Partnering with India! It makes sense.

Like so many expatriates, I cross my fingers whenever a new delegation goes to India (or vice Versa) to talk about resolving issues that are 60 plus years old. When it looks like things might change for good something always happen either by design or coincidence (take your pick). A large section of the population in Pakistan is frankly sick of it. Right from the creation of Pakistan, the ruling elite consisting of Jagirdars/Waderas/Pirs AKA politicians never let the education system flourish. The message of the “SECULAR” founder of the country was deliberately buried under a misguided nationalist narrative made up of part facts, part fiction and some outright lies.

It is now time for the sanity to prevail. The need of the hour is to reset the button on our relationship with India (Its common sense 101). Enough of the scare tactics. Media needs to take a lead by aggressively questioning the real motives (and in some cases loyalties) of all those who favor the status co. Let's call it quits on the failed experiment of pursuing misguided policies (for the past 60 years) that have made the country less safe, more isolated and closer to disintegration. Let's start with a new experiment where we can test new sets of policies that ONLY focus on building partnerships across several sectors including education, science & technology, arts, tourism etc with India. Let's try them for the next 20 years and see how that works out. If China can find a way to conduct billions of dollars of business in spite of their disputes, so can we.

Like Pakistan, India has its fair share of problems relating to corruption, but at the same time, there has been a serious effort to built high quality educational institutions across the country which has started to really pay off especially for the underprivileged and lower middle class families. I am willing to bet, if we remove any preconditions, freeze the contentious issues for 10 years and just focus on building various partnerships all these issues will disappear before our eyes. If people are able to move more freely across the border than the whole argument of mine vs yours will not even matter anymore. Both Pakistan and India has a lot to offer each other if we could just focus on building alliances and partnerships rather than missiles and nuclear bombs.

There is no dearth of talent in Pakistan and I can personally vouch for that. The young generation is ready to take their destiny in their own hands. All they need is an environment to succeed, and an opportunity to learn and show their talents. They just need the government to do their job and take their hands of them - literally. If the government really want to play Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, please look for all the ill-gotten wealth that has been accumulated for the past 60 years and the people will cheer and support them all the way to the court house and beyond.