be ensured. If the existing system is not functioning to its full potential, how can simply drawing new boundaries across the map transform the lives of ordinary citizens? The issue of dividing Punjab is not merely administrative. It is also a question of identity. Punjab’s language, culture and heritage have already not received the level of official patronage and protection they deserve. If the geographical unity of Punjab is repeatedly subjected to calls for division, it could further weaken its cultural and historical identity. There is another important question: if population is to be the basis for creating new provinces, why should the same principle not be applied uniformly across the country? Will this criterion apply equally to every province, or is Punjab being singled out? National decisions should not be driven by political expediency. They should be based on constitutional requirements, the national interest and broad public consensus. In my view, Pakistan needs a new economic vision, stronger institutions, a fairer system of justice, quality education, better healthcare, greater employment opportunities and effective local governments far more urgently than it needs new provinces. People do not want more rulers; they want better governance. They do not need more official protocol; they need affordable food, quality healthcare, good education and decent employment. As a Pakistani, a journalist and a Punjabi, I believe that dividing Punjab is not in the national interest. Its unity, historical importance and cultural identity should be protected. If we genuinely want to strengthen Pakistan, we should strengthen the system rather than divide provinces, improve governance rather than expand administrative structures, and reduce the problems faced by ordinary citizens instead of placing an additional financial burden on them. The division of Punjab is, in my view, unacceptable. A strong Punjab contributes to a strong Pakistan, and a strong Pakistan should be our shared destination.

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