PAKISTAN presents a near classic example of Peter’s Corollary: “In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties.” (Peters and Hul, The Peter Principle, 1969).

No holds were barred in convincing a bemused nation that only the AZ/NS teams (many now recycled) were responsible for all of Pakistan’s ills. Naya Pakistan emerged in anticipation of instant and unparalleled retribution and simultaneous repatriation of vast ill-gotten gains. Subsequent deluges of monies and the flood of Allah’s inevitable blessings would make us a land of permanent olive oil and honey!

Today as we flounder up a turbulent creek with nothing but a remotely controlled IMF paddle we need to pause and reflect on where our genius has led us. We need to introspect how coming changes will impact the reasons-to-be that essentially have determined Pakistan’s direction over the past fifty years: our cultivated human assets turning liability; our ability to continue unbounded devotion and energies to the Kashmir cause; our much touted impregnable deterrence capacity; and an uncontrolled, directionless, population.

Not just because of inevitably painful conditionalities that will further sink the common man; with attendant hyperinflation and massive disparity between haves and havenots.

As we become more IMF’d with a negligible pie the mettle and resilience of our lemming like “aziz humwatno” who are otherwise largely irrelevant will be sorely tested. Has the hierarchy prepared for that eventuality?

Dr Mervyn Hosein
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2019