Democracy can improve Pakistan's image in the comity of nations: Pildat holds discussion

Discussion organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) as a part of its dialogue series titled "understanding relations between the Muslim World and the West - Pakistan's image in the West."
Speakers have said that positive image of a country is necessary not only for getting dignified place in the comity of nations but also to help meet economic challenges in the competitive globalised business environment.
Chaudhry Khalid Mahmood, Member Parliament Norwegian Parliament and Ms Kishwer Falkner of Margravine, member UK House of Lords were the foreign Pakistani origin discussants while Governor Punjab Khalid Maqbool, former finance minister Sartaj Aziz, former minister Shafqat Mahmood, Professor of Economic History and Business Policy at Lums, Dr Imran Ali and a political analyst Ejaz Haider were the Pakistani discussants of the panel discussion.
There was unanimity of views among the participants that undiluted democracy could improve Pakistan's image in the comity of nations. Sharing his views, Chaudhry Khalid Mahmood said that there was positive image about Pakistanis in Norway as Norwegian considers Pakistanis as hardworking people having full potential. However, he added that there are some negative vibes due to sectarianism, forced marriages and derailment of democratic process. "Western people support democracy and rule of law in Pakistan and during lawyers movement in Pakistan, rallies were taken out in Norway in support of lawyers waging struggle for independence of judiciary in Pakistan", he added.
He further said Pakistani Diaspora, although split, has done a lot for Pakistan and is less divided than the Pakistani nation. He said the Muslim Holocaust has taken place in the world eg in Bosnia, which cannot be denied. Iran has no aggressive intents towards any other country. It has also been claimed that Iran has not violated any UN regulations on producing nuclear energy, he added.
Ms Kishwer Falkner of Margravine said that there were many misconceptions about the West, which need to be removed. She said it is important for Pakistan to establish good relations with its neighbours, as peace is vital for South Asian region that is terribly most important region in the world.
She was of the view that the use of the word Israeli lobby is entirely different from the term Jewish lobby. Whereas, there is a bias in certain sections of the Western media in favour of Israel, to allege that international media overall is controlled by the Jewish lobby is inappropriate and inaccurate, she added.
She said that recent incidents of terrorism had left negative image of Pakistan. She said the West is not a homogeneous entity in geographic, cultural and ethnic terms. She said Pakistan's security situation, recurring cases of terrorism linking Pakistanis to the acts, Pak-India relations, Pak-Afghan relations etc, all are instrumental in shaping the image of Pakistan in the West.
Sartaj Aziz said on the occasion that our image is worst than reality. He said that results of February 18 polls had clear the propaganda that if Pervez Musharraf is removed, fundamentalists would take control of the country's affairs. When we would improve reality, the image of the country would improve automatically, he added. He hoped that conspiracies aimed at destabilising the democratic process would not succeed and democracy would flourish in the country which is key to solution of all the problems. The present labelling of Pakistan as the "most dangerous country in the world" in a significant section of the Western media has also played a role in worsening the image of Pakistan, he added. However, the 18th February elections have countered the image problem to some extent, the independence of judiciary will also help further. The assertion of an imminent extremist take over threat in event of a regime change by Pakistani leaders has also added to the image problem, he added.
Shafqat Mahmood said it is important for a country to have positive image to compete in the globalised competitive economic environment. He was of the view that negative image of a country left bad impacts on economy of that particular country. He said there was no threat of extremists' take over in Pakistan, therefore democratic system should be strengthened. He was of the view that media in the US is heavily biased towards Israel. He said the world is a global village and Pakistan cannot live in isolation. A negative image has bad economic and social consequences as well as consequences at even an individual level, he said, adding that the negative image can also be used against us by those who opposed the country particularly with regards to Pakistan's nuclear assets.
Dr Imran Ali said that we should move towards trade integration as well as regional integration to face challenges. He was of the view that Pakistan inherently did not have any negative image. Recent Newsweek survey ranks Pakistan amongst the top 10 countries scoring high in core human values including hospitality, he added. He was of the view that the so-called Islamic extremism, incidentally supported by the West in the 1980s and sold out to the military rulers in Pakistan, primarily creates problems with the image of Pakistan.
Shahid Hamid said that after the fall of Soviet Union, the US identified Muslim fundamentalism as its new enemy. Having a positive image in Pakistan is not worth compromising on our interests, he said, adding that the assertion that Pakistan is a country on brink of failure is utterly incorrect and unjustifiable. The ground realities in Pakistan and the bias in West are both responsible for the present image problem, he opined.
He further said that "military" is an internal problem of Pakistan and the West's role in supporting military regimes cannot be blamed for the present issues. "Pakistan is not on the West's priority list. The integration issues of Pakistani Diaspora in some countries have affected the image of Pakistan", he added.
Ejaz Haider said the basic concern of the West with regard to Pakistan now is terrorism. The socio-economic and cultural issues of the Diaspora and Pakistanis are not a main area of concern for the West, he added. "Terrorism affects Pakistan more than it affects the West. The West cannot entirely be blamed for the present state of affairs. Pakistan's policies have also been key in shaping the present image", he argued.