Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State QUOTES

1 " It was ironic that even in promising to end aid dependence, Pakistan’s leaders sought trade on easier terms instead of retooling their economy to expand trade as many other countries have been able to do. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

2 " Ironically, support for the idea of Pakistan was strongest in regions where
Muslims were a minority and Jinnah, as well as most of his principal lieutenants, belonged to areas that would not fall in Pakistan. To emerge as chief negotiator on behalf of Muslims, Jinnah and the All-India Muslim League had to prove their support in the Muslim majority provinces. ‘Such support’, Jalal points out, ‘could not have been won by too precise a political programme since the interests of Muslims in one part of India did not suit Muslims in others.’ Jinnah invoked religion as ‘a way of giving a semblance of unity and solidity to his divided Muslim constituents’. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

3 " For Jinnah, Partition was a constitutional way out of a political stalemate, as he saw it, and not the beginning of a permanent state of hostility between two countries or two nations. This explains his expectation that India and Pakistan would live side by side ‘like the United States and Canada’, obviously with open borders, free flow of ideas and free trade. It is also the reason why Pakistan’s Quaid-i-Azam insisted that his Malabar Hill house in Bombay be kept as it was so that he could return to the city where he lived most of his life after retiring as Governor-General of Pakistan. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

4 " Pakistan’s young median age today means that an overwhelming majority of its current inhabitants were born in a country called Pakistan and, therefore, do not need an explanation other than their birth to be its citizens. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

5 " Pakistan has been unfortunate that its leaders and
rulers have repeatedly chosen ideological wooden-headedness over pursuit of reasonable and viable options. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

6 " Most Pakistanis would rather gloss over inconvenient truths or be content with blaming different villains for their country’s plight when confronted with unpleasant facts. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

7 " Pakistanis have constantly forgotten that offers of autonomy and recognition of linguistic and cultural separateness is often a better option than imposing greater centralization by force. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

8 " After the loss of its eastern wing, which became Bangladesh in 1971, Pakistan has been completely dominated by one ethnic group, the Punjabis, who tend to favour the ideological model for Pakistan and are heavily represented in the military, the media and the bureaucracy. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

9 " During the 1960s, Nevard had only to deal with angry letters to his editor, Americans influenced by Pakistani civil servants, and stringers modifying their stories under official guidance. By 2006, the Times’ Carlotta Gall discovered that Pakistan’s security apparatus had become far more pugnacious. ‘After five days of reporting in and around Quetta, Pakistan, I had somehow irritated the secretive but powerful Directorate for Inter Service Intelligence, the ISI,’ she wrote in her book The Wrong Enemy, describing the day Pakistani agents raided her hotel room. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

10 " At least part of Pakistan’s quality of education problem stems from its ideological orientation. The goal of education in Pakistan is not to enable critical thinking but to produce skilled professionals capable of applying transferred information instead of being able to think for themselves. To produce soldiers, engineers and doctors indoctrinated with a specifically defined Islamic ideology, the country has ignored liberal arts and social sciences. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

11 " Air Marshal Nur Khan, a war hero and former Pakistan air force chief, had once likened Pakistan’s aid dependency to ‘taking opium’. Speaking to an American diplomat soon after the loss of East Pakistan in December 1971, he said, ‘Instead of using the country’s own resources to solve the country’s problems, the aid craver, like the opium craver, simply kept on begging to foreigners to bail him out of his difficulties.’ Nur Khan proposed ‘a Chinese style austerity programme’ for Pakistan although he doubted if ‘many Pakistanis had the conviction and dedication to put up with the sacrifice that such a programme would entail’. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

12 " In recent years, army families have played a significant part in social media mobilization and lending support to pro-military politicians (such as former cricket star Imran Khan) and clerics. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

13 " Pakistan, unlike India, would not start out with a functioning capital, central government or financial resources, which necessitated greater homework on the part of the Muslim League leaders. Unfortunately, they did little by way of preparation for running the country they had demanded. Many of Pakistan’s teething problems were the result of this ill-preparedness but Pakistani accounts of the country’s early days paint them as hardships inflicted on Muslim Pakistan by its non-Muslim enemies. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

14 " The South Koreans built a self-sustaining economy with a cumulative aid input from the US of only $15 billion since 1950 by avoiding confrontation with America and by cooperating with erstwhile enemy Japan. Pakistan received $40 billion in bilateral US aid over the same period. Instead of utilizing aid as a catalyst for indigenous growth, Pakistan has ended up becoming dependent on aid. Donor funding serves as a substitute for revenue generation while wars and terrorism have deterred investment. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

15 " In one way, it was. After the ‘Objectives Resolution’ there was no turning back from Pakistan’s status as an Islamic ideological state. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

16 " Common explanation for Pakistan’s relatively uninspiring economic performance is that the country’s riches are regularly plundered by corrupt politicians and civil servants, making it seem poorer than it is. Every military intervention in Pakistan’s politics has been predicated on the assumption that an honest general can help recover the billions of dollars siphoned from the economy and stashed in bank accounts abroad, though no large-scale repatriation of stolen Pakistani wealth has so far occurred. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

17 " Islamists also pushed back on Ayub’s efforts at controlling what he saw as the ‘menace of over-population’ through a comprehensive family planning programme. ‘I cannot believe that any religion can object to population control’, Ayub declared, adding that ‘no good religion can object to anything aimed at the betterment of human lot, because all religions, after all, come for the good of the human race and human beings do not come into the world for the religions.’75 But once Ayub’s hold over power was weakened, mullahs railed against family planning and birth control as conspiracies of unbelievers aimed at keeping down the number of Muslims. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

18 " Fifty years and several other threats and aid suspensions later, Pakistan continues to nurture a sentimental opposition to aid, while seeking foreign assistance remains an integral part of the economic strategy pursued by successive governments, both military and civilian. There are reasons Pakistan’s economic managers have not given up on external aid despite rising remittances. Although remittances enhance the country’s foreign exchange reserves, they are spent by millions of individuals and do not enhance the government’s treasury. Only aid provides budget support in hard currency and can be used for buying military equipment that Pakistan constantly needs. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

19 " The ‘ideology of Pakistan’ has created a nexus between the ‘custodians of Islam’ and the country’s military, civil bureaucracy and intelligence apparatus, which collectively sees itself as the guardian of the Pakistani state. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State

20 " Among the many instances of the absurdity of some of the experimentation with Islamization was the recommendation in 1980 by a leading nuclear scientist that ‘djinns [or genies], being fiery creatures, ought to be tapped as a free source of energy’. He expected Pakistan’s energy problems to be finally solved by this means. Dr Bashiruddin Mahmood noted that King Solomon— a Biblical figure also mentioned in the Quran—had harnessed energy from djinns. ‘I think that if we develop our souls we can develop communications with them,’ he explained. "

― Husain Haqqani , Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State