Most people know they’ve gone too far when they break something that has a clear and undeniable negative impact on them, by which point it’s often too late. If one wants to avoid going-too-far as much as possible, step one is to realize that you, by yourself, can’t reliably stop yourself from going-too-far or even realize that you have gone too far. Step Two is to re­alize that you can’t stop going-too-far with self-improvement. You can’t logic yourself or research yourself or willpower yourself into not-going-too-far. What’s dangerously seductive about those tools is that, often, they do help—a little. And that can mislead you into believing that if you just ap­ply them a bit harder—just an ounce more willpower—you’ll fix the prob­lem. The problem is, you’re a primate with evolved mental limitations, bias­es, ego issues, and an impulse to con­serve energy, including mental en­ergy. Prejudices, biases, algorithms, and blindly trusting authority figures, while at times problematic, often helped people survive while running on autopilot. If one insists that he is above all that, he is bound to make things worse for himself, not better. The same is true for not realising as to “how much is too much”.

When individuals learn to overcome this tendency of ‘going too far’ in pur­suit of human ambitions, then the so­ciety and the governments can be ex­pected to set the well-defined limits and boundaries that should make the governance more transparent, hon­est, efficient, public serving and wel­fare oriented than self-aggrandize­ment. It goes without saying that only the men and women of credible char­acter and competence can make pro­ductive use of the available talent and the systems in a state for good gover­nance; and that is what has mostly re­mained amiss in a crises stricken state like Pakistan. With due regards for the national short memory, just glance over the current situation in the coun­try and then try to trace it back to the fundamental reasons for the preva­lent commotion; the missing charac­ter, incompetence, avaricious pursuits and ‘going too far’ in prodigality will emerge as the leading causes.

On the political horizon, dominance of the same dynastic rulers with the unchanged fleet of slaves in the last five decades through unfair money and means that includes elections rig­ging, buying turncoats, bullying and burying political opponents, kidnap­ing, torture, misuse of the state ma­chinery managed through systematic and well entrenched politicisation of the state institutions has remained or­der of the day with the public and the country in complete chaos. However, the rulers and the movers and shakers remain blind to the reality that they have already ‘gone too far’ and ‘done too much’, which can be sustained by a country without unmanage­able mayhem. The political victimisa­tion through incarceration of politi­cal workers and leadership, restricted freedom of expression by media con­trol and interference with social media platforms only smack of an unhealthy society and a state indulging in mor­bid immoderations. Unfortunately, the absence of political maturity and mag­nanimity and the consequent crises of leadership have always remained op­erational in Pakistan; for the same two main reasons discussed above.

The economic scene is too bad to be stated. Due to the unbearable foreign and domestic loans, the state has vir­tually become hostage to the IMF for day to day running and the future is not bright anyway as regards getting out of this octopus’s grip. With its cur­rent outstanding foreign debt estimat­ed at US$124.5 billion or 42 per cent of GDP, it will need to negotiate with nu­merous stakeholders including mul­tilateral foreign financial institutions and banks. The devaluation of Pak Ru­pee, ever mounting inflation and un­bearable price hike has already bro­ken the back of the poor, middle and the upper middle classes in Pakistan; giving rise to the robberies, bribery, hunger suicides and many more social evils invisible to the filthy rich elite. Despite production of sufficient food in the country, the price hike is un-un­derstandable by the masses with no relief and government control in sight. The lifeless faces of the public with loss of hope in their eyes is heartbreaking, while the powerful elite in control of the political arenas and the food in­dustry, crops and lands remains obliv­ious to the plight of the masses due to self-destructive overindulgence.

On the security front, in spite of the most courageous supreme sacrifices continuously rendered by the patriot­ic security forces of Pakistan, the can­cer of terrorism, subversion and sab­otage is far from over. The multi-front and multi-dimensional threats de­mand a cohesive nation, political and economic stability and strong Armed Forces with far sighted national secu­rity policies and strategy to end this scourge; in that sequence of course. The weakness invites aggression. As for the internal as well as ever exploit­ative neighbouring foes, we should try to settle through negotiations on superior footings where we can; and strike with adequate military punch where we must. The regional and ex­tra-regional military/ security alli­ances have greater value than ever before; SCO Security Forum and CSTO membership can provide a reason­able security umbrella against big­ger common threats and we need to cement that bond vigorously. Actions speak louder than words; the renew­al of public faith in the National Insti­tutions must get utmost importance. In the last two years, the foreign pol­icy of Pakistan remained confined to meek and delayed scanty statements; we need very vibrant foreign policy experts who can regain the lost spac­es on the foreign policy front instead of capitulation to the donors and lenders. Needless to say that Pakistan has drifted far away from the desired goals and objectives, which were to be achieved by an honest and efficient legislature, Judiciary and the execu­tives; mainly because the leadership ‘went too far’ and ‘did too much’ in the wrong direction and in the wrong places. Pakistan Zindabad!

Saleem Qamar Butt
The writer is a retired senior army officer with experience in international relations, military diplomacy and analysis of geo-political and strategic security issues.