Pakistan and the world in 2023

 

Major General Inam Ul Haque, in his opinion piece published in Express Tribune on  4 January 2024, mentions the upheavals witnessed by the world during 2023. His description of the previous year reminds me of the phrase “Kettle of Fish”.

The origin of this phrase remains hidden in the mists of time, but it

is guessed to have originated in Scotland in the 18th century. At that time,

"kettle" referred to a cooking pot or cauldron, and "fish" was a term used

for a group of people or things. The expression means something awkward,

tumultuous, or a real mess.

While mentioning the tumult of the bygone year, the writer draws attention

to the “Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, climate change, the relative decline of

democracy and the free world, the disconnect between the global Street and

the State, uncertain and uneven economic development, and the slow death

of globalization, etc. He may have also included the stillborn India–Middle

East–Europe Corridor sponsored by Biden. The Corridor, thanks to the

spanner thrown by Hamas, died a few weeks after it was inaugurated with

great fanfare.

The chaos was not without its silver lining - “Proliferation of Artificial

Intelligence (AI)”. To this, I may add the emergence of regional players like

Turkey and Qatar, progress in the development of fusion reactors, the

building of Asia’s largest artificial river by the Taliban, the upcoming

futuristic city of Neom in Saudi Arabia, and the much-glorified (thanks to

the U.S. assistance) landing of India’s Chandrayan probe on the lunar

surface.

India is getting US military and technological assistance in the form of

cutting-edge military communications equipment, fighter aircraft engines,

and space technology. As early as two decades ago, the U.S., to score a point

on Russia and China (More on China) helped India in putting a satellite in

Mars’ orbit. Mangalyaan - the Indian Mars mission, launched in November

2013, utilized NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), situated in Spain,

California, and Australia, during its journey to the Red Planet. The NASA

assets provided additional support during the Indian network’s “non-visible

period.” America’s MAVEN Mars orbiter, launched two weeks after India’s

Mangalyaan overtook the latter during the last leg of the journey and acted

as a pathfinder for the Indian spacecraft. China’s first Mars mission landed

on the Red Planet in May 2021, six years after India was able to put

Mangalyaan into Mars’ orbit (it didn’t have a lander though). In due course,

the world will also know about the extent to which the US helped India in

landing its 2023 Lunar mission – Chandrayaan, on the moon's surface.

To conclude, General Inam compares the troubled world, with its serious

problems, geostrategic issues, and technological breakthroughs, with the

Cloud Cuckoo World of the inert Pakistanis – the utilization of AI and

streaming platforms (for generating ghost speeches and dirty videos, sic)

TikToker Hareem Shah, Aliza Sehar, (Glorifying third-rate Bollywood actors)

Akshay Kumar, and Kajol and the film Barbie, with its feminist empowerment

theme. They also (like me) tried learning new features on WhatsApp for

communication. The majority searched for Canadian immigration and skills

like extending flowers’ life and removing mehndi. Cricket mania captivated

many.

I remember that during my school days (in the 1960s) Mercedes Benz offered

to establish a truck assembly plant in Pakistan. They were spurned by the

Pakistani government as, at that time, our priorities were TV stations, the

import of cars, and a luxurious lifestyle. Indians, by comparison, lived frugal

lives. Their priorities were different – steel mills, machine building, nuclear

reactors, fighter planes (India was the first Third World country to develop its

fighter plane – Marut), tanks, and an indigenous automobile industry. Indian

leaders were averse to importing even cosmetics. Nehru asked JRD Tata to

build a cosmetic brand for Indian women keeping in mind their skin tone

and other needs. JRD Tata launched Lakme, a subsidiary of Tata Oil Mills

in 1952. So, you have guessed it right: after Pakistan dismissed them, the Germans went to India with their offer of the truck plant. Today, Tata’s Telco trucks (based on Mercedes-Benz technology) are exported worldwide. Pakistanis must come out of their cocoon.While we remain busy in our other worldly pursuits, the world keeps

moving ahead.

Why does time stand still in Pakistan?

I went to Saudi Arabia after eight years. The last time I visited the kingdom

was soon after the death of King Abdullah (2015). The country was in

transition then. Many people were worried about its future. Some even

predicted Saudi Arabia would not last long. Eight Years on, Saudia is a

different country altogether – the cranes and construction equipment that

were expanding the cities of Makkah and Medina eight years ago are still

there, Makkah is touching the outskirts of Mina. There is a high-speed train

that links Makkah with Medina. The former slums have been torn down

and replaced with shining new settlements and business districts. It is not

the oil wealth alone, The Saudi rulers, even as the rulers of UAE, Bahrain,

and Qatar, while living in their fairyland palaces, are not oblivious to their

peoples’ needs.

By contrast, while the glitterati of Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi swim in

seas of opulence, Lal Kurti and Raja Bazar in Pindi, the walled city of

Lahore and the never-ending slums all over Pakistan remind me of the

museum in Bahrain where they have meticulously preserved the remains of

their past – marketplaces, iron smithies, cobbler shops, washermen’s work

stations, etc.

General Inam has obliquely, but very smartly drawn our attention to the

indifference of Pakistanis.

Saleem Akhtar Malik

7 January 2024