The story of Pakistan is one of remorseless tug and pull between the civilian and military rulers on the one hand, and the liberal and religious forces on the other.
In the process, the country has failed to become either a democracy, a theocracy or a permanent military dictatorship.
The chief casualties have been the rule of law, the state institutions and the process of national integration, with grave consequences for the civil society.
The "Talebanisation" of the north-western region is one manifestation of the prevalent disorder; an unending separatist campaign by nationalists in the south-western Balochistan province is another.
Meanwhile, sectarian and ethnic tensions have kept the two largest provinces - namely Punjab, which is the bread-basket of the country, and Sindh, which is its trading and industrial mainstay - perennially unstable.
How and why did all this come about?
Hybrid system
The country was born in 1947 with a clean slate and a potential to follow in one of two directions.
It could opt for democracy. It had inherited democratic institutions and experience from the colonial rule, and was itself the creation of a democratic process involving national elections, parliamentary resolutions and a referendum.
Or it could become an Islamic emirate. The Pakistan movement was based on the theory that the Muslims of India were a nation and had a right to separate statehood.
Mr Jinnah made some controversial decisionsThey were granted separate electorate by the British rulers, and used Islamic identity as their main election slogan in 1937 and 1946.
But instead of making a clear choice, the early leaders tried to mix the two, and inadvertently sparked a series of political, legal and religious debacles that define today's Pakistan.
In political terms, democracy has been the first casualty of this hybrid system.
Its foundations were shaken by two controversial decisions made by the country's founder and first Governor-General, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
He dismissed the Congress-led government of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) by decree, and instead of ordering fresh elections, appointed a Muslim League leader as the chief minister with the mandate to whip up parliamentary support for himself.
Secondly, he declared to a large Bengali speaking audience in Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan, that Urdu would be the only state language.
Alienation
The first action created a precedent for Governor-General Ghulam Mohammad, a former bureaucrat, to dismiss the country's first civilian government in 1953.
Since then, the governor-generals, presidents and army chiefs have dismissed as many as ten civilian governments that together ruled the country for 27 years. The remaining 33 years have seen direct military rule.
Mr Jinnah's second action alienated the Bengali population of the eastern wing, and set a precedent for the West Pakistani rulers to neutralise the numerical superiority of East Pakistan through legal entrapments and outright disenfranchisement.
Baluchistan has a long history of resisting external influences After the secession of East Pakistan in 1971, the military rulers have repeatedly vitiated the federal and parliamentary character of the 1973 Constitution, thereby alienating the three smaller provinces of the remaining country.
Legal safeguards against tyranny fell by the wayside in 1954 when the Supreme Court justified the governor-general's dismissal of the government and the parliament by invoking the controversial 'theory of necessity'.
The theory has endured, and nearly every dismissal of a civilian government and every military takeover have been upheld by the higher judiciary, undermining democratic traditions.
On their part, the military rulers have co-opted both surrogate politicians and religious extremists as instruments of political strategy and national security policy.
The political recruits have provided a civilian façade to military governments, while religious - and sometimes ethnic - extremists have tended to distract and destabilise governments run by secular political forces.
Aid to dictators
Last, but not least, the Americans have tended to use their crucial financial and military support selectively against democratic governments.
The pattern is unmistakably clear.
The first large-scale American food and military aid started to pour into Pakistan in late 1953, months after the dismissal of its first civilian government.
Mullahs of the Red Mosque had openly threatened the government'It continued for a decade as Pakistan under a military regime joined various US-sponsored defence pacts against the Soviet Union.
The US started having problems with Pakistan when an elected government came to power in 1972, but poured billions of dollars into the country when another military regime took over in 1977 and agreed to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Similarly, while the elected governments that followed during 1988-99 had to live with a decade of US sanctions, the military regime of Gen Musharraf, that ousted the last civilian government in 1999, remains a 'well supplied' ally in the US' 'war on terror'.
There are, however, indications that the Americans may finally be getting fed up with Gen Musharraf, just as they got fed up with General Ayub Khan when he started to warm up to the Soviet Union after the 1965 war with India, or of General Zia-ul Haq when the Soviets decided to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in 1987.
There is also a gathering political storm on the horizon, in keeping with the cyclical pattern of the country's political weather.
As elections approach, exiled leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, both former prime ministers, threaten to return to the country with the express aim of effecting a regime change.
But Gen Musharraf, like his predecessors, is fighting to keep his military office and his special powers under the constitution to dismiss governments and parliaments.
Thus, the story of Pakistan continues to be one of despotic regimes using religious extremists and external support to keep the secular democratic forces at bay; and when these forces do assert themselves, to tie them down in legal constraints that are designed to ensure their failure.
It is the story of a society that has been going round in circles for the last 60 years.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Pakistan
People:
Pakistan is a country of 158 million people of diverse ethnic origins. More than half of the population live in Punjab, one of the country's four provinces.
This imbalance has had implications for regional job quotas and development patterns and has led to perpetual inter-ethnic tensions.
This is exacerbated by the domination of the country's political system by the military, which is predominantly drawn from Punjab and is perceived to have benefited the Punjabi and the Urdu speaking elites at the cost of smaller groups.
More than 95% of Pakistanis are Muslims. There was a mass exodus of Hindus and Sikhs at the time of the Indian partition in 1947. The Catholic population has continued to drop as a consequence of migration to Western countries. Falling religious diversity and the Islamisation of state policies are cited as reasons for public acceptance of religious extremism.
Politics:
Pakistan has had a chequered political history. It has alternated between military and civilian regimes, with the military exercising its influence even when not in power.
The country is run under the 1973 constitution, which established a parliamentary system, with the prime minister at the top, and a federal state structure comprising four provinces.
But amendments introduced by former military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq in 1985, gave the president discretionary powers to appoint services chiefs and sack elected governments and parliaments.
This arrangement has been a source of political instability. Between 1988-97, successive presidents dismissed four elected governments.
In late 1990s, the parliament reversed the presidential powers, restoring the original constitution, but in 2002, another military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, reintroduced the amendments through a decree.
Military
With more than 600,000 troops, Pakistan has the seventh largest standing army in the world and has a long-range nuclear capability.
Due to its sheer size the military has sought to, and often succeeded in, controlling the country's politics.
In the last 30 years, it has also expanded into the civilian domain, controlling various top positions in the government and public corporations.
It has also emerged as one of the largest industrial, banking and landholding entities in the country.
The justification for such a large army, which uses up more than a quarter of the national budget, came mostly from the threat emanating from India, with which Pakistan has fought three wars.
But lately, there has been public pressure to cut spending on the army and divert more resources towards health and education. The army's political role has also come under increased criticism.
Economy:
Pakistan is a predominantly agricultural country, with over 65% of its population living in rural areas. Its major industries are textiles, leather and food processing.
A growing population has put pressure on land, leading to urban migrations. But a narrow industrial base has not been able to absorb this workforce.
Since 2001, considerable direct foreign investment and remittances have bolstered Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves, stimulating high growth rates.
But most development has taken place in the services sector, with marginal impact on urban employment. The rural sector continues to lag behind.
Uneven development sees high inflation, especially for food. A widening trade gap threatens to draw down foreign exchange reserves and dampen GDP growth.
Education:
Pakistan is one of eight countries worldwide that spend less than 2% of GDP on education.
Considerable budgetary support has been available from Western donors as well as the UN agencies. But the administrative infrastructure lacks the capacity to absorb those resources.
Less than half of students ever complete primary school. This has kept the country's literacy rate below 50%.
The quality of education in the state-owned institutions has deteriorated considerably. Standards are only slightly better in the country's mushrooming private sector schools, but these are too expensive for most people.
Poorer parents have tended to send their children to religious seminaries (madrassas) which offer free food and boarding to their students. Some madrassas have been used to promote religious extremism.
Health:
Health has been a low priority area in Pakistan where defence and foreign debt servicing have often consumed the entire domestic resources.
The government spends about 1.9% of its budget on health. An ill-regulated private sector accounts for nearly 80% of the health services. But very few people have private health insurance plans.
Pakistan's health indicators that are among the lowest in the world. About one in 10 children die before the age of five. One in 200 women die during childbirth.
According to WHO figures, more than half of all deaths in Pakistan result from communicable diseases. The prevalence of vaccine-preventable diseases is also high.
Pakistan is a polio endemic country. Social attitudes are partly responsible for this. In the north-west, extremist clerics have been conducting a campaign against UN-funded polio vaccinations, telling people that the drops contain chemicals that may render their children impotent.
Pakistan is a country of 158 million people of diverse ethnic origins. More than half of the population live in Punjab, one of the country's four provinces.
This imbalance has had implications for regional job quotas and development patterns and has led to perpetual inter-ethnic tensions.
This is exacerbated by the domination of the country's political system by the military, which is predominantly drawn from Punjab and is perceived to have benefited the Punjabi and the Urdu speaking elites at the cost of smaller groups.
More than 95% of Pakistanis are Muslims. There was a mass exodus of Hindus and Sikhs at the time of the Indian partition in 1947. The Catholic population has continued to drop as a consequence of migration to Western countries. Falling religious diversity and the Islamisation of state policies are cited as reasons for public acceptance of religious extremism.
Politics:
Pakistan has had a chequered political history. It has alternated between military and civilian regimes, with the military exercising its influence even when not in power.
The country is run under the 1973 constitution, which established a parliamentary system, with the prime minister at the top, and a federal state structure comprising four provinces.
But amendments introduced by former military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq in 1985, gave the president discretionary powers to appoint services chiefs and sack elected governments and parliaments.
This arrangement has been a source of political instability. Between 1988-97, successive presidents dismissed four elected governments.
In late 1990s, the parliament reversed the presidential powers, restoring the original constitution, but in 2002, another military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, reintroduced the amendments through a decree.
Military
With more than 600,000 troops, Pakistan has the seventh largest standing army in the world and has a long-range nuclear capability.
Due to its sheer size the military has sought to, and often succeeded in, controlling the country's politics.
In the last 30 years, it has also expanded into the civilian domain, controlling various top positions in the government and public corporations.
It has also emerged as one of the largest industrial, banking and landholding entities in the country.
The justification for such a large army, which uses up more than a quarter of the national budget, came mostly from the threat emanating from India, with which Pakistan has fought three wars.
But lately, there has been public pressure to cut spending on the army and divert more resources towards health and education. The army's political role has also come under increased criticism.
Economy:
Pakistan is a predominantly agricultural country, with over 65% of its population living in rural areas. Its major industries are textiles, leather and food processing.
A growing population has put pressure on land, leading to urban migrations. But a narrow industrial base has not been able to absorb this workforce.
Since 2001, considerable direct foreign investment and remittances have bolstered Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves, stimulating high growth rates.
But most development has taken place in the services sector, with marginal impact on urban employment. The rural sector continues to lag behind.
Uneven development sees high inflation, especially for food. A widening trade gap threatens to draw down foreign exchange reserves and dampen GDP growth.
Education:
Pakistan is one of eight countries worldwide that spend less than 2% of GDP on education.
Considerable budgetary support has been available from Western donors as well as the UN agencies. But the administrative infrastructure lacks the capacity to absorb those resources.
Less than half of students ever complete primary school. This has kept the country's literacy rate below 50%.
The quality of education in the state-owned institutions has deteriorated considerably. Standards are only slightly better in the country's mushrooming private sector schools, but these are too expensive for most people.
Poorer parents have tended to send their children to religious seminaries (madrassas) which offer free food and boarding to their students. Some madrassas have been used to promote religious extremism.
Health:
Health has been a low priority area in Pakistan where defence and foreign debt servicing have often consumed the entire domestic resources.
The government spends about 1.9% of its budget on health. An ill-regulated private sector accounts for nearly 80% of the health services. But very few people have private health insurance plans.
Pakistan's health indicators that are among the lowest in the world. About one in 10 children die before the age of five. One in 200 women die during childbirth.
According to WHO figures, more than half of all deaths in Pakistan result from communicable diseases. The prevalence of vaccine-preventable diseases is also high.
Pakistan is a polio endemic country. Social attitudes are partly responsible for this. In the north-west, extremist clerics have been conducting a campaign against UN-funded polio vaccinations, telling people that the drops contain chemicals that may render their children impotent.
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