Fighting for the bottom line

Although the West largely believes Musharraf's military focus is on fighting terrorism, Pakistan's decade of increased militarisation has been primarily in response to India. The relationship between India and Pakistan was hijacked shortly after partition, Siddiqa believes. "Maintaining tension was beneficial to a select group of people in both countries." The strategic amplification of India's threat to national security radically changed the course of Pakistan's social and cultural development.

"There was a conscious effort to disassociate us from anything Indian," she told me. "Since 1947, the whole discourse, as well as our symbols and language, changed. Now ordinary Pakistanis believe there's something different about them.

"In politically underdeveloped societies the armed forces project themselves as saviours, protecting the state against corrupt politicians and other exploiters. Manipulating the impression of external and internal threats is central to the military's economic power. The public is made to believe that the defence budget and the 'internal economy' are a small price to pay for guaranteeing security."

The entire South Asian region needs "re-imagining", Siddiqa believes. "Right now it remains a very politically unimaginative and uninspiring prospect. We're all connected in spite of past disputes. As blasphemous as it sounds from both countries' perspectives, we have to find some way not just of normalising relations between India and Pakistan, but of reclaiming our commonalities. Boundaries are not sacrosanct."