In a conversation with 51³Ô¹Ï's , the Director of The Samosa, Anwar Akhtar, discusses the origins of : a film project in collaboration with the Royal Society of Arts that shows links between civil and cultural organizations in Pakistan and the UK.

Nishtha Chugh: So your program is, for example, going to go to Pakistan, collaborate with role models like Asma Jahangir, Hina Jilani, and then where is the filming going to take place?

Anwar Akhtar: We work with Karachi University film school; we work with film school; we work with Beacon House film school; and they are both public and private universities with a wide cross-section of students.

So, by working with them; The Citizens Foundation; the Human Right's Commission of Pakistan; some more women's welfare organizations; a theater company; conflict-resolution organizations; Save the Children Pakistan; and by working with Oxfam's work in Pakistan, we are going to partner with those organizations and their work with projects in Bradford and Manchester. And so, young people in Bradford or Manchester will be making films about citizenship, education, and integration — projects in Bradford and Manchester will work to help young people find employment and help young people in terms of dealing with guns and conflict resolution.

Chugh: Are they going to receive training, or are you actually targeting people like film school students?

Akhtar: We are going to work with Bradford College and Bradford film school, and help them to engage with working-class Muslim communities in Bradford and show them that it's possible to have careers in film, media, journalism and international relations. And the way in is to develop the skills in college and show them career paths. But at the same time, they have got a huge talent because they can look at work that's happening in Pakistan and realize that their language, their cultural diversity, and their ability to operate in two worlds is actually very powerful.

Chugh: So British Pakistanis and Pakistanis will have a glimpse into each other's lives and then this may be a part of a grander social engineering change, if I am getting it right.

Akhtar: I would not use the word social engineering, but what I would say is the diasporas are very powerful. If you can engage 1.2 million British Pakistani citizens on issues around human rights, development, education, welfare and minority rights in Pakistan, that is huge leverage and it is also leverage that will be trusted by Pakistan much more so than any Western power. So we are talking about an organic set of honest relationships — about building links between young people. The British Pakistani community can lead a process of discussion about Islam; discussion about conflict resolution; discussion about internationalism; discussion about the fact that we live in a globalized world, and it's right that we should contribute to health, education and welfare in Pakistan — as it helps Britain in terms of stabilizing the region, providing trade opportunities, and improving relations with the Muslim world.

If you look at the reviews of Pakistan Calling, some of the most positive reviews come from Belfast, Northern Ireland — from senior people in the Good Friday peace process agreement. They're all from Northern Ireland and were involved in different ways in the peace process. They have been supporting the RSA Pakistan Calling because they understand the potential impact of it. And given the profile Pakistan has, the sheer volume of issues in the region is a huge missing component in the way that you have got a Palestinian diaspora and an Israeli diaspora and they are engaged, regardless of the rights and the wrongs. There is engagement that is up and down the architecture of international relations and development.

That does not exist in the British Pakistani community. So partly it's about that, and partly it's about film and journalism and citizenry given social media.

Chugh: How does the RSA come into the picture and what is their involvement in the project?

Akhtar: The RSA got involved because I did some presentations about the British Pakistani community that worked at The Samosa, and they obviously are interested in all of Britain's communities.

I think there are two things which are very interesting to the RSA. First is taking work outside of London and into Bradford. Because this country is so London-centric and sometimes we forget about what is happening in the rest of Britain — and of course the large Asian communities in Bradford and Manchester. It is great an institution like the RSA can take work outside of London and are very excited by that — they already do a lot of work outside London anyway.

Second, it is about internationalism. The world is changing: We are becoming more globalized, diasporas are more important, and an institution like the RSA is very powerful and can engage the World Health Organization and UNICEF. If we can connect that to working-class Asian communities, have a dialogue, and get remittances aligned to development funding, that will be much more powerful (again, that is the type of thing this project can look at).

But I do not want to go out too much. I want to keep coming back to the basics, which is to build partnerships between communities and institutions in Britain and Pakistan.

Chugh: Why do you think parts of the diaspora are socially excluded?

Akhtar: I think the success stories in the British Pakistani community tend to keep a very low profile. There's the first generation of British-born Pakistanis. I'm talking about British-born, not our parents who came here from the villages and rural areas of Pakistan. The first generation of British Pakistani success stories are law, medicine, the sciences, engineering, businesses, retail, etc. So you've got a very silent professional class. You've got a very large retail, textile and business class.

Chugh: This is true of the Indian diaspora as well.

Akhtar: Yes, I think it's slightly different because the Indian diaspora has got a larger middle-class and a larger mercantile class. However, the vast majority of British Pakistanis are from villages. The British Pakistani community does not tend to come from Karachi or Lahore. The migration from Pakistan was very rural and very working-class, while India's had a larger middle and professional class.

And so you've got this very large Pakistani professional class, in what I call the silent professions. And so throughout the 1990s, because of the sensitive issues around Islam, the professionals have been very quiet and have not really spoken out in areas concerning politics, culture, or the arts of international relations.

Chugh: Is it partly due to the fact that Pakistan in the past decade has been in the media for all the wrong reasons — because of the radical elements and especially after 9/11? Is this why they have taken a backseat?

Akhtar: That probably is, but there is also a kind of complexity concerning what Pakistan has done. It has, with the active endorsement of the West vis-a-vis Charlie Wilson's War, backed the mujahideen which created the Taliban. And this was supported by America in terms of its Cold War foreign policy.

So I think there was genuine confusion within the British Pakistani community in the 1980s. Pakistan were the "good guys" helping to defeat the Soviet Union and the mujahideen were "heroes." In fact, you watched all these films with James Bond and Rambo standing together with the mujahideen fighting the "evil" Russians. But today, Pakistan is the "bad guy."

And so I think there's a genuine cultural identity issue that needs to be looked at, addressed and discussed — but lawyers, doctors, engineers, physicians, and surgeons are not going to do that. As a working-class diaspora that's been preoccupied with the professional career network, British Pakistanis don't go into the arts, culture and media, because second generation working-class immigrants don't enter those careers. You don't have the social capital or the peer capital.

So partly, Pakistan Calling is about opening up some of these issues regarding working-class access to the arts, media, journalism and international relations. One, because of social equality; and two, because it's a no-brainer that engaging the diaspora is a good thing. That is changing with my generation. I think Pakistan is a complicated country, but I'm not going to say it is the bad press. It is a complicated country and part of understanding this complexity is to engage the diaspora. I will go right back to what I said about our parents' stories of partition: the narratives of migration and the narratives of working-class diaspora stories are in Pakistan Calling. There are lots of films of British Pakistanis and their connections to Pakistan.

Chugh: You discussed all the problems that need to be addressed but to begin with, what are the most pressing and compelling problems you're going to look at, examine, or have exchanges on? Will this be education, violence against women, or something else? There's a whole list.

Akhtar: I think we have done a really strong job in raising awareness about the issues facing Pakistan. So we know there are challenges concerning poverty, but issues also include a rising population; a failure to provide infrastructure; a failure of food security; a failure of accountability; and a failure of investment in education. Therefore, if you look at Pakistan Calling, you will see five or six things that very neatly document that.

We've given a platform to some of the most important and powerful women's rights campaigners to talk about the issues around the sectarianism, violence against women, and a lack of access to law and order. One thing which has increasingly come out is that the issue isn't just about sectarian violence. Instead, it's about a breakdown of law and order and the need to have law and order in civil society. So we've already raised awareness on different issues.

The next stage — and the much harder stage — is whether we can get institutions who are doing great work in Pakistan to partner with institutions in Britain. Here, there could be a mutual benefit that helps both players. In doing so, young people in both Britain and Pakistan can work together.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51³Ô¹Ï’s editorial policy.

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The post Pakistan Calling: A Candid View (Part 2/2) appeared first on 51³Ô¹Ï.

In a conversation with 51³Ô¹Ï’s , the Director of The Samosa, Anwar Akhtar, discusses the origins of : a film project in collaboration with the Royal Society of Arts that shows links between civil and cultural organizations in Pakistan and the UK.

Nishtha Chugh: Nawaz Sharif is the new prime minister of Pakistan. What kind of changes are you expecting to take place, or what will happen in his leadership — he’s a changed man, of course — with respect to your initiative?

Anwar Akhtar: I think the most important thing about the recent Pakistani elections is the fact — as has been well-documented — that a democratic transfer of power from one elected government, which was dominated by the Pakistan’s People’s Party (PPP), to a new government that is now dominated by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), has not been interrupted by a coup, a judicial intervention, or by state of emergency. It is the first democratic transfer of power. History has taught us that democracy is a process of growing institutions and growing civil society. And so the most positive thing about Nawaz Sharif’s election is that it has gone smoothly; it is broadly seen as democratic, open and fair and free, and he has won the mandate.

Now, behind that there are many complexities as Pakistan faces many challenges — but broadly it is positive. And I think there is increasing transparency, there is increasing awareness about the power of the state. And with Imran Khan’s intervention in the urban areas, some of the existing ballparks have been broken up because of urbanization, demographic change, young urban voters, and a rising middle-class; and so it is very positive all round.

Chugh: Do you think this is a very positive development, or could anyone have become the prime minister? And because he would have been a civilian prime minister, would this have been a good thing?

Akhtar: I think it’s a good thing that we have a civilian democracy and there are democratic elections. But, the RSA Pakistan Calling program is not aligned to any political party or any political network. We are completely non-political in a party sense. We work with civil society, welfare, education and development networks across political affiliations.

Chugh: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing your country today?

Akhtar: I am not sure there is one single challenge that is the biggest: there are several. There is a crisis around marginalized people; people are excluded from education; there is poverty; and a rapidly growing urbanizing population that is testing existing welfare networks. It is well-documented that the is the closest thing Pakistan has to a welfare state. And I think it is in the region of many hundred hospitals and health centers. Coping with a population of 180 million and relying on the Edhi Foundation is challenging, despite the brilliance of Edhi and the other welfare health networks.

On the other hand, a population of 360 million, which is what we’re on course for in two generations, is a crisis for Pakistan unless there is investment in health and education and a rural infrastructure. So, just a growing population is a huge crisis that would threaten many states’ futures — and alongside that there is sectarian violence and inter-communal violence, violence against minorities, and violence against women.

Chugh: Can you tell us a little bit about how Pakistan Calling as an effort, and as an initiative, started? When was your “ah-ha moment,” when you decided to come up with something like the project?

Akhtar: I think there was no “ah-ha moment.” There was a group of British Pakistanis who were getting increasingly frustrated about the failure of engagement with institutions — and how you had all this activity in the British Pakistani community around supporting health, education, the work of Islamic Relief, the people involved in , and right the way through to pensioners that send money to the Edhi Foundation. And yet there was this huge, almost divide, or ceiling, where the British Pakistani community just didn’t have a presence in the work of think-tanks and international policy networks. Given the issues and the fact that the diaspora community has understanding and levels of access on some very difficult issues, there was a feeling of a missed opportunity.

Chugh: When was that?

Akhtar: This would have been 2007, 2008, 2009, when the idea of first came into being as a web news project. It was a time where lots of British Pakistanis who I knew were volunteering in health, education and welfare, as well as American Pakistanis and Canadian Pakistanis — there was a theme emerging. A lot of them were professionals, and would be seen as very integrated western individuals. But they were working in Pakistan, and their contributions as British, American or Canadian citizens were not being acknowledged while there was an obsession with preachers of hate. This is not the only side of Pakistan; it is a very difficult side.

So, our origins were partly about the need to start raising awareness about the work that is done around health, education and development — and also that Western diaspora communities can bridge trade, economic development, and global networks in the West and developing South Asian communities, and they can do things around working in health and education that maybe other NGOs cannot do.

There was also a genuine anger about minority rights issues. What was happening in Pakistan around the minority communities was awful. People needed to speak up. Partly, one of the reasons The Samosa was set up was to work with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and raise issues about the persecution of Hindu communities and Christian communities. And with the British Pakistani community, because many of them have got very deep roots in the villages, the Punjab and Kashmir, their voices would have a bit of weight.

I suppose the game changing moment was when a very conservative, a very established institution like the  (RSA), which has huge reach, influence and authority on issues around education, social welfare and citizenship, essentially started working with the British Pakistani community to engage them on international relations, international development, conflict-resolution, and to help give them a voice vis-a-vis Britain’s interest in South Asia. With that, we started doing these films to raise awareness about the issues.

Chugh: So it’s not confined to the Pakistani diaspora based in Britain? It is all-inclusive and includes all other diaspora — Canada, America and elsewhere in Europe.

Akhtar: Yes, and a lot of the films have been contributed by American-Pakistanis and other diaspora networks.

Chugh: I have information on The Samosa, but not on Pakistan Calling. How old is this?

Akhtar: Pakistan Calling was set up in April this year. It’s only a few months old. Before then, the RSA held some discussions and panel events with The Citizens Foundation, The Samosa, and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and they were very successful. They filled the great hall at the RSA twice, and we did events at City University as well.

Chugh: Can you give me a few examples of the aid agencies involved?

Akhtar: I’ll have to check but I think it was International Red Crescent and also I’m not sure who the Pakistani one is. But it was seen as a model of good practice in collaboration between local and small and large. And so we thought that was a nice metaphor for the next stage in Pakistan Calling. The next stage is The Balakot Project. What we wanted to do was this: If you raise awareness of health and education and incredibly powerful role-models in Karachi and Lahore who are doing very strong work, then that can also raise aspirations in Britain and show another side of Pakistan to the country.

*[Read the on October 26.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51³Ô¹Ï’s editorial policy.

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The post Pakistan Calling: A Candid View (Part 1/2) appeared first on 51³Ô¹Ï.

Many films in cover troubles in the South Asian country. The films also focus on extraordinary civil society groups doing incredible work to ease — if not eradicate — these troubles. The context of these groups' work is often conflict and highlights a need for reconciliation.

Yet there is little focus on reconciliation in Pakistan and the region

We have examples of reconciliation elsewhere. Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, two giants of humanity, led a peaceful end to apartheid in South Africa despite many opposing them. In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday peace process saw Reverend Ian Paisley, the seemingly implacable unionist foe of Irish Nationalists, embrace Martin McGuiness, deputy leader of Sinn Fein and widely thought a senior leader in the Provisional IRA. Huge efforts are also being made in relation to Israel and Palestine for a peace process resulting in a two-state solution.

A Stumbling Block

So why not Pakistan and the region, by which I mean India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan?  

There have been attempts. Some have succeeded such as the Indus Waters Treaty, signed in September 1960, and effective in managing the vital water resources and rivers, including the Indus, Jhelum and Ravi, that link Pakistan and India. Tensions remain, with accusations of bad faith as more dams are built to secure water by both sides. But broadly speaking, the treaty has held — although under great pressure.

Since partition, India and Pakistan have been involved in four wars, including the most recent Kargil conflict in 1999. Kargil was essentially an undeclared war, widely seen as initiated by Pakistan sending forces to seize territory across the line of control in divided Kashmir. It was Nawaz Sharif, now-again prime minister of Pakistan, who in 1999 eventually helped bring the conflict to an end by de-escalating and withdrawing Pakistani forces, with huge international pressure and condemnation on the country.

While by no means exhaustive, this is an attempt to assess what is preventing a reconciliation process in the region from taking place.

Attempts to bring long-term peace and reconciliation to the region frequently fails to progress, in large part due to vested interests that benefit or think they benefit from the conflict. The hawks and sectarian elements in the political, military and religious establishments have great power in both countries, especially Pakistan. A reconciliation process will require these groups to answer for and have scrutiny on their actions.

The scale of geography and population is daunting. The region has a population of over 1.6 billion — almost one in four of the world’s people.

History Matters: Why Pakistan and India are Still in Conflict

Partition remains a huge issue for India, Pakistan, and their respective diaspora communities. My mother and grandparents were expelled from their burning village in Jalandhar, located in the Indian Punjab, to Bahawalpur, which is now in Pakistan.

Pakistan and India share soil, ancestry, heritage and family. India is named after the great River Indus, which now flows mainly in Pakistan. Standing in the magnificent city of Lahore in Pakistan, you sense the vacuum left by the violent expulsion of Sikhs and Hindus from the city they had helped build.

Partition can never be undone. What can be done is honest, open, mutual accounting of the huge wrongs, mass killings, and forces of communal hatred, unleashed by all sides, which still leave a legacy of cold war conflict between the two nuclear powers. Without a process of reconciliation, both India and Pakistan can never fully achieve their potential as countries.

Are the leaders of both India and Pakistan ready to agree to such a process? Can Pakistan also account or acknowledge what was done in Bangladesh in 1971? Is there a Mandela, Tutu, and De Klerk that can lead a peace process between the two nations?

Even if some politicians are able, the military and religious establishments in both countries are not. This makes politicians powerless to act — apart from an occasional ceremonial gesture, at a summit or cricket match.

What if Nehru, Jinnah and Gandhi had known in 1947 what we now know? How would they have responded to the combination of climate change, melting glaciers, environmental catastrophes, food shortages, sectarian violence and rapidly growing urbanizing populations?

Perhaps we would have had a more federal arrangement between India and Pakistan with open borders, freedom of movement, resource sharing and trade. Imagine what Pakistan would look like if even half the resources put into the military could be put into development, health, and education. Currently, it is estimated that the Pakistan defense budget is three times the national education budget in terms of gross national product.

Afghanistan, Clinton and the House of Saud

Afghanistan is part of the unfinished business of partition. The conflict there is increasingly driven by the cold war between India and Pakistan. From Pakistan’s fear of invasion by India and desire for strategic depth, to hawks in India thinking of an India-aligned Afghanistan to squeeze Pakistan due to its support for independence movements in Kashmir.

A "Dr Strangelove" zero-sum game with no winners and endless conflict appears. This prevents Pakistan from focusing on economic development. It leaves India in a conflict that it does not need and could, in fact, help end. It also feeds poisonous sectarian networks in Pakistan and the military establishment to continue their failed modus operandi.

We should remember the consequences of , and how the West financed and armed the Mujahideen against the Soviet Union, while supporting the Pakistani military dictator, General Zia, in 1979 to enforce martial law — a relentless onslaught on civil rights, minorities and democratic institutions in Pakistan.

This process also led to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Thankfully, Hilary Clinton at least has had the decency to acknowledge this. on the issue has had a huge audience in Pakistan. It should be on the curriculum at West Point, Sandhurst, UK FCO, and all those interested in South Asia and also the Arab Spring.  

So partly, reconciliation efforts must also come from the West.

Think about the following: religious plurality, democracy, women’s rights, accountability, civil rights, human equality, sectarian conflicts, persecution of minorities, respect for other cultures, escalating tensions between Sunni and Shi'a, respect for literature, heritage, the arts, sciences, and the human spirit.

There really is no case to be made for the House of Saud to continue its huge influence in the region, regardless of the value of oil and investments in the West. Policies and actions are an obstacle to peace and reconciliation in the region, and actively feed sectarian conflicts.

Author's Note

Back to the  films. The civil society, welfare, education and human rights organizations of Pakistan, and their equivalents in India, are the starting point of a peace and reconciliation process. That is why we have put so much effort into making and compiling these films and focusing on the work of these organizations.

The work of the Human Rights Commission Pakistan in defense of minority communities is also incredible. Many charities are working on education and health in Pakistan and India, relying on young volunteers and diaspora groups, and providing economic development and welfare provision.

Despite wall to wall media coverage, the industry that has sprung up in international relations, think-tanks and experts on the region, these organizations are often overlooked. Yet it is these organizations’ work and people that are the best hope for a peace and reconciliation process in the region. 

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51³Ô¹Ï’s editorial policy.

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Pakistan is deeply divided. Since its creation in 1947, power has been concentrated in the hands of feudal and military elites from Punjab. In the past few decades, prejudice predicated on caste, tribe and religion has further escalated. This is an attempt to decipher what lies behind some of the hatred against Pakistan’s minority communities.

Shias

Pakistan has a very significant Shia community, about 20 million – almost 10% of the total population, which is majority Sunni.  Given the fierce rivalry between Saudi Arabia (Sunni dictatorship) and Iran (Shia dictatorship), Pakistan has become a canvas for this to play out. Various Sunni militia networks are accused of being funded by Arab petrol dollars to instigate violence against Shia communities. The Shia community in turn accuses the state of turning a blind eye and marginalising the Shia tradition in Pakistan. Certain Sunni sectarian elements, such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba, wish to see the Shia formally declared a ‘minority community’ in Pakistan, like other sects in Pakistan, thus opening up the path to state-based discrimination.

This persecution is also a side effect of what many see as Pakistan’s greatest achievement: becoming the world’s only Muslim nuclear power. The Saudis gave sponsorship to assist the nuclear programme and this came with a sectarian agenda that previously had not significantly existed in Pakistan. Indeed the founding father of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah was himself a Shia. It was also Sunni militias the West invested in to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Something Hilary Clinton has said had unforeseen consequences in .

Ahmadis

Perhaps the most persecuted of all Pakistan’s minorities for their interpretation of Islam’s founding which is considered controversial by mainstream Muslim schools. Frequently human rights activists here draw comparison with the Jewish communities in Germany during the ascendancy of Hitler.  It is hard to believe in the 21^st century, state legislation deeming them as an outcaste heretic community exists, but it does.   by respected recently deceased Pakistani journalist Murtaza Razvi gives more detail.

Balochistan and Hazaras

Balochistan’s the most isolated, least populated, extraordinarily resource-rich region of Pakistan with gas, coal, copper, and other large mineral reserves. It’s been ruthlessly exploited by Pakistan’s elites. Balochistan has benefited little. There is an insurgency for autonomy followed by brutal repression by the state. The Hazaras, long inhabitants of the region, face persecution as a predominantly Shia community, and a distinct ethnic community descended from Mongolia – a minority within Balochistan linked tribally to the northern alliance in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s great rivals.

Christians

Some of the poorest people in the Punjab and Sindh provinces. (There is a significant middle class especially in more secure positions in Karachi.) Most are exploited as low-paid menial workers and often treated as untouchables. The same networks targeting the Shias are involved in persecuting Christians. A case in point is the well-publicised blasphemy cases of Asifa Bibi, where Salman Taseer, Governor of the Punjab was murdered for bravely speaking out.  Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s then-only Christian minister, was also murdered for condemning the blasphemy laws. The recent case of Rimsha Masih has given cause for hope. Many across Pakistani society thought a new low had been reached in accusing a young girl with learning difficulties of blasphemy. Orthodox elements that previously turned a blind eye to hatred against minorities condemned the accuser, who – it was alleged – was involved in a plot to land-grab the area where the Christian community was living in slum conditions.  Rimsha has now been released. Land is ofteninvolved in blasphemy cases.

Hindus

A similar position to the Christians with the added legacy of partition. For decades the Pakistani state has demonised Hindus with a ‘foundation of the nation’ narrative – as the ‘other’, the eternal enemy.  Whilst sectarian elements in India do the same to Muslims, this has been practised on a much wider scale in Pakistan.  The majority of the Hindu community, like the Christians, are the poorest and the most marginalised. There is also now a moral minefield of actively converting some young Hindu girls to Islam.  At times it is coerced, and occasionally it is out of choice, with great orchestrated encouragement by Muslim missionaries. Often, the conversions are an escape from a life of marginalisation.

Women

Whilst not a minority, they are the largest victims of violence in Pakistani society.  T Yousufzai showed the weakness of sectarian elements: a girl who reads books. The outrage across Pakistani society to her shooting is extraordinary and has potential to start a change in education rights for women.

Everyone Else

Meeting students from middle and working class backgrounds in universities in Karachi and Lahore, it’s clear how difficult life is in Pakistan for all young people. Yet they have great hope for the future and a determination to change society.  People of all backgrounds live in a climate of violence and crime. Amongst these articulate young people, one issue dominates the discussions: the lack of safety, and the lack of opportunity – unless you’re born into an established family.

Despite this, there is an optimism amongst people here that they can change things.

Three recent developments if allowed to continue offer perhaps the best routes out of the many troubles here. This current government, despite failures and ineptitude, is close to serving a full term leading to new elections and the first democratic transfer of power in Pakistan, uninterrupted by a military coup. The much heralded eighteenth amendment act recently passed by Pakistan’s parliament allows a serious attempt at sharing resources, political accountability and decentralisation away from the Punjabi elite’s domination of the country.

A peace process with India that allows normalisation of relations and the cold war to end, and trade and resource sharing to grow would be a great way forward.  Pakistan has a future but it depends on social and economic development and access to markets—not conflicts that could tear the country apart.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51³Ô¹Ï’s editorial policy.

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