By Saad Hafiz: The British historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that all societies and civilizations have a cyclical course.  According to Toynbee, the mark of a decaying and disintegrating society is the transformation of its ruling elite from a creative minority to a dominant minority.  Creative minorities have drive and inspiration, do not need to justify themselves and simply act and achieve for the collective whole. A dominant minority is exclusively concerned with holding onto its power, wealth, and illusion of control.  There is also growing consensus among political scientists and economists that nations thrive when they develop ‘inclusive’ political and economic institutions, and they fail when those institutions become ‘extractive’ and concentrate power and opportunity in the hands of only a few. It can be argued that Pakistan has reached the stage … Read entire article »