Former Pakistani ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani - Intelligentsia must think why Pakistan deemed dangerous by others

Wajid Ali Syed

The gap between how Pakistanis want Pakistan to be viewed and how the rest of the world views the country is widening and Pakistan’s intelligentsia must seriously consider why the country is deemed dangerous or on the brink of failure by others,” former Pakistani ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani said at a book launch event in Princeton.

Haqqani unveiled his book at the event organised by the Centre for International Security Studies at the Princeton University. He said that he has laid out the vision of a tolerant, inclusive, democratic federation in the book titled ‘Reimagining Pakistan – Transforming a dysfunctional nuclear state’.

He noted that Pakistan has the world’s sixth largest population and army but lags behind in most international rankings that measure a nation’s success, including education, economic productivity and opportunities for citizens. He predicted that unless Pakistan drastically alters course, the country will come under greater pressure from the rest of the world while also having to deal with internal pressures from a growing population divided by sectarianism and ethnicity and without economic prospects for most people.

“It is true that Pakistan’s direction can best be changed by Pakistanis,” he told the audience. “But genuine debate inside Pakistan remains impossible as long as the nation is mired in a national narrative of hyper-nationalism, grievance and conspiracy theories,” he warned.

Pakistan has the world’s highest infant mortality rate according to a recent Unicef report, Haqqani stated, while lamenting that this troubling news got little attention in the country’s vast media.

“The Pakistani media discusses politics and corruption but ignores human development or the world’s negative perception of the country especially in relation to religious extremism and terrorism,” he said.

“Pakistanis are told about imaginary American, Israeli or Indian conspiracies and there is an outrage industry that keeps Pakistanis angry about perceived threats to Islam and their homeland,” Haqqani said, adding, “The real threats -- of inadequate economic performance, low human capital development, poor health and education statistics, and rising extremism -- are being ignored.”

He listed what he described as “many factual inaccuracies” in accounts of history that are taught to Pakistanis in schools and discussed on mainstream and social media. Haqqani also offered what he described as “practical, step by step remedial measures.”

The former ambassador is currently Director South and Central Asia at the Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute.