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Husain Haqqani

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Famous Husain Haqqani Quotes

“Pakistan’s poor performance in education is not a function of poverty but of according lower priority by successive governments. There are forty-three countries in the world that are poorer than Pakistan on a per capita GDP basis45 but twenty-four of them send more children to primary school than Pakistan does. Pakistan’s budgetary allocation for education—a meagre 2.6 per cent of GDP in 2015—is abysmally low and actual expenditure—1.5 per cent of GDP—is even less. Pakistan spends around seven times more on its military than on primary education. According to one estimate, just one-fifth of Pakistan’s military budget would be sufficient to finance universal primary education.”

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Book:Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State
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“Pakistanis often recount how civil servants in Pakistan’s early days worked out of makeshift offices, lived in tents and ran the government with limited stationery supplies. While the account is generally accurate, and the sacrifice of the officials admirable, it is equally important to understand that the difficulty was the result of a poor choice. Pakistan’s founder had selected the country’s capital to be located in a city lacking adequate facilities, preferring it over another provincial capital with a better establishment.”

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Book:Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State
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“It is noteworthy that the Muslim League had campaigned for Pakistan for seven years without deciding what its capital might be. The Bengalis proposed Dhaka while others suggested Lahore and even Multan, a historic city in the south of Punjab. But the subject was never seriously discussed while rallying Muslims to the cause of Pakistan. After belatedly deciding on Karachi as the capital, Muslim League leaders expected the British Indian Army to resolve the problems they might encounter in accommodating the government of their new country. This was one of the earliest manifestations of Pakistan’s tendency to rely on the military as the solution to problems normally falling in the civilian domain.”

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Book:Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State
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“Pakistanis must figure out why India, which inherited similar institutions from the British Raj, maintained democracy consistently after Independence while Pakistan could not. They should also examine how Bangladesh has been able to expand its economy while reducing its population after breaking off from Pakistan.”

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Book:Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State
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“If there were lessons to be learnt from the East Pakistan/ Bangladesh fiasco, Pakistan’s civil and military leaders did not learn them. Instead of recognizing the inadequacy of the two nation theory, religious ideology and brute force in keeping the country together, the break-up was rationalized as the result of Indian hostility, malfeasance of Pakistani politicians, and the geographic remoteness of the eastern wing.”

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“Among the many instances of the absurdity of some of the experimentation with Islamization was the recommendation in 1980 by a leading nuclear scientist that ‘djinns [or genies], being fiery creatures, ought to be tapped as a free source of energy’. He expected Pakistan’s energy problems to be finally solved by this means. Dr Bashiruddin Mahmood noted that King Solomon— a Biblical figure also mentioned in the Quran—had harnessed energy from djinns. ‘I think that if we develop our souls we can develop communications with them,’ he explained.”

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Book:Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State
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“Islamists also pushed back on Ayub’s efforts at controlling what he saw as the ‘menace of over-population’ through a comprehensive family planning programme. ‘I cannot believe that any religion can object to population control’, Ayub declared, adding that ‘no good religion can object to anything aimed at the betterment of human lot, because all religions, after all, come for the good of the human race and human beings do not come into the world for the religions.’75 But once Ayub’s hold over power was weakened, mullahs railed against family planning and birth control as conspiracies of unbelievers aimed at keeping down the number of Muslims.”

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Book:Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State
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“Pakistan, unlike India, would not start out with a functioning capital, central government or financial resources, which necessitated greater homework on the part of the Muslim League leaders. Unfortunately, they did little by way of preparation for running the country they had demanded. Many of Pakistan’s teething problems were the result of this ill-preparedness but Pakistani accounts of the country’s early days paint them as hardships inflicted on Muslim Pakistan by its non-Muslim enemies.”

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Book:Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State
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“Ignored in the self-laudatory commentary about the stock market’s performance were other less positive facts. The Karachi Stock Exchange’s market capitalization in 2016 stood at a meagre $89 billion, which compares unfavourably with the $320 billion capitalization of the Dhaka Stock Exchange in Bangladesh.”

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Book:Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State
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“The United States initially poured money and arms into Pakistan in the hope of building a major fighting force that could assist in defending Asia against communism. Pakistan repeatedly failed to live up to its promises to provide troops for any of the wars the United States fought against communist forces, instead using American weapons in its wars with India.”

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Book:Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding
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“Three American presidents-Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson-have asked the question: What do we get from aiding Pakistan? Five-Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama-have wondered aloud whether Pakistan's leaders can be trusted to keep their word.”

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Book:Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding
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“The list of American grievances is long: Pakistan developed nuclear weapons while promising the United States that it would not; the United States helped arm and train Mujahideen against the Soviets during the 1980s, but Pakistan chose to keep these militants well armed and sufficiently funded even after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989; and, from the American perspective, Pakistan's crackdown on terrorist groups, particularly after 9/11, has been halfhearted at best.”

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Author:Husain Haqqani
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