Resurgent Pakistan

By Ahsan Waheed

There are endless debates about the future of Pakistan. These debates are among the so called 'South Asian and Pakistan-India-Afghanistan' experts. These experts thrive on the funds that they can solicit for 'projects and books' on their area of expertise and of course that expertise has to be constantly burnished by short periodic trips to the region -especially to the 'dangerous bad lands' of Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are also 'task forces' and 'review groups' working to present policy options and these too have 'experts' within and around them. It is 'de rigor' to present a pessimistic picture, to stoke fears of a growing threat to well insulated western societies and to talk of systemic failure in Pakistan or some kind of upheaval, corruption and lack of balance and capacity in Afghanistan, of Kashmir being the trigger for a nuclear war and some kind of Times Square or Mumbai event that becomes the start point for unilateral action that brings about doomsday. Seminars are held in exotic locations and 'think-tanks' organize events with hotel and air fares thrown in to get 'local' input so that their papers are 'well rounded'.

Read Complete Article Here: http://pakistanpal.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/resurgent-pakistan/