OUR rulers rarely admit their misrule — denial and hype being their default modes. When they do speak the truth, a sceptical nation rightly suspects hidden scripts. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi is right about the system’s collapse but wrong about its causes and cures. This mix of inconvenient truths and convenient untruths may be due to tussles in a hybrid set-up, with the more powerful element aiming to further tame the political side.

Let’s first review the scale of the collapse. Our under-five child mortality rate is the worst regionally. About 25 million children are out of school, the second-highest figure globally. We are among the three most insecure states and near the bottom of legal justice and gender equity scales. We endure high poverty; poor growth in GDP, jobs, tax and exports; and high prices that still bite despite lower inflation. Too often, one step forward in a few areas is offset by a standstill or two steps backwards in others.

Collapse may pick up the pace past a critical point, as in failed states. Futures studies warn us about new threats that may accentuate our current mess and push us beyond it even before we reach our centenary. These include the ecological (climate change),........

© Dawn