Pakistan was being run for decades focused on political economy, and continues. The fruits of political economy grew leaps and bounds for political communities and interest groups.
At the same time, overseas Pakistanis including Pakistanis holding dual citizenship have been remitting for decades thereby contributing to the national economy -not political economy directly -as they do not have say/sway on political landscape regardless of which party they are or may be supportive of.
The costs of political economy were funded by international loans which piled up, and remittances provided the sustainable cushion to ward off hiccups in the fiscal debt management.
Dual citizens’ impact on the voting numbers pales out vis-a-vis the impact their remittances, etc. provide to the national economy -which remains our Achilles heel.
I am told by some that there is a “fear” of “certain community” who may play foul. What is the number of votes this community can impact with, and at what and for what?
The fearful community is harping ‘otherness’ in place of ”togetherness’, thereby creating “boogeyman” in the process -just as ‘War on Terror’ and ‘Islamophobia’, etc. are.
The differential numbers are tilted in favor of ‘togetherness’ for the country -they may not be for some major politicos who have been major players over the years and compete on ‘otherness’ to engineer even playing field suited to them -and in the process have gerrymandered, colluded, swapped interests, etc. while the nation been watching the comic drama of ‘having the cake and eating it too’.
Irshad Salim, Karachi
