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As Pakistanis enter a new decade there are a lot of people, phrases and places from their recent past – blood-soaked images of a people buffeted by unrelenting terrorism, multiple disasters and extreme insecurity – that they would rather forget. But that should not mean we let the past go without digging into even its most horrifying recesses to see how it continues to impact our present and our future.

Pakistan entered the last decade under a dictator, and as the country makes its way into the next decade there are once again doubts about the future of democracy. Our last dictator left us bleeding, fragmented, unsure of ourselves and uncomfortable about our place in the world. Will the next one be any different? To realise what could be in store for us if the powers-that-be decide to usher in another era of dictatorship, it might be instructive to look at how the previous non-democratic dispensation fared. Similarly, Pakistan could have done better in ensuring its internal security if policy-makers in the 1980s and 1990s had understood the implications of sending radical Islamists to fight in Kashmir and Afghanistan. That our bumbling security apparatus is now confronted by its own militant protégés is a result of that failure. Painful or otherwise, going over the past helps plan for the future.

In the pages that  follow the Herald offers an overview – although not an exhaustive one – of landmark developments in Pakistan’s history over the last decade. Following, in alphabetical order, are some of the people, phrases and places that had a defining impact on our lives in the last 10 years.  —  Muhammad Badar Alam

People of the decade

The Unlikely Martyr By Rashed Rahman It is ironic that Bugti never took up arms against the government for Balochistan’s independence. Continue reading ...

The baby of the tube By Asha’ar Rehman I was born in 2002 in a private ward run by a famous news philanthropist in possession of the magic formula. Continue reading ...

Extended Role By Amir Mateen General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is the only one among Pakistan’s top players who connects the dots of all the important events of the last decade. Continue reading ...

Exit the Survivor By Amir Mateen Benazir Bhutto and Aung San Suu Kyi always had a lot in common. The two inherited the politics of their fathers and both suffered a great deal as a result. Continue reading ...

The Unlikely Martyr By Rashed Rahman

BUQQTI543

Nawab Akbar Bugti, a colourful character in the mould of a typical Baloch chieftain, showed little signs throughout his life and career that he would end up a martyr for the Baloch nationalist cause. But his assassination in 2006 raised his stature to arguably the most potent symbol of the struggle, transformed a relatively narrow and sputtering insurgency into a province-wide conflict and, for most nationalists, became the last straw in a relationship between the province and the centre that had been troubled since Pakistan came into being.

Though considered by some a nationalist from day one, Bugti’s political orientation remained pro-centre. He served as a federal minister as well as the governor and chief minister of Balochistan. In the 1970s he had fallen out with nationalists over, it is alleged, his failure to get the post of governor. In true affronted Baloch tribal chief style, Bugti collaborated with then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and condoned the military operations the federal government had launched in Balochistan to crush a rebellion by the Marri tribe. He got his prized governorship in return, but resigned within a year over the manner in which the military went about suppressing the Baloch. The resignation notwithstanding, his attempts in subsequent years to regain acceptance from the nationalist camp met with only limited success.

It is ironic that Bugti never took up arms against the government for Balochistan’s independence. In fact, he invited General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s wrath for displaying traditional Baloch gallantry in defence of a wronged woman. Dr Shazia Khalid’s rape in Sui, allegedly at the hands of an army officer, triggered a revolt by the Bugtis and other tribes surrounding the Sui gas fields. Clashes with the military and security forces escalated to the point where the Nawab had to abandon his ancestral home in the face of heavy artillery and aerial bombardment and take refuge with the neighbouring Marri tribe’s insurgents, grouped under the banner of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). This was a historic first, since the Marris and the Bugtis – two of the three largest and most powerful tribes that dot the parched Balochistan landscape – had often been at loggerheads in the past.