WHY, because by and large we are an ignorant nation, the majority of the 160 millions being illiterate. Those who have ruled have allowed the population to grow at a senseless rate, purposefully making no effort to curb it, and at the same time, purposefully maintaining illiteracy.

Of the literate minority, how many are educated? So, is it surprising that bigotry rules, Illiteracy breeds violence, so how can terrorism recede?

The younger son of that great fighter for right, Mian Mahmood Ali Kasuri, Khurshid, our powerless foreign minister, has just come out with a profound statement while on a visit to Australia. “No end in sight to the war against terror,” he said. Should we be surprised?

The first time I met President General Ziaul Haq was on June 25, 1977, in Rawalpindi, when he sent for me to propose that I become his minister for ports and shipping. He reminded me that he had promised the nation that he would return to his barracks in 90 days, and of that period 70 days remained. General, I told him, you will not return to your barracks in 70 days’ time. What makes you think that, he asked. History, I replied, and enquired whether he had read Captain Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart’s book ‘Why Don’t We Learn from History?’

He had not, but he later not only read it but had it reprinted (without due permission, of course) and had it suitably edited. Not that the editing altered history. Had his tumble from the skies not been engineered, it may well be that he would still be with us, cherry-blossoming his hair and twirling his moustache. However, it is recommended reading for all who assume or pretend to power. Our present president, General Pervez Musharraf, should be able to find a copy of the unedited edition in the GHQ library. A study of Liddell Hart’s advice may help him in his efforts to sort out matters to both his and our advantage.

Air Marshal Asghar Khan, a man who has lived and still lives close to reality, has written yet another book which has just been published by Oxford University Press. As he has been close to the power-head since the creation of Pakistan, a reading of his book, ‘We’ve Learnt Nothing from History’ obviously does not exude either joy or hope. But it is a good read, he writes well and lucidly, he is factual, and he is honest and open about his opinions, thoughts and his assessment of the men who have ruled and misruled the country. His life has been eventful, he has done his best, as he saw it, to bring sanity to the politics of Pakistan, and that he failed is no fault of his. The ‘system’ is programmed to ‘get’ anyone who wishes to clean up, lessen corruption, get going, move on with the times, and join the real world.

The tale he tells of his Supreme Court endeavours in the matter of the ISI funding of political parties in order to manipulate elections is a lesson in the futility of battling against wrongs in the Republic of Pakistan. His remarks on our judiciary and judicial system are, sadly, to the point. Corrupted in 1954, further corrupted down the long years by the ruling schemers who have come and gone, they are, as they stand today, a lost cause. As for those who benefited from the ISI funding, using the people’s money, rather than hiding their faces in shame many of them today sit in our assemblies and even in the cabinet. Shame, not only on them, but on those who have put them where they are.

When India exploded its nuclear bomb in 1988, the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif sought Asghar’s opinion as to whether Pakistan should respond and explode its device. He was one of the few to advise that Sharif think long and hard and refrain from showing off. But naturally the national macho mood prevailed. Asghar’s reasoning is sound. Were Pakistan to remain a non-nuclear nation, India could not attack with nuclear weapons, it would have to depend, in the event of hostilities started by either side, on conventional warfare alone.

Thus Pakistan would be safer. With nuclear weapons, Pakistan is at a disadvantage as its capability of destruction would be limited to a few major cities and power centres, whereas India’s nuclear power is capable of the total elimination of Pakistan.

Then there is always the possibility of error, of the misreading of a warning, of miscalculation, or of being lured into a retaliatory attack. As a non-nuclear power Pakistan would merely have a conventional threat to its security, which would mean that it could cut down drastically on its defence expenditure and reduce the ‘fat’. But, as writes the air marshal, “It is, however, sad but true that the few in power, or those aspiring to come to power, will have the courage to face facts and accept reality. It is more likely they will continue to misguide the people and lead the country towards greater misery and possible destruction.”

All this would, of course, be irrelevant were the Kashmir issue to be solved, and quickly. If both India and Pakistan “persist in our folly, we, the people of the Indo-Pak subcontinent, will before long destroy ourselves, either by self-inflicted misery and hunger, and if not by these, then by the use of nuclear weapons, accidentally or intentionally, in which we appear to take so much pride.”

As for the coming of democracy to this country, if we go by Asghar’s recipe, it is a far cry, and many of us alive today will not be around to welcome it in. Anyhow, he is one of the few to have inevitably put country before self and all we can do is to wish him and his family well.