We may term the present instability in Pakistan in socio-economic terms, rather than political and that the real long term solutions for Pakistan’s problems are in this arena, rather than security, security and more security.
It is easier to manage, control and satisfy 33 million (1951) people than it is to manage, control and satisfy 89 million (1981). It is easier to manage, control and satisfy 89 million people than it is to manage, control and satisfy 170 million (2007). It is proving difficult to manage, control and satisfy 170 million people, and when the population reaches 400 million by 2050 it will be a guaranteed disaster.
Ayub Khan was not far off the mark when he stated in the sixties that in the future unless the population growth was addressed seriously people in Pakistan would be ending up eating each other.
The most drastic and crude state measure of coercion with population control is starvation as practiced by the British in Ireland (50% got rid of during the 1840’s), and India as an instrument of state control (Bengal famine of 1943, during the war, when the Japanese were in Burma, and Bose in Japan). The Soviets and Red China also practiced this for future economic gains and development, and as a necessary and worth while sacrifice. I don’t think failed state Pakistan has the discipline to carry out such a policy, and of course there are moral objections, but I thought I would mention it.
Coincidentally some elites in Europe are floating this idea around centered around the UK/Bilderberg group naturally (Malthusians—followers of Thomas Malthus, nineteenth century British ‘philosopher’). They envisage a world with a reduced population from the current 6.5 billion to about 1 billion, made up mainly of Europeans of course. They pray for war and conflict which naturally enough impacts on the local population.
The conflict in Iraq has a Malthusian feel to it. 2 million Iraqis killed since 1991, through sanctions and conflict and 4 million turned into refugees. The country has been turned into a vast uninhabitable sewer. General Abazaid states that his country intends to be in Iraq for another 50 years, and if that is really true, the Iraqi population will have disappeared well before than.
No, in Pakistan we don’t have to think in such dire and drastic terms yet. There are many effective and civilized methods available to satisfy, manage and control the population growth. It however requires honest government action and highly organized planning, which the Pakistani military are capable of.
