Pakistan’s Perception Dilemma

Pakistan; now being termed as Pivot State of Asia (Andrew Korybko) has experienced tumultuous last four decades. All this time it was justifiably viewed from the prism of security. Due to prevalence of conflict, violence and volatile neighborhood (Afghanistan) Pakistan was perceived as most dangerous destination of the world. Consequently, the country became alien and closed to rest of the world. Umpteen positive aspects of the country got marred by couple of negatives. Global leaders, opinion makers and global intelligentsia shied away from visiting the region unless compelled by circumstances. Perceptions about Pakistan remained confined to media projections and distorted by proganda and spin doctors laden with ulterior motives. In this backdrop Pakistan started to suffer from a “Perception Dilemma”. There are three possibilities on how Pakistan is perceived. Firstly, every thing is bad with Pakistan and perceptions are justified. Secondly, nothing is wrong with Pakistan and perceptions are unjustified and thirdly, partly Pakistan is wrong but perceptions are exaggerated. In my view last possibility is applicable. It is also true that the West has a different prism for viewing Pakistan.
Interestingly, improvement in security environment of Pakistan has coincided with salience of the country in economic domains. Owing to CPEC and splendid strategic location of Pakistan, it is now being viewed from the prism of economy. It is appropriate time to focus on “Perception Dilemma” of Pakistan.