She has a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Politics from the LUMS. She has previously worked at the Research and Development Foundation (RDF) as a research associate.
About the Author
Dr. Maleeha Lodhi is a former diplomat, political scientist, and the author of “Pakistan: Search for Stability.” She served as Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN). Previously, she served, twice, as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States (1993-1996 and 1999-2002) and, for five years, as Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (2003-2008). She also has a distinguished career in media. She was a founding editor of “The News” and an editor of “The Muslim” as well. Dr. Lodhi received the President’s Award of Hilal-e-Imtiaz for her extensive public service. Without a doubt, she is one of the leading Pakistani policy experts.
Previous Publication: “Pakistan: Beyond the Crisis State”
In 2011, she edited the book “Pakistan: Beyond the Crisis State.” It was a collection of essays written by experts in their respective fields. It painted a positive picture of Pakistan’s economic, political, and social future. The book noted Pakistan’s unique resilience and diversity, making a solid case for its survival. It recognized key areas—education, energy, economy, institutions, and exports—that needed to be revamped to ensure a take-off for Pakistan.
In “Pakistan: Search for Stability,” Pakistan’s future is re-imagined beyond crises. With Pakistani authors, the book has countered common Western perceptions of Pakistan as merely a crisis state.
“Pakistan: Search for Stability”: Advancing the Conversation Amidst a Poly-crisis
Taking those conversations forward, Dr. Lodhi launched her latest book via the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), “Pakistan: Search for Stability” when Pakistan was embroiled in multiple problems. While some problems have remained constant since the publication of her last book, new challenges have emerged for Pakistan, adding strain on the country.
Dr. Lodhi recognizes all the problems as a “poly-crisis.” These include political, economic, social, and diplomatic issues. Political challenges for the country include violation of the constitution, parliamentary dysfunction, and an inadequate governance structure. The economic challenges she selects, revolve around the issues that keep Pakistan trapped in a cycle of debt. Society faces problems of population explosion, gender imbalance, and education deficit. Added to these problems are newer challenges of climate change and the disengaged, unemployed, and uneducated youth bulge. On the foreign policy front, India and Afghanistan remain long-term foreign policy challenges for Pakistan. However, the growing US-China rivalry adds to the challenge of maintaining balanced relations to prevent Pakistan from getting in the way of crossfire between the two.
Amidst all these challenges and despair, the book is a glimmer of hope and a guide for stability and a better future.
Roadmap for Holistic Change and Stability in Pakistan
The book brings forth different pathways for a better future for Pakistan. The introduction, written by Dr. Lodhi herself, provides the reader with optimism. The remaining sections are essays by Pakistan’s distinguished experts.
The presence of consensus for democracy among political actors, checks by the media, and a vibrant middle class create opportunities for Pakistan to chart a prosperous future. These opportunities must not be squandered.
The book is divided into four sections:
- Politics
- Economics
- Society
- Foreign policy
All essays provide a historical backdrop for their respective issues. However, the focus of this review will be the hopeful future and recommendations charted by authors in each section.
Politics
The book starts with a section of essays on politics. In her contribution to governance faultlines, Dr. Lodhi pinpoints six areas where there should be a consensus among all the political actors to address the decades of poor governance. These areas include economic revival, consensual democracy, education, institutional reform, population control, and improved civil-military relations. This will provide imperative policy continuity for governance.
On the legislative front, the contribution by Ahmed Bilal Mehboob argues for better performance of legislators in the Parliament to improve the parliamentary system. The chapter particularly notes the dangers of a disengaged youth. Political parties and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should engage the youth with targeted campaigns. To further strengthen the parliamentary system, it is imperative to enhance the autonomy and powers of the ECP to hold elections timely and to oversee political parties effectively.
For the parties, it is recommended to work on preparation. Instead of focusing on coming to power, the parties ought to prepare concrete plans for their tenures. Any discussion on politics is incomplete without the mention of empowering local governments. The chapter recommends constitutionally empowering local governments similar to India’s 73rd and 74th Amendments.
The section on politics provides a holistic way forward for individual parliamentarians, political parties, leadership, opposition, ECP, and different tiers of government. It seeks to strengthen political continuity, stability, constitutional supremacy, and a separation of powers.
Economy
The section on the economy charts a future for Pakistan to break away from economic woes and attain economic stability. The bleak economic situation of Pakistan is widely covered on several forums across Pakistan. These issues include mounting debt, fiscal deficit, and current account deficit. This section provides policymakers with concrete steps to improve the situation.
Although every chapter of the economy section offers unique solutions, all the authors argue for an outward-oriented Pakistani economy integrated into the global economy.
Fiscal discipline, monetary restraint, export competitiveness, market determination, innovation, and joint manufacturing with other countries are recommended. At large, the chapters hint at support for the prevailing liberal paradigm of economics. The authors also recognize the necessary but limited role of the government as a facilitator.
As a golden mean between market and government, the “East Asian Miracle” is given as a case study in this section. East Asian economies improved on the back of the abovementioned policies with a balance of market and necessary governmental intervention. Therefore, the future of Pakistan’s economy lies in openness to the global economy.
Society
Next, the book comprises several chapters on Pakistani society. Similar to her previous publication, Dr. Lodhi continues to hold education as an imperative. Added to this are the pressing issues of an unemployed, uneducated, and disengaged youth bulge, the population’s ticking timebomb, and the imminent threat of climate change.
The chapter on education highlights the importance of educating the younger generation and provides an eight-point plan to improve the bleak situation in which 22.8 million children remain out of school. The policy guidelines include autonomy for educational institutions, adequate funding, planned construction of schools, accountability, academic freedom for teachers, the addition of technology in education, research, and population planning.
With 60% of the population below the age of thirty, Pakistan’s youth bulge is an opportunity in its search for stability. The chapter rightly argues that the youth should be engaged, educated, and employed. A disengaged, uneducated, and unemployed youth becomes an easy target for extremist ideologies.
The chapter on population control argues for policy consistency on the challenge of rising population. With a fertility rate of 3.6 births per woman and an annual population growth rate of 2.4%, Pakistan’s population is a grave non-traditional security concern. The example of Bangladesh is discussed as a success story in population control. As a policy concern, population control is imperative in Pakistan’s search for stability.
A chapter in the book is also added on the imminent environmental crises. It discusses the challenges of water scarcity, agricultural decline, biodiversity loss, deforestation, and natural disasters. Adding the theme of climate change and environmental crises to the anthology rightly signals the exigency of this issue. In a region where air quality directly reduces people’s life expectancy, the environment is one thing the policymakers cannot ignore.
Foreign Policy
The section on foreign policy includes chapters on Pakistan’s foreign relations with India, China, the United States of America (USA), and Afghanistan.
The chapter on the foreign relations between India and Pakistan notes areas of historical distrust. These are enhanced by the far-right Modi regime pursuing a Hindutva ideology and hegemony in the region. Ties of the two countries rest on the reversal of this outlook in India. Regional integration under the European Union (EU) was possible with the responsible behavior of France and Germany. India, the largest power in the region, must take on this responsibility instead of pushing for regional hegemony. In this context, the geo-economic pivot envisaged by Pakistan will be a reality for the South Asian region.
Pakistan-China relations have historically remained centered on political and geostrategic imperatives. Although the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) provides an economic nexus, bilateral trade between the two countries is still limited. The essay argues for extending ties with people-to-people connections and a cultural nexus to add more substance to China and Pakistan’s all-weather strategic friendship.
The chapter on Pakistan-US relations raises concerns over the narrow security basis of the history of relations between the USA and Pakistan. The absence of a strong foundation of mutual interests has made Pakistan-US ties transient. For the future, it is recommended that the two countries build relations on economic, environmental, and cultural lines to place a sustainable base of ties. This chapter also notes that Pakistan is perceived as a part of the Chinese bloc amidst the unfolding USA-China rivalry. Pakistan must secure its ties with the two countries and prevent itself from getting caught in the crossfire.
The chapter on Afghanistan notes the dangerous faultlines that have emerged after America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the advent of the Taliban regime in 2021. These include cross-border attacks, the resurgence of terrorism, and damage to fencing. USA’s shift from this region is considered a cause of concern for Pakistan’s foreign policy. To address this vacuum in the relations between the USA and Pakistan, which have largely centered on Afghanistan, this chapter also suggests diversifying these relations beyond the narrow focus of Afghanistan.
Analysis
The book continues the conversations raised in Dr. Maleeha Lodhi’s previous publication. Unlike “Pakistan: Beyond the Crisis State,” her new book “Pakistan: Search for Stability” focuses more on non-traditional security threats. Pakistan faces a number of critical challenges. These include, among others, population explosion, environmental crisis, and youth disengagement. The concerns have been raised by experts for years.
A welcome shift in policy circles is witnessed through the National Security Policy (NSP) (2022-2026) which recognizes non-traditional security threats whilst emphasizing human and economic security. It is now important that these recommendations be acted upon with policy continuity and commitment.
The recommendations in the four sections—politics, economy, society, and foreign policy—share a common strand. That is openness.
Firstly, a closed polity is centered on the narrow interests of elites. Therefore, the section on politics calls for debate, compromise, devolution to the local governments, informed voters, and engaging the youth. The independence of institutions with effective separation of powers is also suggested in line with openness.
Secondly, the section on Pakistan’s economy raises concerns about the closed and isolated economy trapped in an interminable cycle of debt. The recommendations argue for an open Pakistani economy integrated with the global economy to break free from the situation.
The section on society raises concerns about a closed society as well. The youth is largely disengaged and disintegrated. Societal norms limit women to the private realm. Society must be open with inclusivity, integration, and tolerance for holistic stability.
Lastly, the section on foreign policy suggests openness as well. The pivot to geo-economics is at the center of this. The US-Pakistan and China-Pakistan relations are also recommended to be diversified from their narrow basis to include climate change, cultural ties, people-to-people connections, trade, and business. Therefore, the strand of openness ties the whole book together. If policymakers could take one lesson from this book for a better future for Pakistan, it would be that of openness.
Conclusion
Maleeha Lodhi’s book “Pakistan: Search for Stability” has been published amidst an unfolding “poly-crisis.” The contributors in this book are all eminent scholars in their respective fields. These scholars have been raising these concerns through their publications elsewhere for years. Anyone who is slightly in touch with current affairs in Pakistan has heard of these scholars and their respective arguments. The book brings all of them to one place for a holistic search for stability.
It is a policy guidebook for the decision-makers, incumbent government, opposition, political parties, institutions, bureaucracy, provincial governments, and local governments. As a prominent thinker, Dr. Maleeha Lodhi provides a holistic approach through this book for those at the helm of affairs to follow. It is hoped the concerned quarters take the necessary reforms stipulated in this guide.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article/paper are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Paradigm Shift.
