Hey guys,
I have been here for some years now and still don't understand many highly complex structures and dynamics in Pakistan's siyaset and society even though I really try keeping an open mind towards anything political that comes from Pakistani users here. I even read a couple of Pakistani newspaper on a regularly basis.
There is one main issue that bothers me most. Couple weeks ago there was an article regarding the extinction of some regional languages in Pakistan:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1306783
Many users here and in the Pakistani part of the internet criticized the government for not preventing this regional languages from disappearance. And I asked myself: Why should the government help preserving this languages?
This lead me to the question why Pakistan's politicians don't implement a Pakistanization policy in every corner of Pakistan. I know many of you guys are super proud to be a Punjabi, Baloche, Kashmiri, Pashtu, Sindhi etc. But, pardon my language, who cares about these regional sub-identities?
I know that many people will argue that Islam is the sole and exclusive social glue of Pakistan that keeps the country and society together. In my opinion, it is not acceptable (and not healthy for Pakistan) that Muslim Punjabis in Pakistan and India have more in common than a Pakistani citizen of Punjabi and Baloch origin in Pakistan.
That's why, in fact, there are three very important markers for national identity:
Language; Culture; Religion
Other markers are clothing, food, physical appearance, values, norms etc. Anyway, the most important points here are:
Language - Urdu
Religion - Islam
Culture - ???
When it comes to culture, I'm not so sure whether there is a "pan-Pakistani" culture. Can someone give me a major characteristic that a citizen from Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan and Sindh share apart from religion?
Why are people opposing the idea of a "one nation - one language - one religion" concept for Pakistan anyway? This is rather strange because typically religious people in the Islamic world don't care that much about their ethnic identity. Many Sunni Arabs and Kurds assimilated into the Turkish society. Secular Azeris in Iran are often fond of irredentist ideas whereas conservative Azeris tend to have a stronger Iranian identity.
Strangely enough, in case of Pakistan all of this assumptions are wrong. People are generally very religious, Islam plays a very important role in their lifes but yet people are sticking to their regional identities and traditions. But why? Can someone enlighten me, please?
Theoretically, as a Pakistani politician, I would try to systematically enforce Urdu in every part of the country. Only Urdu should be taught at schools, there should be a box "Pakistani" in the section about ethnicity in every census to strengthen a "pan-Pakistani" national identity. The children of Pakistan must learn that Pakistan is older than 70 years. The Indus Valley Civilisation must become a fixed part of school instruction, curricula and programs. The Pakistani civilization is thousands of years old. Educational school trips to archaeological sites would be a fine idea.
Even resettlement programs should be discussed. Punjabis and Sindh people could be resettled from crowded places in their home province to rural areas of Balochistan for the purpose of mixing up the different ethnicities like Turkey did after becoming a nation-state.
Focusing on religion as the main commonality among the different ethnicities in Pakistan is very dangerous. In fact, it creates a false sense of security. India with the help of Afghanistan is already trying to disturb the peace in Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi are trying to awake a Pashtu nationalism in Pakistan. And I'm totally against any kind of federalization in Pakistan.
This is another thing that I don't understand. Why are people constantly demanding more and more provinces? You can ask a secular or religious Pakistani - both will explain to you that the current administrational system of Pakistan is not working very well. Why do you want to implement even more not working administrational units in the first place? Why do you want to pay monthly salaries to thousands of new deputies? The majority of the Pakistani diaspora is right now living in Anglo-Saxon states with federal governing systems. This system may work in those countries but it isn't a working and reliable system for Pakistan. It does not fit. Federal systems are only productive in wealthy and homogeneous societies.
Last but not least: I know that only a military-led government can impose all of these ideas. Therefore the democratic electoral system should be suspended for at least 25 years; centralization (of power) is the key issue.
So, am I too radical for Pakistan? Am I missing or ignoring important points? Sorry for my bad English and I apologize in advance if some of you feel insulted or offended by my posting. I'm just trying to understand a little bit more because I care for Pakistan.
