This blog is, in fact, part and start of a big study. Since the advent of Islam in 7^th century AD the Islamic incursions, starting right from its inception, has made this last of the three Abrahamic religions one of the most controversial topics of human history. Today almost all major disputes around the world involve Muslims, one way or another. The Islamic countries, which are primarily located in Asia and Africa, are the troubled regions with the insurgence of militancy, multiple discords, sectarian and religious strifes, breakdown of law & order, rampant corruption, poverty, overpopulation, economic despondency, autocratic statecraft, illiteracy and backwardness, absence of creativity, stagnancy of thought, non-productive populace so on and so forth.

Most of these widespread issues are equally causing nuisance and concerns in those countries who don’t have Muslim governments, as rulers, but where Muslims constitute some part of their populations. From Europe to India, from China to Israel and from United States to Myanmar the followers of Islam are treated differently as compared to all others. Why?

This blog has started to seek answers to these burning questions. Apparently, this perpetual issue seems to be linked with the basics of Islam whom some prefer to call Mohammedanism, in analogy with Christianity or Buddhism, while others like to name it on the basis of its origin as “the Arabian Religion”. Both nomenclatures are rejected by the Islamists as they don’t want to attribute and confine their ideology either to one person or to one region. Here this debate looks quite superfluous, but we shall take it later due to its significance – discussing the need for the birth of a new Abrahamic religion when two Semitic or Abrahamic doctrines, Judaism and Christianity, were already being practiced.

Howsoever, for the time being I want to limit the debate to the actual topic of this blog i.e. failure of governance in the Muslim World. I believe that most of the present ills of the Islamic countries are because of the absolute breakdown of governance all over the world of Islam. Why and how did it happen? Are religious teachings and ideals responsible for this total failure or there is something wrong with the basic chemistry and genetics of the people? We need to have an interactive discussion in an open manner.  

Now to start this perplexing study what is required is to select a sample piece of land or a country which should not only be a political and popular representative of the Islamic World but must also be an experimental blend of Islamic tradition and modern statecraft instead of being an absolute theocratic entity. The countries which may fit in this criterion are Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Pakistan. For the time being, when we look somewhat deeply Pakistan comes out as the most suitable county to be used as a case study for the failure of governance in the Muslim World. Some major reasons for this suitability can be summarized as follows:    

1. Pakistan is the only country which was created in the name of Islam in modern times. The raison d’etre or the legal argument which was used by the founding father for carving out this piece of land out of old Hindustan was that the Indian Muslims were different from the Indian Hindus, in all respects. Thus, they deserved to have a separate homeland for practicing their values. This justification was named as “Two Nation Theory” which is still considered as the pivot around which the whole concept revolves.
2. At the time of creation, in 1947, Pakistan was the largest Muslim and overall sixth most populous country in the world with 75.7 million population (West Pakistan: 33.7 million, East Pakistan: 42 million). Presently, it’s the second largest Muslim and fifth most populous country in the world with a total population of 241.49 million individuals. With an uncontrolled population growth rate of 2.55% it’s one of the best examples of population explosion.
3. The population of Muslims in Pakistan is about 97% of the total population. How the country achieved this horrendous Muslim majority is another story.
4. Pakistan is the only Muslim state which is equipped with nuclear arsenals. The number of nuclear warheads possessed by the country are between 165 to 170 – theoretically sufficient to destroy the planet.
5. Pakistan has sixth largest military in the world with a total of 654,000 active military personnel, as in the year 2022.
6. Pakistan inherited a strong and trained civil bureaucracy from British colonials in 1947 which still rules the poor and deprived masses in connivance with their shrewder and stronger counterparts, military bureaucracy.
7. By constitution, Pakistan is a bicameral democracy with Prime Minister as the head of the government and President as the head of the state as well as the supreme commander of the armed forces, at least ceremonially. Contrary to so many other Muslim states Pakistan is not a despotic autocracy or a dictatorship oligarchy.
8. Pakistan has a few Nobel laureates and some known scientists to it’s credit although the overall environment is completely uncongenial for the growth of science, technology, creativity and liberal thinking.
9. Above all, in a hugely populated country, like Pakistan, everything revolves around religion. All aspects of life are interpreted and seen through religious prism under the pretext of being an “ideological state”. Freedom of expression is curtailed, and religious minorities are freely persecuted by the intolerant mobs under the garb of state legislated Blasphemy Law and different versions of Shariat, as believed by different sects inside the country. Individual freedom is nonexistent same as the law and order. Merit is totally abolished from each and every walk of life while political and bureaucratic interventions are in vogue. Police and district administrations are meant to facilitate the influentials far from providing any kind of public service or relief to common people. These are only a few examples of lawlessness and rogue mindset in the society, as observed and experienced every day in Pakistan.   

ALL THE ABOVE FEATURES, IDIOSYNCRACIES AND CHARACTERISTICS RENDER PAKISTAN AN IDEAL SAMPLE STATE TO STUDY THE FAILURE OF GOVERNANCE IN MUSLIM STATES AROUND THE CONTINENTS OF ASIA AND AFRICA.