Viewing India differently

Talking to senior media persons in Islamabad following US President Bush's visit, President General Pervez Musharraf made some important assertions with regard to Pakistanis' self-perception, which almost always includes comparisons with India.
Pakistan, he said, is not in competition with India, and went on to advise the people to stop being Indo-centric, rightly pointing out that "they are going in a different direction and we are going in a different direction."
However, some comparison, not necessarily in a negative sense, is inevitable given that the two countries started off at the same time on the road to progress and development.
Our focus has also remained on India because of the conflict over Kashmir as it formed the centrepiece of the country's foreign policy and military strategy. In fact, while underlining the need to remove our India fixation, he said, "the Army will still remain India-centric for obvious reasons."
But as General Musharraf aptly noted the two countries are going in different directions. Whereas India has become a global player by dint of its economic progress, Pakistan - due to its strategic location and cultural and historical links with the resource-rich nations in the Middle East and Central Asia - has positioned itself as a central player in the region's affairs.
Yet internally, it remains a weak state both in economic and political terms. Conscious of that weakness, President Musharraf averred, "We want to create jobs, reduce poverty." And of course, the Army also has to remain Indo-centric. In other words, even though the President said Pakistan is not in an arms race with India, it would still have to maintain its defence preparedness at a level where it can have a credible deterrence capability against India's military might.
Given the vast disparity between the economies of the two countries, that can happen only at the expense of economic development. For as per the prevalent strategic paradigms, the universally acceptable level of military expenditure is four percent of a country's GDP.
Which means Pakistan, under the present conditions, feels compelled to spend a lot more than that to punch way above its economic weight. It must, therefore, concentrate on economic expansion and advancement.
Irrespective of the need to acquire such a military capability, which should become unnecessary once the two countries resolve the core issues of conflict between them, Pakistan needs to focus on achieving progress and prosperity like any forward-looking nation. It is not enough to adopt good economic policy; it is also important to ensure its continuity.
Which in turn requires political stability. Political stability in this country, unfortunately, remains an elusive commodity. Even if one is to ignore the manufacturing activity that went into the establishment of the present political construct, what is hard to disregard is uncertainty about the future.
The President's associates have been consistently casting doubts about the shape of things to come. Some of them have been saying that the general election, due next year, might be postponed until 2008.
That uncertainty though was cleared during the joint press conference General Musharraf and President Bush addressed on Saturday, and as per their assertions the elections are to be held on schedule.
But a big question mark continues to hang on issue of the President's uniform. He remained non-committal as to when exactly he would doff his uniform, he did say, though, that he would not violate the Constitution. Even if he decides to give up the office of COAS and seek re-election as president that would engender a new issue.
For under the constitutional provisions, anyone retiring from government service must wait for at least two years before entering an electoral contest for public office. If that is what General Musharraf had in mind when he said he would take the next step according to the Constitution, another constitutional amendment will be required, which may open a Pandora's box.
This would hardly lend certainty to the political system that is crucial to economic stability, and the prospects of this nation's progress and development.