A starving nuclear power.

I remember that song that Shehzad Roy had sung where he starts out by saying how at the age of 10, he saw in the daily news broadcast that Pakistan was going through a delicate period. And when he turned 20 and the news broadcast said the same thing. Pakistan being in a delicate and precarious situation is this country's perpetual mode.

I have a bit of the same story to share also. When I was very young, I remember it took a combination of struggle, aggression and luck to be able to get one's hands on a bag of flour. Then I watched Pakistan become a world champion in cricket. The nation celebrated the great victory. Excelling in sports is celebrated because it shows how healthy and happy a nation is. Nevertheless, the cricket world champion nation was still standing in line to be able to get a bag of flour. I also witnessed the Ras Koh hills of Chagai changing color indicating that Pakistan had become a nuclear power. Yet, the flour lines did not vanish. Basically, as a nuclear armed nation, we could annihilate another nation within seconds but we couldn't feed our own people.

When you google what nations possess nuclear weapons, you will find that 3 nations possessing nuclear weapons are also the nations where people are starving: Pakistan, India and North Korea. And then a striking difference emerges: only North Korea is starving due to foreign sanctions. Pakistan and India are both starving due to their own negligence, poor governance and sheer corruption. More specifically Pakistanis are starving not due to foreign sanctions but rather due to foreign interference.

It was rather remarkable to see the captured Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman to be served with tea because these are the very people for whom the nuclear arms were acquired. The nuclear behaviour is only reserved for Pakistani citizens, who would appreciate a lot if they could afford that very cup of tea. The people of Pakistan need nutrients not nuclear.

Pakistan as a state does not reach out to its citizens who are in trouble abroad. So many...