Peace and Conflict Management for Sustainable Development in Pakistan

49 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 42, No.1, Fall 2018 Peace and Conflict Management for Sustainable Development in Pakistan Moonis Ahmar* Introduction This article focuses on two major themes: First, the dynamics of human and social development which forms an integral part of sustainable development and second the role of state and society in dealing with issues which threaten peace and trigger the outbreak of armed conflicts. Sustainable development encompasses a whole gamut of issues ranging from the modernization of infrastructure to educational, health, housing and quality of life of people. Industrial and agricultural development, along with planned urbanization, also comes under the domain of sustainable development. Yet the process of sustainable development in Pakistan is impeded when the society is faced with the threat to peace and the outbreak of violence. Sustainable development is primarily a post-Second World War phenomenon and it received an impetus after the emergence of new states following the process of decolonization in Asia and Africa. Development in the colonial and imperial era benefited only few but paradoxically, in most cases, the regimes which came to power in the post-colonial era created a *Moonis Ahmar is the former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and currently is Meritorious Professor at the Department of International Relations, University of Karachi. He is also Director of the Program on Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, Department of International Relations University of Karachi. He is field of specialization is conflict and security studies focussing on the South and the Central Asian regions.. He is the author of three books, four monographs and has edited 15 books on different themes of International Relations.. Ahmar has worked on several research projects related to terrorism, conflict and security studies and has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, Plougshares Fund, Higher Education Commission, Islamabad, Research Facility Center, University of Karachi, U.S. Institute of Peace, Asia Fellows Program and Regional Center of Strategic Studies, Colombo. Also, he received the Best Teacher Award from the Higher Education Commission, Islamabad, UNESCO. He held post-doctoral positions at several institutions. 50 privileged class which was a beneficiary of policies of the ruling elites. Because of unplanned development and without adhering to environmental laws, most of the developing countries, including those in South Asia, failed to improve the quality of life of their people. Therefore, development per se should not be the goal. What should matter in today’s world is development which can reflect a better standard of living in the lives of people; better infrastructure; access of people to the basic necessities of life like clean and safe drinking water, quality education to all, better housing, medical and transport facilities. Sustainable development needs to be understood in terms of a process of development which focuses on advancing the human and social way of life of people who are underprivileged and are a victim of social backwardness. Therefore, no nation can reach the threshold of sustainable development unless there is peace, stability, and armed conflicts are managed through a process of dialogue. In the state of violence, armed conflict and war, the very task of development cannot take off. This paper will examine in detail the dynamics of sustainable development in the context of Pakistan by linking it with peace and conflict management and responding to the following questions: 1. Why peace and conflict management are a pre-requisite for sustainable development? 2. How the challenge of sustainable development can be met in the case of Pakistan? 3. What are the issues which impede the process of sustainable development in Pakistan and how such impediments could be removed in this regard? 4. What are the prospects of sustainable development in Pakistan and to what extent peace and conflict management are relevant in this regard? The main hypothesis of this paper is: Pakistan’s drive for sustainable development cannot yield positive results unless the society is peaceful and conflict management mechanism is in practice. Furthermore, this paper focuses on two major themes: First, the dynamics of human and social development which forms an integral part of sustainable development and second the role of state and society in dealing with...