WHY haven’t we built a Pakistan where everyone enjoys equal rights? Postcolonial rulers in diverse countries had to build four basic pillars at once: capable states, dynamic economies, cohesive nations, and inclusive politics. Diversity, and in many cases inequalities and conflicts, made the last two vital so that diversity doesn’t mean divides.

But many ignored these subtle tasks to focus on the state and economy, only to make both non-inclusive. This led to conflicts that damaged states and economies. We did the same and faced the same fate. How can we now reverse gears? The answer is simple: ensure inclusive politics to produce a cohesive nation, which can create a capable state that can shape a dynamic economy, with each feeding the others in a virtuous circle. Are we creating this virtuous circle via inclusion or choking it via exclusion?

Inclusive politics needs a political culture where losers can bear losing electorally, knowing they will survive politically to aim for power again. But we have winner-takes-all, zero-sum politics rather than win-win politics — especially in the last four years as the PTI and nationalist parties in KP, Balochistan, and, more recently, Azad Kashmir face not just electoral........

© Dawn