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The inherent resilience of Pakistan
By | Khawaja Khalid Farooq
Published by Pakistan Defence
Pakistan has been at the helm of many debates internationally, many of which are shaped by negative perceptions of Pakistan. Global perceptions of Pakistan have been largely shaped by natural disasters, terrorism and official corruption; a report from the Institute for Economics and Peace ranks Pakistan as one of the top ten most dangerous countries on the Global Peace Index (GPI)- there are much such other cited reports.
However, all these numbers and matrices and other neat little euphemisms belittle Pakistan’s sacrifices in the interim. Pakistan has suffered immensely, and we all have access to those statistics, and findings, and no doubt have reached many conclusions. Throughout Pakistan’s history, that is, up until the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, we have been a liberal, forward looking, and progressive society. What transpired then is history, but what was not done at the time then was not objectively ascertaining the growth and self-realization that militant entities parties would undergo. Every social organism has at its roots the need to survive and propagate, whether individually or collectively. It is built into our DNA as human beings. As such, many of the groups that were funded to fight the communists eventually developed their own policies for not only survival, but also their propagation and future self-sustainability.
In this, we are all to blame, as it was not only Pakistan under the Zia regime but the whole might of the western military and security apparatus of western states that was to blame for this. Senior Taliban leaders visited the White House as guests at that time. He was engaged in pretty many similar activities as his son is now, only the targets were different. However, it was from this time that extremism began to pervade Pakistani society. We made mistakes. As demonstrated by the recent example of Syria , proxy wars sometimes come back to haunt even giant powers like the US, and since our people had to return from proxy wars too, and we did not adequately cater for this, we have obviously faced problems.
The war in Afghanistan gave further fuel to the perceived injustices of marginalized segments. The flow of funds for proxy wars for several countries also enabled religious factions to build their militant groups, which were later used in sectarian conflicts .A wave of terrorism based on sectarian differences resulted in killing and injuring of key leaders of factions, and also resulted in collateral damage to private citizens and property. We have suffered greatly, and even our anti-terrorism law initially reflected that as it was made to solely counter sectarianism. We had not even anticipated the fallout of the nine eleven wars, of whom we took the greatest brunt, having 50,000 plus casualties in Pakistan as opposed to the 3,000 lives lost in the incident. We faced that as well, though like every other nation facing terrorism, we were not really totally prepared for it in the initial years. Nevertheless, we have made progress since then.
Granted, complacency had set in as far as Pakistan’s fast rising militancy was concerned; however, it was the rise of territorial acquisition by various non-state actors that eventually made the alarm bells ring around the world in 2009, but we countered this well before it could become reality. Ever since then, we have been widely lauded as the only country in 21st century to have successfully countered a full scale insurgency, as well as having our latest in a series of operations, Zarb e Azab and Radd ul Fasad , being lauded as the most successful counter terrorism operation in the duration. We have decimated the so called ‘good Taliban’ too, like the groups of Mullah Gul Bahadur and Nazir, in the process, which our detractors were fond of referring to as our prodigies.
Concomitantly, Pakistan was embarking on a democratic transition. This is the first time in the history of Pakistan that we saw a democratically elected government surviving a full term, with a vibrant established oppositional multiparty setup in attendance. This is a testament to our steadfastness and perseverance in the face of chaos, tensions and hostility from within and without, and this. This is what we call resilience, what Chris Jaffrelot in his recent book called the Pakistan Paradox, whereby Pakistan not only survives but also has a propensity to thrive, having perhaps been the only country in the world to quell a full raging insurgency (in Swat) in the twenty first century. Comparisons then of Pakistan with Iraq and Afghanistan are then pointless, as the conditions of both these countries are self-evident.
Because of Pakistan’s turbulent political history, its populace has never relied on the government for support. There is no welfare state, no proper state education, no NHS, but Pakistan in its resilience has developed from within the society one of the world’s largest privately raised ambulance networks, as well as its largest cancer hospital, all run by charities, the Edhi Foundation, and the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust respectively. In times of hardship, people turn to extended family, community and charities for help. Anything from a small accident at work to short-term illness can cripple a family’s finances, plunging them into a life of poverty. There is no official safety net, but at the same time families will rally together, saving them from destitution.
Pakistan is still a developing country, whereby the vacuum left by sometimes ineffective state institutions has been filled by the emergence of dedicated grassroots organizations that have stepped in to plug the gap. The example of just one NGO, Humans of New York highlighted the vital work of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, for example, an organization that aims to eradicate bonded labour, a pernicious form of modern-day slavery. Within hours of a moving story being posted online, hundreds of people around the world mobilized for the cause. In just four days, 73,000 people collectively donated more than $2m (£1.3m) to help free the labourers. Such is the power of our civil society, and it is still emerging.
As a middle income, developing country, and despite being overwhelmed by internal conflicts, political instability and a lack of governance, Pakistan has remained an active international actor in global politics. This is despite the fact that we have survived the cold wars, Pressler amendments and Sanctions, wars with India, separatist and sub nationalist insurgencies, floods and earthquakes, and almost every kind of man-made and natural disasters. Critics say that this balancing act makes us fragile, while protagonists may claim that despite joining the war on terror amongst other things, Pakistan still retains its geopolitical importance despite periods of internal instability. Amongst all this , we have maintained alliance blocs with regional (China) and global (US) powers to survive in what it perceived as a hostile neighborhood, with India to its East and Afghanistan its West, both countries with which Pakistan has border disputes.
We have had multiple facets of our national personality, simultaneously being part of South Asia, the Af-Pak construct and the Middle East. This is as much as a product of foreign policy as well as our vibrant diaspora, while our engagement with China, we are now a player in the huge Pak China economic corridor. With a population comprising over 70 per cent Sunni and 25 per cent Shia Muslims, we are inextricable from the Middle East, while we also maintain a fragile nuclear balance with India. This necessarily creates power realpolitik, not all of our own making, which necessitates large defense spending. However, we are still able to quell insurgencies within and ensure economic growth simultaneously, no mean feat for a developing country.
The power equations in the region are in a state of constant flux in South Asia, with China as an emerging power player, a US tilt towards engagement with Iran in the Middle East and India’s growing international prominence. For Pakistan, the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan poses challenges relating to Pakistan’s balancing act regarding alliances with the US, China, Iran and the Arab world, but at the same time maintaining uneasy relationships with India and Afghanistan. Pakistan is sometimes embroiled in others proxy wars on its soil because of these complex relationships, and it is by no means an easy task to avoid this.
We have seen periods of detente and strained relationships with the US, which has shaped some of the perceptions in Pakistan about the US being an unreliable ally. China, on the other hand, has been a friend throughout, backing up Pakistan in turbulent times with major arms sales, nuclear technology, and economic assistance. With the recent US$50 billion investment towards stabilizing Pakistan’s economy, we have to acknowledge the tribute that we as a nation owe to the Chinese.
At the same time, our long standing Kashmir issue with India still remains unresolved, and the issue of Durand Line with Afghanistan, though historic now, cannot be just wished away. Uneasy truce followed by border skirmishes with India, and sometimes hostile statements emanating from Afghanistan can hardly be encouraging. This will continue to pose a security and military oriented paradigm, and will continue to prod Pakistan to try and keep strategic military parity in the region. Therefore, any loud comments aimed at tarnishing Pakistan’s image by virtue of Pakistan keeping a large standing army miss the whole point for Pakistan’s security needs.
Pakistan is a country that has rich natural resources and offers the requisite manpower and business infrastructure is also bound to become an attractive destination for foreign investment. Pakistan passes the test on all these counts but suffers seriously where country image is concerned. A recent research by society of science and education UK established a clear negative link between Pakistan’s insecurity and flight of capital from FDI. It also showed that terrorism activities decreased the foreign investor confidence which decreased the FDI, also showing that increase in terrorist activity in a year had more effect on the investment of next year, and the trend continues.
Besides the non measurable loss to humans, other major economic costs of the terrorism include poverty, capital flight, destruction of infrastructure, reduction in FDI and exports, low public revenues and diversion of the development expenditure to the expenditure on law and order maintenance and so forth. All these economic costs have significant impact on economic growth, e.g. one of the major contributors is the recent violence and terrorist activities in Pakistan which caused the overall GDP growth in 2010 to fall to 1.6 per cent, somewhat improving in later years but still subject to security threats, even in 2017.
This impact may not even reveal other negative aspects associated with terrorist activities like the lost FDI, reduction in international trade, loss of trade and business activities in Pakistan due to fear of terrorism. With this background it is very clear that terrorism has significantly affected our economy and for a sustainable economic growth, we need peace in Pakistan. Pakistan has suffered as a consequence, and the national psyche has also been affronted with a challenge. Every single day Pakistanis live with the threat of another attack. They are the victims of terrorism, not the creators of it. Accounts of terrorism in the country deal with the minutiae of that .00001 % of misguided terrorists who besiege the nation, but they hardly account for the 99.9999% of Pakistani victims of terrorism, which is the price we pay when we look at the surface rather than the depth of things.
As the world watches the people of Pakistan stand in unison to mourn for their country, we can all start finding the courage within ourselves to change our single story of Pakistan. We may also appreciate the courage of each Pakistani child that continues showing up every day for class in the wake of upcoming anniversary of the December 16 attack on the Peshawar school, claiming innocent young lives. Pakistan’s participation in the US led anti-terrorism campaign has led to massive unemployment, homelessness, poverty and other social problems and ills. In addition, frequent incidents of terrorism and displacement of the local population have severely affected the social fabric. Counter terrorism campaigns against the militants uprooted millions of people in KPK and FATA which brought various economic, social and psychological sufferings to them.
Approximately five million people were displaced from FATA which is considered as one of the largest displacements in the history of Pakistan. According to the mental health programme of the Federal Ministry of Health, a majority of the children displaced in the wake of the military operations in FATA and PATA was aged between three months to 11 years and they complained of problems including depression, phobias, acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress syndrome and insomnia. In 2009 the Sarhad Hospital for Psychiatric Diseases (SHPD) recorded about 97,000 psychiatric cases from the violence-hit areas of FATA. It has been estimated that one in six carries few symptoms of psychological illness. Approximately 90,000 patients examined at a local hospital of FATA in 2011, about 50,000 had been exposed to militant-related violence or to the military operation.
Of course there are and will be challenges in policy implementation, and our main drive towards this has been in the form of the National Action Plan, which has been a catchword in media and by the government, and was announced with much fanfare. The Pakistani military has tackled its mandate of tackling terrorists militarily, and has made commendable progress. However, months later for the civilian administration, implementation is lackluster, and there seems no strategic direction. The National Action Plan lacked an effective implementation and execution despite the existing three-tier structure in the shape of NAP Committee chaired by the Prime Minister, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) and Provincial Apex Committees. There are ample institutional mechanisms to implement the National Action Plan.
Besides, committees on Money Laundering, Counter-terrorism and Madrassah reforms can supplement effective implementation. However, the overlapping role of National Anti-Terrorist Force, lack of mechanism to control foreign funding to the religious seminaries, resistance to the registration and reforms of existing Madrassahs in the country, continued political activities of banned outfits , and lack of effective intelligence coordination along with lukewarm response of the federal and provincial governments are some of the factors hampering this initiative. The civilian security infrastructure, especially the police need revamping as well. Even though reforms have been talked about for long, there has been little action. Potential structural and procedural reforms have been discussed at length numerous times , with merit-based postings and intensified monitoring topping the agenda, but there has been little implementation to date.
Accountability is admittedly a broad subject and there are many ways and institutional designs to achieve police accountability, but something has to be done besides meetings and abortive or powerless commissions which promise reform, but don’t deliver. Report after report, committee after committee, has all pointed out the same problems. Widespread torture, rampant corruption, lack of knowledge about human rights and the rule of law, violence and lack of accountability are just some of the issues facing policing reform in Pakistan. Moreover, these phenomena are pervasive. The organizational culture is such that it is actually difficult for an officer to behave differently. Without reforming the civilian infrastructure, it may be difficult to keep treating the menace of terrorism solely through a force paradigm.
This was just a short review of the intricacies of the dynamics of image of Pakistan. It is a complicated topic, best examined under the discursive lens of the nuances which underlie the issues, which in turn promote certain reflections of the image of Pakistan. What I would like to stress upon is the fact that generalizations and blanket categorizations which are based on not much more than media hype may serve to not clarify, but obfuscate the issues.
About the Author | The Writer is a decorated Bureaucrat who retired as the Inspector General of Punjab Police after having served for more than 35 years. He also served as the former head of Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA). He can be reached on twitter.
By | Khawaja Khalid Farooq
Published by Pakistan Defence
Pakistan has been at the helm of many debates internationally, many of which are shaped by negative perceptions of Pakistan. Global perceptions of Pakistan have been largely shaped by natural disasters, terrorism and official corruption; a report from the Institute for Economics and Peace ranks Pakistan as one of the top ten most dangerous countries on the Global Peace Index (GPI)- there are much such other cited reports.
However, all these numbers and matrices and other neat little euphemisms belittle Pakistan’s sacrifices in the interim. Pakistan has suffered immensely, and we all have access to those statistics, and findings, and no doubt have reached many conclusions. Throughout Pakistan’s history, that is, up until the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, we have been a liberal, forward looking, and progressive society. What transpired then is history, but what was not done at the time then was not objectively ascertaining the growth and self-realization that militant entities parties would undergo. Every social organism has at its roots the need to survive and propagate, whether individually or collectively. It is built into our DNA as human beings. As such, many of the groups that were funded to fight the communists eventually developed their own policies for not only survival, but also their propagation and future self-sustainability.
In this, we are all to blame, as it was not only Pakistan under the Zia regime but the whole might of the western military and security apparatus of western states that was to blame for this. Senior Taliban leaders visited the White House as guests at that time. He was engaged in pretty many similar activities as his son is now, only the targets were different. However, it was from this time that extremism began to pervade Pakistani society. We made mistakes. As demonstrated by the recent example of Syria , proxy wars sometimes come back to haunt even giant powers like the US, and since our people had to return from proxy wars too, and we did not adequately cater for this, we have obviously faced problems.
The war in Afghanistan gave further fuel to the perceived injustices of marginalized segments. The flow of funds for proxy wars for several countries also enabled religious factions to build their militant groups, which were later used in sectarian conflicts .A wave of terrorism based on sectarian differences resulted in killing and injuring of key leaders of factions, and also resulted in collateral damage to private citizens and property. We have suffered greatly, and even our anti-terrorism law initially reflected that as it was made to solely counter sectarianism. We had not even anticipated the fallout of the nine eleven wars, of whom we took the greatest brunt, having 50,000 plus casualties in Pakistan as opposed to the 3,000 lives lost in the incident. We faced that as well, though like every other nation facing terrorism, we were not really totally prepared for it in the initial years. Nevertheless, we have made progress since then.
Granted, complacency had set in as far as Pakistan’s fast rising militancy was concerned; however, it was the rise of territorial acquisition by various non-state actors that eventually made the alarm bells ring around the world in 2009, but we countered this well before it could become reality. Ever since then, we have been widely lauded as the only country in 21st century to have successfully countered a full scale insurgency, as well as having our latest in a series of operations, Zarb e Azab and Radd ul Fasad , being lauded as the most successful counter terrorism operation in the duration. We have decimated the so called ‘good Taliban’ too, like the groups of Mullah Gul Bahadur and Nazir, in the process, which our detractors were fond of referring to as our prodigies.
Concomitantly, Pakistan was embarking on a democratic transition. This is the first time in the history of Pakistan that we saw a democratically elected government surviving a full term, with a vibrant established oppositional multiparty setup in attendance. This is a testament to our steadfastness and perseverance in the face of chaos, tensions and hostility from within and without, and this. This is what we call resilience, what Chris Jaffrelot in his recent book called the Pakistan Paradox, whereby Pakistan not only survives but also has a propensity to thrive, having perhaps been the only country in the world to quell a full raging insurgency (in Swat) in the twenty first century. Comparisons then of Pakistan with Iraq and Afghanistan are then pointless, as the conditions of both these countries are self-evident.
Because of Pakistan’s turbulent political history, its populace has never relied on the government for support. There is no welfare state, no proper state education, no NHS, but Pakistan in its resilience has developed from within the society one of the world’s largest privately raised ambulance networks, as well as its largest cancer hospital, all run by charities, the Edhi Foundation, and the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust respectively. In times of hardship, people turn to extended family, community and charities for help. Anything from a small accident at work to short-term illness can cripple a family’s finances, plunging them into a life of poverty. There is no official safety net, but at the same time families will rally together, saving them from destitution.
Pakistan is still a developing country, whereby the vacuum left by sometimes ineffective state institutions has been filled by the emergence of dedicated grassroots organizations that have stepped in to plug the gap. The example of just one NGO, Humans of New York highlighted the vital work of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, for example, an organization that aims to eradicate bonded labour, a pernicious form of modern-day slavery. Within hours of a moving story being posted online, hundreds of people around the world mobilized for the cause. In just four days, 73,000 people collectively donated more than $2m (£1.3m) to help free the labourers. Such is the power of our civil society, and it is still emerging.
As a middle income, developing country, and despite being overwhelmed by internal conflicts, political instability and a lack of governance, Pakistan has remained an active international actor in global politics. This is despite the fact that we have survived the cold wars, Pressler amendments and Sanctions, wars with India, separatist and sub nationalist insurgencies, floods and earthquakes, and almost every kind of man-made and natural disasters. Critics say that this balancing act makes us fragile, while protagonists may claim that despite joining the war on terror amongst other things, Pakistan still retains its geopolitical importance despite periods of internal instability. Amongst all this , we have maintained alliance blocs with regional (China) and global (US) powers to survive in what it perceived as a hostile neighborhood, with India to its East and Afghanistan its West, both countries with which Pakistan has border disputes.
We have had multiple facets of our national personality, simultaneously being part of South Asia, the Af-Pak construct and the Middle East. This is as much as a product of foreign policy as well as our vibrant diaspora, while our engagement with China, we are now a player in the huge Pak China economic corridor. With a population comprising over 70 per cent Sunni and 25 per cent Shia Muslims, we are inextricable from the Middle East, while we also maintain a fragile nuclear balance with India. This necessarily creates power realpolitik, not all of our own making, which necessitates large defense spending. However, we are still able to quell insurgencies within and ensure economic growth simultaneously, no mean feat for a developing country.
The power equations in the region are in a state of constant flux in South Asia, with China as an emerging power player, a US tilt towards engagement with Iran in the Middle East and India’s growing international prominence. For Pakistan, the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan poses challenges relating to Pakistan’s balancing act regarding alliances with the US, China, Iran and the Arab world, but at the same time maintaining uneasy relationships with India and Afghanistan. Pakistan is sometimes embroiled in others proxy wars on its soil because of these complex relationships, and it is by no means an easy task to avoid this.
We have seen periods of detente and strained relationships with the US, which has shaped some of the perceptions in Pakistan about the US being an unreliable ally. China, on the other hand, has been a friend throughout, backing up Pakistan in turbulent times with major arms sales, nuclear technology, and economic assistance. With the recent US$50 billion investment towards stabilizing Pakistan’s economy, we have to acknowledge the tribute that we as a nation owe to the Chinese.
At the same time, our long standing Kashmir issue with India still remains unresolved, and the issue of Durand Line with Afghanistan, though historic now, cannot be just wished away. Uneasy truce followed by border skirmishes with India, and sometimes hostile statements emanating from Afghanistan can hardly be encouraging. This will continue to pose a security and military oriented paradigm, and will continue to prod Pakistan to try and keep strategic military parity in the region. Therefore, any loud comments aimed at tarnishing Pakistan’s image by virtue of Pakistan keeping a large standing army miss the whole point for Pakistan’s security needs.
Pakistan is a country that has rich natural resources and offers the requisite manpower and business infrastructure is also bound to become an attractive destination for foreign investment. Pakistan passes the test on all these counts but suffers seriously where country image is concerned. A recent research by society of science and education UK established a clear negative link between Pakistan’s insecurity and flight of capital from FDI. It also showed that terrorism activities decreased the foreign investor confidence which decreased the FDI, also showing that increase in terrorist activity in a year had more effect on the investment of next year, and the trend continues.
Besides the non measurable loss to humans, other major economic costs of the terrorism include poverty, capital flight, destruction of infrastructure, reduction in FDI and exports, low public revenues and diversion of the development expenditure to the expenditure on law and order maintenance and so forth. All these economic costs have significant impact on economic growth, e.g. one of the major contributors is the recent violence and terrorist activities in Pakistan which caused the overall GDP growth in 2010 to fall to 1.6 per cent, somewhat improving in later years but still subject to security threats, even in 2017.
This impact may not even reveal other negative aspects associated with terrorist activities like the lost FDI, reduction in international trade, loss of trade and business activities in Pakistan due to fear of terrorism. With this background it is very clear that terrorism has significantly affected our economy and for a sustainable economic growth, we need peace in Pakistan. Pakistan has suffered as a consequence, and the national psyche has also been affronted with a challenge. Every single day Pakistanis live with the threat of another attack. They are the victims of terrorism, not the creators of it. Accounts of terrorism in the country deal with the minutiae of that .00001 % of misguided terrorists who besiege the nation, but they hardly account for the 99.9999% of Pakistani victims of terrorism, which is the price we pay when we look at the surface rather than the depth of things.
As the world watches the people of Pakistan stand in unison to mourn for their country, we can all start finding the courage within ourselves to change our single story of Pakistan. We may also appreciate the courage of each Pakistani child that continues showing up every day for class in the wake of upcoming anniversary of the December 16 attack on the Peshawar school, claiming innocent young lives. Pakistan’s participation in the US led anti-terrorism campaign has led to massive unemployment, homelessness, poverty and other social problems and ills. In addition, frequent incidents of terrorism and displacement of the local population have severely affected the social fabric. Counter terrorism campaigns against the militants uprooted millions of people in KPK and FATA which brought various economic, social and psychological sufferings to them.
Approximately five million people were displaced from FATA which is considered as one of the largest displacements in the history of Pakistan. According to the mental health programme of the Federal Ministry of Health, a majority of the children displaced in the wake of the military operations in FATA and PATA was aged between three months to 11 years and they complained of problems including depression, phobias, acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress syndrome and insomnia. In 2009 the Sarhad Hospital for Psychiatric Diseases (SHPD) recorded about 97,000 psychiatric cases from the violence-hit areas of FATA. It has been estimated that one in six carries few symptoms of psychological illness. Approximately 90,000 patients examined at a local hospital of FATA in 2011, about 50,000 had been exposed to militant-related violence or to the military operation.
Of course there are and will be challenges in policy implementation, and our main drive towards this has been in the form of the National Action Plan, which has been a catchword in media and by the government, and was announced with much fanfare. The Pakistani military has tackled its mandate of tackling terrorists militarily, and has made commendable progress. However, months later for the civilian administration, implementation is lackluster, and there seems no strategic direction. The National Action Plan lacked an effective implementation and execution despite the existing three-tier structure in the shape of NAP Committee chaired by the Prime Minister, the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) and Provincial Apex Committees. There are ample institutional mechanisms to implement the National Action Plan.
Besides, committees on Money Laundering, Counter-terrorism and Madrassah reforms can supplement effective implementation. However, the overlapping role of National Anti-Terrorist Force, lack of mechanism to control foreign funding to the religious seminaries, resistance to the registration and reforms of existing Madrassahs in the country, continued political activities of banned outfits , and lack of effective intelligence coordination along with lukewarm response of the federal and provincial governments are some of the factors hampering this initiative. The civilian security infrastructure, especially the police need revamping as well. Even though reforms have been talked about for long, there has been little action. Potential structural and procedural reforms have been discussed at length numerous times , with merit-based postings and intensified monitoring topping the agenda, but there has been little implementation to date.
Accountability is admittedly a broad subject and there are many ways and institutional designs to achieve police accountability, but something has to be done besides meetings and abortive or powerless commissions which promise reform, but don’t deliver. Report after report, committee after committee, has all pointed out the same problems. Widespread torture, rampant corruption, lack of knowledge about human rights and the rule of law, violence and lack of accountability are just some of the issues facing policing reform in Pakistan. Moreover, these phenomena are pervasive. The organizational culture is such that it is actually difficult for an officer to behave differently. Without reforming the civilian infrastructure, it may be difficult to keep treating the menace of terrorism solely through a force paradigm.
This was just a short review of the intricacies of the dynamics of image of Pakistan. It is a complicated topic, best examined under the discursive lens of the nuances which underlie the issues, which in turn promote certain reflections of the image of Pakistan. What I would like to stress upon is the fact that generalizations and blanket categorizations which are based on not much more than media hype may serve to not clarify, but obfuscate the issues.
About the Author | The Writer is a decorated Bureaucrat who retired as the Inspector General of Punjab Police after having served for more than 35 years. He also served as the former head of Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA). He can be reached on twitter.
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