Why Pakistan Imploded | From Economic 'Role Model' to Terror 'Safe Haven' | Akash Banerjee & Adwaith

These tourism ads, these archival videos may seem strange but they are from Pakistan Yes, from a different time, a different era when Pakistan was a progressive and inclusive country. It was becoming modern, was preserving its culture and was respecting its diversity. Pakistan ads also had a poster of Taxila and talked of Buddha. It was a time when Pakistan's per capita income was equal to India's and sometimes even more than India Pakistan was one of the fastest growing economies in the world a

t one point in time Founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah said on 11 Aug, 1947 - Pakistan will be a country where there will be no discrimination, no discrimination between different communities, there will be fundamental principles and we will give equal rights to all equal citizens. But today, in the same Pakistan, the Hindu minority and Sikh minority are targeted, bulldozed, and their rights are tarnished. Once West's favorite Pakistan is today known as haven for terrorists and put in financial

grey list. People of Pakistan are protesting on the streets. People are waiting for the bailouts of the IMF and human rights. Democracy is being killed in Pakistan. Media persons are being shut down. Opposition members are being imprisoned. Former PM Imran Khan has recently said that the upcoming elections in Pakistan will be a big farce. Why did this happen? How did Pakistan's emotions change? Was there ever real inclusivity and democracy in Pakistan? Or was it a Western concept of democracy t

hat was imposed on Pakistan? If there was an inclusive democracy at any time, then how did it go? Who swallowed it? Army? Or the contractors of religion? And what were the people of Pakistan doing when the country was being destroyed like this? What mistakes did Pakistan make which no country should repeat if it wants to be safe from destruction. Let's find in this episode. In 1960s, Pakistan's economic growth was a miracle. Between 1960 and 1965, Pakistan's GDP increased by 4.8% annually. At th

at time, India's growth was less than 3% annually. Western publication called slow growth Hindu rate of growth and they used to make fun of India. They used to call Pakistan as an Asian role model. Compared it to South Korea. 18th January 1965, New York Times writes, Pakistan can reach such an economic milestone, which only one country has reached till now, and that is United States. London Times also said that Pakistan's development is a remarkable example of nation building. Until 1958, Pakist

an had a strong control of an unelected democratic political elite. There was corruption and political instability on top of Jinnah's untimely death. But when in 1958 Pakistan Army General Ayub Khan took power and took some steps which made it seem Pak was on path of development Ayub Khan did land reforms. He adopted a green revolution of Pakistan. Due to which agricultural growth in Punjab area increased rapidly. During this time when India was doing non-aligned movement and Pakistan allied wit

h US. Pakistan got a lot of economic aid for this. For example, in 1963, US gave Pakistan 360 million dollars. America has given $70-80 billion to Pakistan as aid till today. You may consider it alms. But Pakistan used the initial aid to build dams, roads and other infrastructure projects. This allowed explosive growth for that time. Now, that growth was artificial or superficial is debatable, but GDP surely increased. And not only economic growth, but also the attempt to bring about progressive

social changes In 1961, Ayub Khan implemented the Muslim Family Law Ordinance. It was a very big and progressive step for that time. Age of Consent for Marriage, laws relating to divorce, maintenance, all these things increased women's rights. They got more protection. Ayub Khan introduced family planning laws going against fundamental groups. Pakistan was a progressive state at that time Visuals at the beginning of this episode are from this era. Pakistan was a model state of the world. Pakist

an's soft power was also increasing. Music and TV shows were becoming popular. Space and nuclear programmes started. In 1968, Ayub Khan announced his 10-year rule as a decade of development. That Pakistan was going to become a developed and modern country soon. But this dream of Pakistan and Ayub Khan was about to break. When people lose their patience in authoritarian rule, because you don't let them speak, but when that patience breaks, then only flood comes. The country's GDP was on the rise,

but people didn't even have money to buy food. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto protested about food inflation all over the country. And there was a lot of commotion in Bangladesh. After seeing public's anger, Ayub Khan resigned in 1969. Elections were announced. In 1970 elections were held, which were not accepted. Because the victory in elections was of the Awami League from East Pakistan, with an absolute majority of 160 seats. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's PPP only won 81 seats. But the elites in West Pakistan

did not want East Pakistan, meaning today's Bangladesh, to rule over the federal government. This becomes the main reason for the split of West and East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh. After the Civil War of 1971, Pakistan was divided into two parts. Bangladesh was created Unfortunately, 5 lakh people lost their lives. And in a few years, South Asia's model state started its journey towards a basket case, a beggar state. But why does this happen? Couldn't it have been stopped? There are

some key issues behind downfall of Pakistan. One of them is fundamentalism. There are many reasons for this fundamentalism. 1. Concentration of political power. Pakistan has been undermining democratic structures, crushing dissent from the start, problems began from the time of Jinnah. After independence, he declared himself as the Governor General or Supreme Leader of Pakistan. No elections were held then. And then Supreme Leader Jinnah jailed the political opposition in Balochistan, in the No

rth West Frontier Province, shot them, and violated innumerable human rights. The thought at that time was that we are crushing people in one corner of the country, What's the big deal? Let it be. It won't make any difference in the long run. The second aspect of this fundamentalism was linguistic and cultural fundamentalism. With one leader, one nation, one language, one nation, one culture policy. The attempt to suppress diversity was made in East and West Pakistan. If we give you the best exa

mple of this, Jinnah went to East Pakistan just once in his entire career. He said that Pakistan's national language will be Urdu only. Bengali will not be given equal status. People protested against this in East Pakistan. Police had to intervene after Jinnah's death in 1948. On 23rd February 1952, police shot students in Dhaka University. If you try to suppress people's culture, it will only lead to bad results in the long term. But no one in Pakistan was able to understand this. Third aspect

is religious fundamentalism. One nation, one religion. In 1953, Lahore was under the rule of anti-Ahmadiyya riots. Hundreds of Ahmadis were killed. And the influence of the fundamentalists in Pakistan kept on increasing. And in the end, the entire country is destroyed by the name of religion. We will talk about it in a few seconds. But it is important to know that according to many scholars, whenever you try to put so much fundamentalism in the politics of a country, whether it shows impressive

growth or impressive results for a while, No matter how much we see, in the end one nation one everything ends up a nation In 1960s, Pakistan did see an economic miracle. But people in Pakistan were critical of this growth. Because there were contradictions in this model. Growth and development was concentrated in a few regions. Economic inequality was rampant. Growth was in Karachi and Pakistan Punjab. No debate. But in Balochistan, East Pakistan, there was a state of chaos. Growth was mostly

due to regional inequality and income inequality. Yes, fancy cars and imported cars were in use in Karachi but growth was on the paper not visible on the ground level That's why protests and strikes were common. On April 21st, 1968, Dr. Mahbubul Haq was the Chief Economist of Pakistan Planning Commission. He presented some shocking statistics. According to his calculations, Pakistan's 22 richest families controlled 66% of the industry. And the same 22 families controlled 87% of the banking and

insurance industry. American financial institutions were working with Pakistan elite. They were in bed with them. They didn't have any problem with these numbers. Okay, in the beginning, capitalist development is uneven. But in the end, people benefit from all this. Money flows from top to bottom We have been studying this theory in school since childhood. It is called trickle-down effect in economic theory. But never seen. Because the rich people first fill their stomachs, drink all the water,

then close the tap. And if such a growth had happened in Pakistan, then maybe American aid would not have been needed for so many years. It could have happened that Pakistan would have developed despite disparity, but problem of fundamentalism destroyed Pakistan. The downturn started after 1965 when Pakistan tried to take Kashmir from India and was unsuccessful After this defeat, the political control of the army was under question - when will elections be conducted? Because how long will you no

t give general elections? How long will you keep shouting that you are in danger? While India has been holding elections since 1952. Protests against income inequality also started. In West Pakistan, under the leadership of People's Party of Pakistan, and in East Pakistan, under the leadership of Awami League and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, all these protests were taking place. Along with inclusive development, Mujibur Rahman and Awami League had one more big demand. One Nation, One Language and One

Nation, One Leader policy should be abolished. East Pakistan should have its own rights and wanted to implement its own economic model. They rejected One Nation One Model. Tagore's writings were banned by calling them anti-Pakistan, pro-Hindu. East Pakistan launched a movement against this Dictator is dictator - they listen to no one. Ayub Khan knew how to increase GDP of few but did not know inclusive growth This is the biggest difference between India and Pakistan. Pakistan never had an inclus

ive democratic space. Not even today. Ayub Khan put Mujibur Rahman in jail in 1967. West Pakistan was also facing income inequality. It led to strikes and protests. Ayub Khan announced the elections under pressure. Pakistan was freed in 1947. The first general election was held in 1970. Total seats 300, majority mark 151. Awami League swept it winning 167 seats - clear majority. The party that used to shout 1-1-1 didn't get a majority. Who got it? The party that used to talk about federalism, so

cialism, linguistic rights and diversity. The political elite of West Pakistan, people's party of Pakistan, PPP, pro-democracy parties, none of them wanted that the Mujibur Rahman and Awami League to rule over Pakistan. PPP leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto joined hands with Army General Yahya Khan. Martial law was declared and Pakistan's revolution reached its climax with Operation Searchlight. Army was sent to East Pakistan in March 1971 to arrest political leaders and started a mass murder campaign

from March 25th. Yaya Khan himself ordered to kill 30 lakh Bengalis, the rest will be our slaves. When Indira Gandhi wrote a letter to US President Nixon, that you should immediately stop this genocide, Kissinger told Nixon that there is no need to reply anything, we will keep Yahya Khan happy Nixon also replied, Good, go ahead. The Indians, what they really need is a mass famine. If not a mass famine, then at least they get stuck in another war. Kissinger said yes to everything, and said that I

ndians are scoundrels. They are such bastards. Hey Kissinger!! He passed away at the age of 100. Remembered as a war criminal. But that is a different story. With the help of America, Pakistani army killed around 5 lakh Bangladeshis. Lakhs raped. A total of 10 million Bangladeshi refugees fled to India, saving their lives. Along with Bengal political activists and communists, Hindus were also targeted. There was an anti-Hindu mass murder on a large scale. But, in the end, Indira Gandhi intervene

d in the military. Our army was also involved in that. Mukti Bahini, who were Bangladeshi freedom fighters, was trained. Pakistan's military was defeated. Bangladesh was liberated. One nation, one religion, one model, one language, one leader. The result of this madness was the death of lakhs and the partition of Pakistan. It was difficult for any country to recover after a complete civil war. Because it was divided into two. After the partition of Pakistan, a huge trade deficit crisis started t

o emerge. Pakistan started importing huge amounts of commodities to sustain themselves. The imports of $638 million in 1971 reached $2.32 billion in just a few years. Export value increased in this time period but not enough to cover trade deficit. Some believe that this is the time when Pakistan's balance of payment crisis starts. Which forces them to take loans again and again. Because of this, Bhutto's elected government is not able to implement its state socialism model projects. Till 1977,

the economy's condition had deteriorated. The influence of the Islamist party slowly increased and challenged Bhutto The protests were on a high level. In 1977, elections were held. Bhutto's party wins but the opposition accuses of rigging the election Citing political instability, the Chief of Army Staff, General Zia-ul-Haq, starts second military coup. Elections canceled and Islamization strenghened. Because when you don't have anything else to show, then you start taking support of religion.

Zia again took the path of foreign aid, involved Pakistan in the Afghanistan war, to get money from America. Just like what happened in the era of Ayub Khan, good GDP numbers are registered. But the problem of inequality was the same. And this time Zia supported Islamic extremism for political control. In Afghanistan and Pakistan as well. In this process, the Mujahideen forces that Pakistan funded and gave shelter to, had an impact on Pakistan as well. The culture of terrorism and extremism was

promoted. Pakistan, which was called a Western Media Model State in 1965, was put in the grey list of Financial Action Task Force in 2008 due to allegations of terror financing. That means, a country where international money is used for terrorist activities Pakistan was nearly designated terror state. But till now, Pakistan is trapped in the web of army, extremism and IMF. Balochistan is being cracked down on March. Political opposition is being jailed. Army is in control. Inflation rates are g

etting out of control. IMF is demanding bailout. The trade deficit is so bad that the Federal Minister for Planning and Development has even asked to reduce tea consumption. Because the country is importing tea leaves on credit. If Pakistan had adopted an inclusive model in the 1960s, then the result would have been different. But this one nation, one language, one culture, one model, one leader, this ruckus from the beginning, is what caused the chaos in Pakistan. And the decay started in the 1

970s. The impact of that is seen after many decades. There is only one culprit in the story of Pakistan - fundamentalism. The wise are those who learn from others' mistakes. We need to be aware of this fundamentalist mentality. We need to talk about inclusive development. Because the result of such thinking is right in front of us. The people of Pakistan will tell you how beneficial it is not to raise voice against it. The people who are now saying that we have been fooled in the name of nation

alism and religion. Made to live in shackles.... And now, if someone raises their voice, the system makes them disappear. This is the first episode of the year. Apologies for lengthy video. Entire story of Pakistan cannot be fit in a video. But trends can be seen and understood. And at least at the beginning of the year, take a pledge to be alert citizenry and understand what has gone wrong and not repeat the same mistake.