In the context of the current discussion and my criticism of Pakistani liberals/leftists (that they are fighting a losing battle, making enemies of various power centers and the majority of Pakistanis), perhaps it is time that the Deep State take the initiative with liberals/leftists, not to quash them, but to reach out and co-opt them, at least those that are willing.
People like Ejaz Haider come to mind - socially liberal, a nationalist and who doesn't pick sides when it comes to criticizing policy (PPP, PMLN PTI - I've seen him go after everyone).
If the current liberal/leftist elite is too far gone to co-opt, perhaps it is time that more people like Ejaz Haider are cultivated in our universities and media. Do what the US Establishment does - find journalists with potential, cultivate them and ply them with information from 'anonymous, high level military sources' approved to do just that. Help build their reputations and that of their sources (David Sanger, Bob Woodward etc in the US for example).
We have to become a lot more sophisticated in how we deal with modern information warfare. ISPR may be ahead of the game compared to the Indian military, but we still have a lot of room for improvement.
You are absolutely right --- except that you are assuming a lot more competence within the Establishment/Deep State than there actually is these days.
This stuff requires a mercurial understanding of human psychology, subliminal persuasion and a lot more. Blunt tools won't work anymore.
The mantra on many university campuses is "radical secularism" --- purportedly to balance things in society. Not only is this dangerous, it's actually nonsense. There is no indication that a purely secular / liberal society is necessarily less prone to violence and debauchery. If anything, many of the world's current large-scale conflicts and the subsequent violence and destruction has been the result of "secular" thinking in the West: the World Wars, the only use of the atomic bomb in history, the Middle East interventions for "regime change," etc.
What policymakers don't seem to get is that it is these very specific liberal elite narratives are rewarded both culturally (in Pakistan, many middle class students gravitate towards these views because that's the ticket to the progressive, elite crowd) and financially (Western university scholarships, human rights / freedom of expression awards, etc., all seem to coalesce around woke and social justice warrior-esque themes these days.)
Imagine two students. One writes an application essay for a Fulbright scholarship on how women have it really bad in Pakistan. Another writes about the failed policy of US interventionism and how such invasions, coupled with low investments in socio-economic uplift, breed radicalism far more aggressively than any village idiot
mullah ever could. Who do you think is getting the scholarship to attend a good American university on the State Dept's expense? To fight against this, our leaders need to wake the f*** up and create a more engaging national identity and culture --- and ruthlessly (yet sophisticatedly) deal with all those who try to muddle it.
Pankaj Mishra put things in much better words that I ever could have in his seminal essay,
The Liberal Order is the Incubator for Authoritarianism: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article...itarianism-a-conversation-with-pankaj-mishra/
