A former ambassador argues that Pakistan needs a new political compact

PAKISTAN’S NEXT general election, scheduled for February 8th, is unlikely to resolve problems rooted in the country’s troubled history. Carved out from the Muslim-majority portions of British India, Pakistan has spent the best part of its life competing with India. In the process, the country has developed nuclear weapons and boasts the world’s sixth-largest standing army. But it has faced repeated economic failures and persistently poor human-development indicators.

Pakistan’s greatest failure, however, has been in developing a workable political system. For more than two decades after its creation in 1947, the country struggled to agree on a constitution and failed to hold general elections. The first ostensibly free and fair election, held under military rule in 1970, in response to huge pressure from civilians, led to civil war and the transformation of the country’s eastern wing into the independent state of Bangladesh. Ten more elections since then have either been disputed by the loser or resulted in governments that could not complete their terms.