Pakistan marks 79 years of independence while pressing for a larger role abroad

Pakistan marked its 79th Independence Day with a 31-gun salute in Islamabad and 21-gun salutes in the provincial capitals, and with statements from the civilian and military leadership calling for national unity and economic reform, Dawn reported, citing state broadcaster Radio Pakistan.

The Financial Times reported that Islamabad wants to play a more active international role. Pakistan is involved in several arrangements that matter to global capital: Chinese infrastructure lending, Gulf financing and defence cooperation, and a long relationship with Washington that both governments have repeatedly redefined. A state with nuclear weapons, a large army and a chronic need for external financing is an active participant in the security arrangements being negotiated around it, not merely a bystander.

Domestic politics remains the constraint on any of this. Dawn reported that Sohail Afridi, chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said he would not return to Adiala jail before 27 September unless the federal government confirmed a meeting with Imran Khan, the imprisoned founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The dispute over access to Khan has run for months and continues to divide the provincial and federal governments.

The gap between external ambition and internal contest is the durable feature. Foreign lenders and Gulf partners price Pakistani commitments against the possibility that the government making them changes.