The Untouchables

No, I am not talking about Dalits or the “outcastes” of the Hindu caste system. (In passing, the first law minister of Pakistan, Jogendranath Mandal, was a dalit. But he had to flee in 1950 and take refuge in India where he died in 1968.) My focus is on the two seemingly weighty untouchables in Pakistan. They enjoy enormously disproportionate power and are major constraints on the efforts to build a socially-just, harmonious and prosperous country. Let me stress that they are not the only constraints, but they are probably the most entrenched and tenacious.