Quotes from Husain Haqqani

India, which became independent along with Pakistan in 1947, agreed on a constitution in 1949 and held its first general election in 1951. Pakistan's first constitution was not promulgated until 1956, and within two years it was abrogated through a military coup d'état.

Contrary to what Pakistani children are taught in schools, the Islamic ideology currently in vogue in Pakistan did not give birth to the country; it was born after Pakistan's creation in its present form.

Beginning with Liaquat, moving forward with Ayub Khan and culminating with Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan's leaders proceeded to delineate a 'noble and eternal' ideology that would give Pakistan 'a tremendous power of cohesion and resistance', insisting that it was on the basis of Islam 'that we fought for and got Pakistan'. Islam, hostility to India, and the Urdu language were identified as the cornerstones of this new national ideology.

The traditional ulema and Islamists used the environment of jihad to advance their own agenda, and one agenda item was that they should be accepted as custodians of Pakistan's ideology and identity. After the war, several state-sponsored publications were devoted to building the case that one Muslim soldier had the fighting prowess to subdue five Hindus.

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.

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.

No one who is a friend of Pakistan must say anything that harms its reputation; anyone who dares to ask tough questions or make adverse remarks must be prepared to be categorized as Pakistan's enemy.

Ignored in the self-laudatory commentary about the stock market's performance were other less positive facts. The Karachi Stock Exchange's market capitalization in 2016 stood at a meagre $89 billion, which compares unfavourably with the $320 billion capitalization of the Dhaka Stock Exchange in Bangladesh.

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.

Pakistan's unfortunate history may justify the description of Pakistan as being 'insufficiently imagined', but imagination is by definition not a finite process. An entity that is insufficiently imagined can be reimagined

Unlike other countries, where the apex court is only the court of final appeal in criminal matters, Pakistan's Supreme Court acts politically to directly make pronouncements in response to media articles or petitions by political rivals. One need not be convicted of disloyalty to the state after due process of law when innuendo, fabricated media reports and public comments by Supreme Court judges can suffice to tarnish reputations and cut public support.

International assistance, especially from the United States and some from China and Saudi Arabia, has brought Pakistan back from the brink in the past. But rising xenophobia and Islamo-nationalism— exhibited prominently after the discovery of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town—coupled with Pakistan's policies in Afghanistan make continued US support for Pakistan difficult.

The collective wisdom in Pakistan seems to be that nothing in Pakistan's predicament is the result of wrong policy choices made by its leaders and that the only thing Pakistanis need to do is to fend off discussion of the negatives, rather than attend to the negatives themselves.

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.

Pakistanis must figure out why India, which inherited similar institutions from the British Raj, maintained democracy consistently after Independence while Pakistan could not. They should also examine how Bangladesh has been able to expand its economy while reducing its population after breaking off from Pakistan.

Independent observers believe that the Pakistan Army killed between one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand Bengalis in a nine-month period, whereas Bangladesh puts the figure at three million.

For sixteen years since 9/11, Pakistan has aided the American forces in Afghanistan by providing logistical support while providing a haven to their enemies at the same time. As a result of this dichotomy, some factions of Taliban have turned on Pakistan and attacked Pakistani civilian as well as military targets. Pakistan has lost America's trust as American critics accuse Pakistan of acting as arsonist and firefighter in Afghanistan at the same time.

There is robust debate in American society over the extent to which the US lives up to its goals, but no one considers such debate as a threat to America's current existence. The evolution of America from a slave-owning society that limited franchise only to white men of European origin to a diverse, multi-ethnic nation is a result of argument and deliberation.

The Jamaat saw its opportunity in working with the new state's elite, gradually expanding the Islamic agenda while providing the theological rationale for the elite's plans for nation building on the basis of religion.

According to the account of a British diplomat, Liaquat had to respond seriously to a California businessman who asked him at a luncheon 'whether the blank space between the two parts of Pakistan as shown on the menu card was Africa'.1

the ideology of Pakistan that has been fostered in the past seventy years has had two major consequences. First, it opened the door for endless debates and schisms around Islam that prevent discussion of more pressing and practical governance issues; second, it conflated an Islamic Pakistani nationalism with anti-Indianism, putting Pakistan in foreign and national security policy straitjacket.

The Jamaat-e-Islami played a key role in mobilizing theologians to favor an Islamic constitution. It maintained a hard-line posture against India and helped the state by describing leftists, secularists, and ethnic nationalists as "anti-Islam unbelievers.

Although much thought might not have gone into creating the separate state of Pakistan, considerable effort was now expended on defining, justifying, and protecting it.

During Pakistan's formative years, however, pan-Islamism was more important for Pakistan's efforts to consolidate its national identity than as the main-stay of its foreign policy.