Pakistan for all
WHY haven’t we built a Pakistan where everyone enjoys equal rights? Postcolonial rulers in diverse countries had to build four basic pillars at once: capable states, dynamic economies, cohesive nations, and inclusive politics. Diversity, and in many cases inequalities and conflicts, made the last two vital so that diversity doesn’t mean divides.
But many ignored these subtle tasks to focus on the state and economy, only to make both non-inclusive. This led to conflicts that damaged states and economies. We did the same and faced the same fate. How can we now reverse gears? The answer is simple: ensure inclusive politics to produce a cohesive nation, which can create a capable state that can shape a dynamic economy, with each feeding the others in a virtuous circle. Are we creating this virtuous circle via inclusion or choking it via exclusion?
Inclusive politics needs a political culture where losers can bear losing electorally, knowing they will survive politically to aim for power again. But we have winner-takes-all, zero-sum politics rather than win-win politics — especially in the last four years as the PTI and nationalist parties in KP, Balochistan, and, more recently, Azad Kashmir face not just electoral defeat but also political extinction due to debatable judicial, electoral, and administrative manoeuvres. They are not seen as political rivals to defeat but existential enemies to eliminate. The imposition of emergency rule in KP is the latest such ploy.
Credible elections ensure broad ownership and support for tough decisions. Most of our elections have been controversial. The 2024 elections, in particular, are seen by many credible local and global analysts as having been blatantly rigged. Those elected freely must also be empowered fully once in power. In our case, informal power has long been wielded without accountability. But rarely have elected officials looked as clueless as today. The link between power and accountability to the public stands broken.
Inclusive politics produces a cohesive nation.
While opposing the unconstitutional usurpation of the powers of elected setups, inclusive politics also ensures constitutional checks and balances so that they don’t abuse power. This is done via the horizontal division of power across the executive, parliament, the judiciary, and electoral and accountability state bodies. While such division has always been weak in Pakistan, the boundaries among them have become so blurred in the last four years that the three main power organs look to some like a triumvirate.
Inclusive politics also divides power vertically among federal, provincial, and local setups. Such distribution gives different groups a chance to govern. Those who could not win federally in a given election or can never win there due to their limited support still have a chance to win power provincially or locally. It also brings rulers closer to people to make them more accountable. Concentrating power federally turns too many citizens into permanent losers and reduces accountability. But local bodies elections have not been held for long in most provinces and regions, and provinces have usurped the financial and administrative powers of even those in place. Provinces, in turn, face the same fate at the hands of the centre and some see plans to weaken them further by creating small provinces.
Inclusive politics also empowers individuals and civic groups to criticise elected setups by giving them a wide range of freedoms and rights. But they have been severely curtailed. HRCP’s last annual report describes growing curbs on free speech and human rights. Journalists, political workers, lawyers, and activists face flimsy cases under draconian cybercrime, sedition, and antiterrorism laws. Threats and disappearances make speaking out dangerous.
Instead of reversing gears, we are actually accelerating on the current self-destructive path. The dream of a Pakistan for everyone has given way to a grim reality of a country for a handful of people who monopolise power and wealth.
Rulers are gaining power but losing legitimacy and trust. Exclusion rather than inclusion, and coercion rather than consent prevail.
The state is struggling to end the violence its past policies helped create, while its current policies risk fuelling violence. A secure state can’t emerge from a divided nation, nor can an economy thrive on exclusion. The inclusionary pillars we neglect will keep weakening the exclusionary pillars we build. With inclusive politics nowhere in sight, a cohesive nation, a capable state and a dynamic economy will remain a pipe dream.
The writer has a PhD degree in political economy from the University of California, Berkeley, and 25 years of grassroots to senior-level experience across 50 countries.
Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2026
