Text of Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari address at Oxford

Ladies & Gentlemen,

As Pakistan navigates the new millennium, there are key global changes that our domestic challenges are embedded in.

The first is the rise of the anti-globalist. You can see this as a citizen that sees himself free of universalist norms, or the rights-based global order that attempted to govern the world through an architecture of rights and institutions. Arguably this global order was hegemonic and extractive in its tilt towards the West. But it strove to define itself through rights-based regimes evolved at global forums. Countries took multilateralism seriously, as well as the potential shelter from exploitation that institutions such as the UN were at least theoretically premised on.

But as globalism produced its own dystopias, today you see the Post World-War II order slipping away. In Europe and America, and here in Britain, we see it as a surge of populism and ultra-nationalism, where exclusion has become the first order of self-protection.

Frankly, populism used to not be such an ugly word in what was once called the Third World. It was associated perhaps wrongly, with leadership that deals more in the symptoms of democracy than in its actual practice. No democrat, self professed or otherwise has not been guilty of some.

Yet the new millennium, with its restless search for identity, and recognition of group over universally defined rights, has changed the way we think, as well as talk about each other.

Let’s take the West. September 11 created an architecture of global counter-terror which has run away with our global bill of rights. Renditions, off-shore prisons, black sites, intel based arrests have become the order of the day. Rights we have allowed to slip away on our watch.

Anger has become the political currency for stagnating lifestyles and unmet expectations. In many parts of Europe, the urge to nationalism resonates with large populations. The surge towards more exclusion is inevitable, at least in the near future.

America has already spoken. Trump’s wall had closed the government for two weeks. 800,000 US government employees were not paid. But Democrats refused to fund it. So President Trump has taken the unprecedented step of declareing a national emergency to enable him to raid other funds for this purpose. An unthinkable and unprecedented attack on the US concept of separate of powers. So while nothing is all one colour, and while Germany’s Merkel sets norms on inclusion, we have to agree that elections in America and Europe are increasingly defined by the politics of exclusion, leaving out immigrants, and localism, moving away from international commitments.

My concern is South Asia, and of course Pakistan, which, like many centres of the world, is becoming a more illiberal place as we lurch into the next decade without a common regional plan. As Asia integrates with Europe, driven largely by the huge Belt and Road Initiative by China, we in South Asia are busy entrenching ourselves in the language and weapons of hate. With challenges such as climate change, cyber-security and terrorism obliterating borders, we are fighting 21st century battles with the last century’s tools. Despite compelling arguments for connectivity, Pakistan and India remain bitter enemies, defined by old wars and new fault lines of mistrust, instead of trade and job dividends.

I won’t even say the B-word, but Britain’s first (Br)exit from South Asia has left Pakistan with the baggage of a dispute at the heart of its external security problem. As Kashmir pivots to core flashpoint for local insurgencies against years of ruthless Indian state-terror, we have to ask ourselves what will happen to the dream of connectivity for South Asia? How long will one-fifth of humanity become hostage to the fires of extremism and now, rampaging Modi-led Hindutva populism.

My mother always used to say that if rights and laws, which are the instruments of a strong democracy, don’t provide enough protection, don’t try to fight insecurity with repression. Fight it with the tools of democracy: which are more rights, institutionalized frameworks for conflict-resolution, and enhancements in the rule of law, and inclusion as well as egalitarianism.

Take terrorism for instance. I’m afraid the way most Westerners tackle terrorism both at home or abroad is dangerously outdated. Violent extremism and the growth of exclusionary ideologies put great pressure on the modern state. Yet it is also clear that kinetic or single-state solutions will never halt the tide.

The modern terrorist finds inspiration in gradations of injustice amidst a search for identity. The mis-use of religion or loss of community in fragile states in the Middle East, Eurasia or
sub-Saharan Africa is only one part of the picture. In both scale and intensity, violent extremism has undeniably become the single largest challenge to many of our societies. In Pakistan the tug of war between moderation vs extremism has become a significant fault line. We now find ourselves in the trenches in the battle of ideas that violent extremism and terrorism have become.

To our peril, this is a problem we often overlook in Pakistan.

At the same time this is not an existential or state identity crisis, in my view, neither is this a permanent condition. Pakistan votes in non-religious political parties by and large, which if empowered over time, can and must reverse the advances that the extremist idiom and militant muscle has made. None of these parties, I warn, must fall hostage to the temptations of authoritarianism or an illiberal democratic system.

Pakistan has no shortage of commitment on the effort against extremism, militancy or terrorism today. It is impossible to open all fronts at one time, especially given the conflict in Afghanistan constantly spilling over into Pakistan both twenty years ago, and once again today. So this is a capacity issue as much as a sequencing challenge, and we often feel we are fighting this long battle with one hand tied behind our backs. At the same time I agree that we must put our shoulder to the wheel of fighting exclusion on a much broader basis than we do today. Terrorism can no longer be fought as a military or kinetic battle alone. It cannot ignore extremism, intolerance, hate and the crisis at the heart of capitalism that we are all experiencing. No country can call itself democratic or progressive if it leaves millions behind without a promise of socially responsible state.

There was growing public recoil from extremism, especially after my mother’s assassination, and all the military and civilian lives lost to it. But for a transformative shift, we need commitment and momentum in the battle of mindsets that we fight.

Like my mother, what I strive for today is a tolerant Pakistan. I too dream of a fully democratic, peaceful, progressive and prosperous Pakistan. I believe that the only antidote to extremism is an inclusive, liberal democracy for the people, of the people, by the people.

I strongly feel that in these difficult times, like the world, Pakistan needs a genuine, progressive voice. My mission is just that: to introduce a progressive alternative to the populist and hate-driven politics many in the world have gotten used to.

Today, human rights violations, terrorism, inequality, climate change, disorient the world we knew. We are now in a time of change and technological disruption, arguably, like nothing we have ever seen before. The challenges we are facing have evolved with us.

Discontent and disorder often bring out the worst in mankind and the initial reaction when faced with adversity or shrinking resources is to look inward, but we must face these challenges instead of looking away from them.

The borderless nature of the challenges we face today will force us to unite. Let us not unite only when the crisis has caused incalculable loss. Let us use these trying times as a chance to reflect and re-evaluate our values. There is no other way out of it.

At the end of the day, it our values that define us, the ideals we cherish and hold dear. My mother, as many of you know, dreamt of an inclusive Pakistan. It is our responsibility, as leaders, to care for the disillusioned and disenfranchised. She believed that this is how we will redeem our nation. But Benazir Bhutto has not been silenced. Her message, her legacy and her crusade will live on for as long as there is hope for good in this world.

My continued commitment to the enfranchisement of the marginalised, empowerment of women and minorities, and all vulnerable communities is certainly worth the risk, because it is a defining contest, among so many in any plural, diverse society. It is also a core value of the PPP policy agenda. My mother embraced her death fighting for the politics of inclusion, which in our current context, includes taking on the full spectrum of extremists, militants and terrorists.

It is rooted in two fundamentals: One, there can be no prosperous, plural, progressive Pakistan at peace with itself and its neighbours if our policies don’t champion the protection and empowerment of vulnerable groups.

Second, this is the stated roadmap laid out by the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah at his most important policy address to the new constituent assembly of Pakistan.

Like any young and fragile democracy, Pakistan’s political stability has had its fair share of rough-and-tumble. PPP has always been the vanguard of progressive politics rooted by people’s mandate. From my grandfather who has fought for these ideals with his life, to my mother who battled dictatorship, extremism and patriarchy to become the Muslim worlds first female prime minister and sacrificed her life valiantly fighting these very forces, to my father who was the first President in Pakistan’s history to complete his term and saw the country’s first peaceful transition of power from one democratic government to the other.

2013 was a momentous year for Pakistan’s democratic history and PPP, true to its ideology, made it possible. More than its significance on a grander scale, it restored hope for a truly democratic government in every Pakistani who has lived through dictatorships and suppression and in every young Pakistani looking forward to flourish in a peaceful and stable country.

We have a long way to go and it is easy to dismiss Pakistan as a state stuck in a low-growth loop, but that is also to dismiss the agency and resolve of the Pakistani people.

We cannot rewrite the wrongs of the past but we must look forward, not backward if we are to triumph over the challenges that threaten our very existence today. How do we do that in this age of exclusion, when freedoms once taken for granted, stand at risk of being reversed?

A nation’s strength stems from the strength of its institutions and the stake its citizens have in its prosperity. While fighting a full-fledged war against the forces of terrorism and extremism, and coping with millions of dislocated persons, both from natural disasters as well as military operations within Pakistan and from Afghanistan, we have made significant strides in strengthening our federation. The most important move in that direction has been devolution of power to the provinces via a historic 18th Constitutional Amendment, which has been critical in allocating national resources more equitably than ever before.

Despite critical fiscal and resource deficits our government in 2008 invested in deepening fundamental freedoms for the media and judiciary. Today, the media, particularly, is in a transition that sets its ability to speak truth to power at risk the world over. Unfortunately in Imran Khans Pakistan freedom of speech and freedom of the press are under unprecedented attack. The peoples party however, have a clear commitment to restoring and enhancing those freedoms, but also to deepening democracy.

None of it is rocket science. Regulation must not be confused with censorship. Parliament too must be treated with the respect and centrality due weight in a functional democracy. The tax base must be widened to rid ourselves of the chronic debt economy, and the resource-pie must be distributed more equitably. The poor that are food insecure must have access to food, jobs and shelter as well as fundamental rights. Access to good schooling and public health must not be divided by class or other divides. Citizens that live outside urban centres, especially in tribal peripheries, must be heard, must be given more rights. But all of this will take time.

Pakistan is experiencing a demographic shift with 64% of its population under the age of 30. Therefore, political inclusion of the youth is on top of my party’s agenda. We believe that the inclusion of youth in political discourse is essential in maintaining democratic governance, especially when polls show that youth responses towards democratic systems mirror a sense of discontent with processes currently employed for civil representation at electoral forums. Despite the fact that Pakistan’s youth is this generation’s most important demographic it is unfortunately, also the most neglected. Three out of five Pakistanis is currently under the age of 30, full of vigor and energy, a majority of them with no real employment prospects or marketable skills. Providing vocational training and job placements has been and continues to be one of PPP’s priorities.

[Bangladesh and Iran have successfully managed their population growth and now boast higher literacy rates than Pakistan, despite their own struggling economies. This only means that policy intervention and consistency are what’s missing in Pakistan.]

We have a real yet solvable problem. Pakistan needs to create 4.5 million new jobs over the next five years and enroll the 22.84 million children who are out of school to properly utilize the youth bulge.

The good news is that despite a severely contested election in 2018 we still boast high rates of political participation.

Governance remains a challenge with capacity and resource deficits. So does the provision of jobs and skilled human capital in the absence of new opportunities that have not replaced losses in an economy hit by conflict.

Pakistan today is not just about bombs and bullets. Far from it. We are the fifth most populous country in the world, with the largest youth cohort anywhere. Today Pakistan’s best story is also about our young women, our musicians, artists and athletes. It is also about Pakistan’s resilience in the face of natural calamity, its creativity, but equally and importantly, about the scale and complexity of ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity we negotiate every day.

I believe we have the ability and capacity to navigate the complexity of the challenges posed by the 21st century. It will just take a younger cohort of leadership!

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