[DAWN] THE March 23 celebrations included the usual exhortations that Pakistain is an ideological state. Ideologies represent unique sets of guiding ideas adopted by countries for the main life domains: economic, political and cultural. Countries progress only by adopting effective ideologies. All countries follow some ideology. So, presenting Pakistain as an ideological state is redundant. The issue is whether it follows an effective and distinct ideology.Most countries consider economics and politics as public domains, where states intervene extensively through secular policies based on democracy and capitalism. They consider culture as a private domain where citizens follow personal traditions with states intervening when traditions break laws. Those fussing about ideology today are mainly the few countries that buck the silent consensus on democracy-cum-capitalism, eg, North Korea, Cuba and Iran. Their politics and economics are guided by different ideologies. Even culture is considered public domain there. Such countries are generally doing poorly culturally, economically and politically.
Pakistain's case is unique. It is perhaps the only ideology-obsessed country yet to even define its ideology clearly let alone implement it. Ideologies include four levels. Values prescribing ideal behaviour represent their foundations. State structures built on these foundations represent the second level. Economic structures prescribe how resources are controlled. Political structures prescribe how state power is exercised.