How Pakistan Can Win Millions came out on Sunday. That's a good thing. If the citizens of a country - particularly the educated urban middle class - will remain aloof, the politics of the country will be "controlled" by a relatively small group. The consentration of power in a small group has two issues: 1. The group will serve its narrow interests at the cost of weaker segments & the vast majority 2. It is easily manipulated by internal and external power centers While the political engagement of so many is good - it is still driven by emotions. The rhetoric has moved from "everyone other than IK is corrupt" to "everyone other than IK is a traitor". This creates fissures in an already divided society. Let us say there is a foreign conspiracy to overthrow IK. We can be sure the conspiracy will have a bigger agenda than just throwing IK out of the PM house. Our enemies will want a weak, compliant and unstable Pakistan. A Pakistan they can manipulate easily. And why do they want that? Our neighbor to the East wants to challenge the rise of China. But that requires establishing regional hegemony. So Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have to be made subservient to the will of New Delhi. Sri Lanka has to be brought in line and Pakistan's rebelliousness has to be addressed to achieve India's power ambitions. The West backs this program to create a counterweight to China. Keeping this context in mind and the genuine long-term threat to Pakistan's sovereignty and progress, what we need is national unity. Pakistan cannot win if half of Pakistan calls the other half corrupt or traitors. The enemy is always looking for fissures to exploit. Are we going to play into their hands? What Afghanistan lacks and Pakistan has is institutions like an organised Army and a functioning judiciary. The second goal of the enemy is to weaken institutions. It is true that our institutions are imperfect. But does that mean they are unnecessary? For Pakistan to thrive, we have to strengthen our institutions not weaken them. As bureaucratic structures, they can only be improved with discussion and reform. If we treat them as "political parties" that need to be brought down and out - we are playing into the enemy's hands. Without these institutions in place, we will be without a country. So what needs to be done? The educated middle class Pakistanis have to politically engage. But first they have to read the histories of other nations and their leaders: Deng Xiaopeng of China, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Nelson Mandela of South Africa. They have to learn about how the Europeans colonized America and India, Africa and Australia. They have to understand what drives the Chinese nation after their Century of Humiliation. They have to look at their own past and identify their mistakes and shortcomings. This pursuit of knowledge will bring a newfound wisdom to our actions. We will realize that building a great nation requires hard work, discipline, sacrifice and wisdom. And it requires the realization that we are in this together with a shared dream. So if you are fighting for Pakistan's sovereignty, demand local governments and participate in them. Since balance of payments is our greatest weakness, use local government resources including land to grow exports and curtail imports. Help the entrepreneurs win in global markets. As active political workers, find out how we are educating our next generation and what we can do to improve. Make that a local government issue too. These steps will bring about true sovereignty. Abusing the army or judiciary, or calling everyone a traitor will only lead to division and destruction. Don't fall for it! Via Shahjahan Chaudhary