Pakistan's Leadership Follies

By Farooq Sumar
The writer is a businessman and a former chairman of the National Textile Foundation

Be it political, military, socio-economic or cultural affairs Pakistan's leadership has been quite mediocre since independence. The tragedies and setbacks were many. Failure to develop a coherent set of policies to address the  nations pressing needs; to eradicate ignorance, poverty and disease at home and to maintain a dignified image abroad are the result of shortsighted leadership. After Jinnah there is just a continuous and consistent bottomless fall that has now brought the country to its knees.

Some of our decisions or lack thereof need to be revisited to comprehend our follies. The four military interventions-coup d'etats - have retarded democracy and socio-economic developments indefinitely. The military's continuous interference distorts and twists Pakistan completely out of shape, so much so that it is faceless in the comity of nations and an oppressive burden that impoverishes the people. The unacceptable truth is that the military has become the senior partner in governance at all levels, to the extent that separation of powers is totally blurred. The nation experiences medium to violent jerks often that rob it of stability, economic progress, cohesion and comprehension of its destiny.

The arrogance of the military is the basis of its justification that it has a monopoly on patriotism, wisdom, organisation and management skills to rule. This may be true in part today as all other power structures and institutions have been weakened quite deliberately by the military. While major political parties have either been created by them or compromised and corrupted to become followers who receive crumbs for their pimping services.