political system of pakistan essay

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Pakistan: A Political History

Tomb of Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Hassan Anwer/Unsplash)

Pakistan 's short history as a country has been very turbulent. Fighting among the provinces--as well as a deep-rooted conflict that led to a nuclear stand-off with India—prevented Pakistan from gaining real stability in the last five decades. It oscillates between military rule and democratically elected governments, between secular policies and financial backing as a "frontline" state during the Cold War and the war against terrorism. Recent declared states of emergency and the political assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto indicate a continuing trend of economic and political instability.

When Pakistan became a country on August 14th, 1947, to form the largest Muslim state in the world at that time. The creation of Pakistan was catalyst to the largest demographic movement in recorded history. Nearly seventeen million people-Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs-are reported to have moved in both directions between India and the two wings of Pakistan (the eastern wing is now Bangladesh ). Sixty million of the ninety-five million Muslims on the Indian subcontinent became citizens of Pakistan at the time of its creation. Subsequently, thirty-five million Muslims remained inside India making it the largest Muslim minority in a non-Muslim state.

Scarred from birth, Pakistan's quest for survival has been as compelling as it has been uncertain. Despite the shared religion of its overwhelmingly Muslim population, Pakistan has been engaged in a precarious struggle to define a national identity and evolve a political system for its linguistically diverse population. Pakistan is known to have over twenty languages and over 300 distinct dialects, Urdu and English are the official languages but Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtu, Baluchi and Seraiki are considered main languages. This diversity has caused chronic regional tensions and successive failures in forming a constitution. Pakistan has also been burdened by full-scale wars with India, a strategically exposed northwestern frontier, and series of economic crises. It has difficulty allocating its scarce economic and natural resources in an equitable manner.

All of Pakistan's struggles underpin the dilemma they face in reconciling the goal of national integration with the imperatives of national security.

Following a military defeat at the hands of India the breakaway of its eastern territory, which India divides it from, caused the establishment of Bangladesh in 1971. This situation epitomizes the most dramatic manifestation of Pakistan's dilemma as a decentralized nation. Political developments in Pakistan continue to be marred by provincial jealousies and, in particular, by the deep resentments in the smaller provinces of Sind, Baluchistan, and the North-West Frontier Province against what is seen to be a monopoly by the Punjabi majority of the benefits of power, profit, and patronage. Pakistan's political instability over time has been matched by a fierce ideological debate about the form of government it should adopt, Islamic or secular. In the absence of any nationally based political party, Pakistan has long had to rely on the civil service and the army to maintain the continuities of government.

The Emergence of Pakistan

The roots of Pakistan's multifaceted problems can be traced to March 1940 when the All-India Muslim League formally orchestrated the demand for a Pakistan consisting of Muslim-majority provinces in the northwest and northeast of India. By asserting that the Indian Muslims were a nation, not a minority, the Muslim League and its leader, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, had hoped to negotiate a constitutional arrangement that provided an equitable share of power between Hindus and Muslims once the British relinquished control of India. The demand for a "Pakistan" was Jinnah's and the League's bid to register their claim to be the spokesmen of all Indian Muslims, both in provinces were they were in a majority as well as in provinces where they were a minority. Jinnah and the League's main bases of support, however, were in the Muslim-minority provinces. In the 1937 general elections, the league had met a serious rejection from the Muslim voters in the majority provinces.

There was an obvious contradiction in a demand for a separate Muslim state and the claim to be speaking for all Indian Muslims. During the remaining years of the British Raj in India neither Jinnah nor the Muslim League explained how Muslims in the minority provinces could benefit from a Pakistan based on an undivided Punjab, Sind, North-West Frontier Province, and Baluchistan in the northwest, and an undivided Bengal and Assam in the northeast. Jinnah did at least had tried to get around the inconsistencies by arguing that since there were two nations in India-Hindu and Muslim-any transfer of power from British to Indian hands would necessarily entail disbanding of the unitary center created by the imperial rulers. Reconstitution of the Indian union would have to be based on either confederal or treaty arrangements between Pakistan (representing the Muslim-majority provinces) and Hindustan (representing the Hindu-majority provinces). Jinnah also maintained that Pakistan would have to include an undivided Punjab and Bengal. The substantial non-Muslim minorities in both these provinces were the best guarantee that the Indian National Congress would see sense in negotiating reciprocal arrangements with the Muslim League to safeguard the interests of Muslim minorities in Hindustan.

Despite Jinnah's large claims, the Muslim League failed to build up effective party machinery in the Muslim-majority provinces. Consequently the league had no real control over either the politicians or the populace at the base that was mobilized in the name of Islam. During the final negotiations, Jinnah's options were limited by uncertain commitment of the Muslim-majority province politicians to the league's goals in the demand for Pakistan. The outbreak of communal troubles constrained Jinnah further still. In the end he had little choice but to settle for a Pakistan stripped of the non-Muslim majority districts of the Punjab and Bengal and to abandon his hopes of a settlement that might have secured the interests of all Muslims. But the worst cut of all was Congress's refusal to interpret partition as a division of India between Pakistan and Hindustan . According to the Congress, partition simply meant that certain areas with Muslim majorities were 'splitting off' from the "Indian union." The implication was that if Pakistan failed to survive, the Muslim areas would have to return to the Indian union; there would be no assistance to recreate it on the basis of two sovereign states.

With this agreement nothing stood in the way of the reincorporation of the Muslim areas into the Indian union except the notion of a central authority, which had yet to be firmly established. To establish a central authority proved to be difficult, especially since the provinces had been governed from New Delhi for so long and the separation of Pakistan's eastern and western wings by one thousand miles of Indian territory. Even if Islamic sentiments were the best hope of keeping the Pakistani provinces unified, their pluralistic traditions and linguistic affiliations were formidable stumbling blocks. Islam had certainly been a useful rallying cry, but it had not been effectively translated into the solid support that Jinnah and the League needed from the Muslim provinces in order to negotiate an arrangement on behalf of all Indian Muslims.

The diversity of Pakistan's provinces, therefore, was a potential threat to central authority. While the provincial arenas continued to be the main centers of political activity, those who set about creating the centralized government in Karachi were either politicians with no real support or civil servants trained in the old traditions of British Indian administration. The inherent weaknesses of the Muslim League's structure, together with the absence of a central administrative apparatus that could coordinate the affairs of the state, proved to be a crippling disadvantage for Pakistan overall. The presence of millions of refugees called for urgent remedial action by a central government that, beyond not being established, had neither adequate resources nor capacities. The commercial groups had yet to invest in some desperately needed industrial units. And the need to extract revenues from the agrarian sector called for state interventions, which caused a schism between the administrative apparatus of the Muslim League and the landed elite who dominated the Muslim League.

Power and Governance

Both the military and the civil bureaucracy were affected by the disruptions wrought by partition. Pakistan cycled through a number of politicians through their beginning political and economic crises. The politicians were corrupt, interested in maintaining their political power and securing the interests of the elite, so to have them as the representative authority did not provide much hope of a democratic state that provided socio-economic justice and fair administration to all Pakistani citizens. Ranging controversies over the issue of the national language, the role of Islam, provincial representation, and the distribution of power between the center and the provinces delayed constitution making and postponed general elections. In October 1956 a consensus was cobbled together and Pakistan's first constitution declared. The experiment in democratic government was short but not sweet. Ministries were made and broken in quick succession and in October 1958, with national elections scheduled for the following year, General Mohammad Ayub Khan carried out a military coup with confounding ease.

Between 1958 and 1971 President Ayub Khan, through autocratic rule was able to centralize the government without the inconvenience of unstable ministerial coalitions that had characterized its first decade after independence. Khan brought together an alliance of a predominantly Punjabi army and civil bureaucracy with the small but influential industrial class as well as segments of the landed elite, to replace the parliamentary government by a system of Basic Democracies. Basic Democracies code was founded on the premise of Khan's diagnosis that the politicians and their "free-for-all" type of fighting had had ill effect on the country. He therefore disqualified all old politicians under the Elective Bodies Disqualification Order, 1959 (EBDO). The Basic Democracies institution was then enforced justifying "that it was democracy that suited the genius of the people." A small number of basic democrats (initially eighty thousand divided equally between the two wings and later increased by another forty thousand) elected the members of both the provincial and national assemblies. Consequently the Basic Democracies system did not empower the individual citizens to participate in the democratic process, but opened up the opportunity to bribe and buy votes from the limited voters who were privileged enough to vote.

By giving the civil bureaucracy (the chosen few) a part in electoral politics, Khan had hoped to bolster central authority, and largely American-directed, programs for Pakistan's economic development. But his policies exacerbated existing disparities between the provinces as well as within them. Which gave the grievances of the eastern wing a potency that threatened the very centralized control Khan was trying to establish. In West Pakistan, notable successes in increasing productivity were more than offset by growing inequalities in the agrarian sector and their lack of representation, an agonizing process of urbanization, and the concentration of wealth in a few industrial houses. In the aftermath of the 1965 war with India, mounting regional discontent in East Pakistan and urban unrest in West Pakistan helped undermine Ayub Khan's authority, forcing him to relinquish power in March 1969.

Bangladesh Secedes

After Ayub Khan, General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan headed the second military regime from 1969-1971. By that time the country had been under military rule for thirteen of its twenty-five years of existence. This second military regime emphasized the extent to which the process of centralization under bureaucratic and military tutelage had fragmented Pakistani society and politics. The general elections of 1970 on the basis of adult franchise revealed for the first time ever in Pakistan's history how regionalism and social conflict had come to dominate politics despite the efforts at controlled development. The Awami League, led by Mujibur Rahman, campaigned on a six-point program of provincial autonomy, capturing all but one seat in East Pakistan and securing an absolute majority in the national assembly. In West Pakistan the Pakistan People's Party, led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, had a populist platform that stole the thunder from the Islamic parties (the Muslim League, the oldest political party captured no more than a few seats) and emerged as the largest single bloc. The prospect of an Awami Leagues government was a threat to politicians in West Pakistan who in conspiracy with the military leadership prevented Mujibur from taking the reins of power. This was the final straw for the east wing who was already fed up with the their under-representation in all sectors of the government, economic deprivation and then the suppression of the democratic process. An armed rebellion in East Pakistan engendered all of these frustrations, which caused Indian military intervention to crush it. Pakistan was now involved in its third war with India, thus clearing the way for the establishment of Bangladesh in 1971.

A Democratic Government

The dismemberment of Pakistan discredited both the civil bureaucracy and the army, General Yahya Khan was left no choice but to hand all power over to the Pakistan's People's Party (PPP) who saw the formation of a representative led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto's electoral strength, however, was confined to the Punjab and Sind, and even there it had not been based on solid political party organization. This, together with the PPP's lack of following in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, meant that Bhutto could not work the central apparatus without at least the implicit support of the civil bureaucracy and the military high command. The 1973 constitution made large concessions to the non-Punjabi provinces and provided the blueprint for a political system based on the semblance of a national consensus. But Bhutto failed to implement the federal provisions of the constitution. He relied on the coercive arm of the state to snuff out political opposition and by neglecting to build the PPP as a truly popular national party. The gap between his popular rhetoric and the marginal successes of his somewhat haphazard economic reforms prevented Bhutto form consolidating a social base of support. Thus, despite a temporary loss of face in 1971 the civil bureaucracy and the army remained the most important pillars of the state structure, instead of the citizens of Pakistan who were still struggling to be recognized in the democratic process. Although Bhutto's PPP won the 1977 elections, the Pakistan National Alliance-a nine-party coalition-charged him with rigging the vote. Violent urban unrest gave the army under General Zia-ul Haq the pretext to make a powerful comeback to the political arena, and on July 5, 1977 Pakistan was placed under military rule yet again and the 1973 Constitution was suspended.

Upon assuming power General Zia banned all political parties and expressed his determination to recast the Pakistani state and society into an Islamic mold. In April 1979 Bhutto was executed on murder charges and the PPP's remaining leadership was jailed or exiled. By holding nonparty elections and initiating a series of Islamization policies, Zia sought to create a popular base of support in the hope of legitimizing the role of the military in Pakistani politics. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 caused Zia's regime to receive international support as a stable government bordering Soviet territory. Although Pakistan had now formally disentangled its self from both SEATO and CENTO and joined the nonaligned movement, was regarded by the West as an important front-line state and is a major recipient of American military and financial aid. Despite a string of statistics advertising the health of the economy, murmurs of discontent, though muffled, continued to be heard. On December 30, 1985, after confirming his own position in a controversial "Islamic" referendum, completing a fresh round of nonparty elections of the provincial and national assemblies, and introducing a series of amendments to the 1973 constitution, Zia finally lifted martial law and announced the dawn of a new democratic era in Pakistan.

This new democratic era was just as turbulent as Pakistan's previous political history. Major political parties called for a boycott the 1985 election due to the non-party bias platform. In absence of political parties the candidates focused on local issues that superseded the majority of the candidates affiliations to particular parties. The Pakistani people were obviously interested in participating in the democratic process and disregarded the urge to boycott, 52.9% cast ballots for the National Assembly and 56.9% cast ballots for the provincial elections.

President Zia first initiative was to introduce amendments to the 1973 constitution that would secure his power over the parliamentary system. The eighth amendment turned out to be the most detrimental to the people's faith in the democratic system. Now the president could possess complete control and power to take any step, which he felt was necessary to secure national integrity. For the next twelve years the presidents used this amendment to expel a number of prime ministers from their post, mainly due to either personal struggles or insecurity over shift in power.

Following the 1988 election, Muhammad Khan Junejo was nominated as the prime minister, who had a unanimous vote of confidence by the National Assembly. Junejo seemed to be a promising component to the Pakistani government; he fostered a smooth transition from the army to civil authority, which generated optimism about the democratic process of Pakistan. For the first of his years in office, Junejo was able to strike a balance between establishing the parliamentary credentials as a democratic body and maintaining President Zia's blessing. He developed the five-point program that aimed at improving development, literacy rate, eliminating corruption and improvement of the common man's lot. He was as well improving foreign policy abroad and was grappling a major budgetary deficit from the heavy expenditure of the martial law regimes. But on May 29th 1988 President Zia dissolved the National Assembly and removed the prime minister under the article 58-2-b of the Constitution. He claimed that Jenejo was conspiring against him in order to undermine his position; he blamed the National Assembly of corruption and failure to enforce Islamic way of life.

The opposition parties were in support of Zia's decision because it worked in their benefit, providing an early election. They demanded elections to be schedule in ninety days in accordance with the constitution. President Zia interpreted this article of the constitution differently. He felt he was required to announce the election schedule in ninety days while the elections could be held later. Simultaneously he wanted to hold the elections on a non-party basis as he had in 1985, but the Supreme Court upheld that this went against the spirit of the constitution. Political confusion ensued as a result of Zia's proposal to postpone the elections to re-structure the political system in the name of Islam. There was fear that Zia may impose martial law and the Muslim League became split between supporters of Zia and Junejo. All of this was stalled when Zia died in a plane crash on august 17th.

Ghulam Ishaq Khan was sworn in as president being the chairman of the Senate and elections were initiated. Which surprised to outside observers who feared that the military could easily take over power. The November elections of 1988 were based on political party platforms for the first time in fifteen years. None of the parties won the majority of the National Assembly but the Pakistan People's Party emerged as the single largest holder of seats. Benazir Bhutto, the PPP's chairperson, was named prime minister after the PPP formed a coalition of smaller parties to form a working majority. At first people were hopeful that Bhutto would work together with the opposition party's leader Nawaz Sharif of the IJI party, who headed the Punjabi party, the majority province. But soon they escalated bitterness to new heights and drained the economy with bribes to other politicians to sway affiliations. These accounts plus no improvement on the economic front scarred the central government's image. In 1990 the President dismissed Bhutto under the eighth amendment of the constitution, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court. So once again elections were held a short two years later.

The Pakistani people were losing faith in the democratic system. They felt it was corrupt, haphazard and based on the squabbles of the military and bureaucratic elite. This attitude was reinforced by the fact that Nawaz Sharif was assigned prime minister in 1990, and dismissed in 1993 even though he had liberalized investment, restored confidence of domestic and international investors, so that investment increased by 17.6%. And as a result the GDP had a growth rate of 6.9% while the inflation stayed under 10%. President Ghulam Ishaq Khan was accused of conspiring with Benazir Bhutto in the dismissal of Sharif. For the first time in Pakistan's history the Supreme Court declared that the dismissal of the National Assembly and Sharif unconstitutional, reinstating Sharif and the National Assembly. This act showed that the president was not the overriding power but the events that followed proved how unstable the government was. Through bribes and palace intrigues Ghulam was able to influence a rebellion in Punjab in 1993, which represented Sharif and his party as incompetent. This situation caused an upheaval in the system that resulted in intervention of the chief of Army Staff General, Abdul Waheed Kaker. It was agreed that both the president and prime minister would resign and new elections would be arranged.

An even lower turn out affected the legitimacy of the all too frequent electoral process. In this election the mandate was divided by the same players, the PPP with Bhutto and the Muslim League with Sharif. Sharif had lost the popular support in Punjab, which caused the PPP to claim the majority of the seats. So once again the PPP claimed the majority of the seats and Bhutto was placed as prime minister. She was able to get Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari elected as president, which secured her government against the eighth amendment. Regardless Bhutto was unable to run a just government; she fell back into corruption, misuses of state resources, which was detrimental to the Pakistani people. Both the Chief Justice and President wanted to maintain the autonomy of their position in the government, while Bhutto was attempting to override the political system. President Leghari soon dismissed her with the support of the Supreme Court. The public hailed this decision and in February 1997 prepared for new elections, the fifth in twelve years. The voter support for the elections waned proportionately throughout these twelve years.

It was obvious that the two leading parties were alternating public support when Sharif and the Muslim League were reinstated as the Prime Minister and majority party respectively. The Muslim League used its parliamentary majority to enact a fundamental change in the political system with the introduction of amendments thirteen in the constitution. The thirteenth amendment limited the power of the president to that of a nominal head of state, while restoring the parliament as the central governmental power. This amendment basically created a check and balance procedure to article eight, in an attempt to maintain political stability. By 1999 the eighth amendment was stripped of the constraints that empowered the president to dissolve the National Assembly or dismiss the prime minister. These legislative feats were impressive, but overall the Muslim League's performance was mixed. They inherited a lot of obstacles, an economy that was on the verge of collapse and a political culture of corruption. The May 1998 decision to conduct nuclear tests in response to India's nuclear tests resulted in the imposition of sanctions that stifled the economy even more so. Bhutto's corrupt usage of foreign funds and the freezing of foreign investments further complicated investment relations.

Prime Minister Sharif was gaining disapproval on many fronts, for he was perceived to be power hungry and possibly corrupt. He had forced out the chief justice of the supreme court and the army chief soon after the eighth amendment was revised, he was cracking down on the press that did not support him and his family's firm, Ittefaq Industries, was doing abnormally well in times of economic slowdown, which led to suspicions of corruption. The army chief, Jehangir Karamat was among the many who were worried about Sharif's mounting power, he demanded that the army be included in the country's decision-making process in attempt to balance the civil government. Two days later he resigned putting General Pervez Musharraf in his position. Musharraf had been one of the principal strategists in the Kashmiri crisis with India. He soon suspected that he did not have the political backing of the civil government in his aggressive quest in Kashmir. The combination of Shariff's reluctance in the Kashmiri opposition, mounting factional disputes, terrorism all provided Musharraf with the justification to lead a coup to overthrow the civil government. On October 12th, 1999 he successfully ousted Sharif and the Muslim League on the grounds that he was maintaining law and order while strengthening the institution of governance.

The Pakistani people thought that this may be on a temporary basis and once things had stabilized, Musharraf would call for new elections of the National Assembly. But Musharraf has refused to reinstate the National Assembly via elections until October 2002, a deadline set by the Supreme Court. In July of 2001 Musharraf declared himself president before meeting with the Indian prime minister to legitimize his authority within the Pakistani government. He has since recalled all regional militant Islamic factions through out Pakistan and encouraged them to return their weapons to the central government. He has been unwavering on Pakistan's position on Kashmir, which resulted in shortening talks with India. He is now cooperating with the American government and western world in the coalition against terrorism, which puts him in an awkward position with his Afghanistan neighbors and the fractious groups within Pakistan who sympathize with the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden on an ethnic, ideological and political level.

Mohammad Ali Jinnah had always envisioned a democratic Pakistan and many of his successors have struggle towards this goal, but not more than maintaining their own platforms of power. It is ironic that such political instability plagues a country whose number one objective of its leaders is to secure their own power. Maybe it is time for a new equation. The actions of both civil and military leaders have exhaustively tried the Pakistani people and their struggle as a nation. Pakistan faces the unenviable task of setting government priorities in accordance with the needs of its diverse and unevenly developed constituent units. Regardless of the form of government--civilian or military, Islamic or secular--solutions of the problem of mass illiteracy and economic inequities on the one hand, and the imperatives of national integration and national security will also determine the degree of political stability, or instability, that Pakistan faces in the decades ahead. But the people and the nation persevere offering the world great cultural, religious, and intellectual traditions

Based on Ayesha Jalal for for the Encyclopedia of Asian History , adapted by Amanda Snellinger. © Asia Society. From The Encyclopedia of Asian History . Asia Society and Charles Scribner's Sons.

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Democracy in Pakistan Essay with Quotations

by Pakiology | Jun 23, 2024 | Essay | 1 comment

Explore the evolution, challenges, and progress of democracy in Pakistan in this in-depth essay . Gain insights into the nation’s rich history, the influence of the military, the pervasive issue of corruption, and the role of civil society in shaping Pakistan’s democratic landscape.

Title: The Evolution of Democracy in Pakistan: Challenges, Progress, and Prospects for the Future

Introduction.

Pakistan, a country characterized by its rich and diverse history, has embarked on a tumultuous journey in pursuit of democracy. Overcoming numerous obstacles, its citizens have tenaciously defended their democratic rights and worked diligently to forge a more equitable society. In this comprehensive essay, we delve into the current state of democracy in Pakistan, recognizing its historical context, addressing the persistent challenges it confronts, highlighting the progress made, and considering the prospects for the future.

The Historical Landscape

Democracy, at its core, is a system of government grounded in the principle of representation, allowing citizens to actively participate in decision-making processes that impact their lives. Regrettably, the implementation of democracy in Pakistan has been marred by a series of military coups and periods of martial law, intermittently disrupting its democratic trajectory. Despite these adversities, Pakistan now operates as a federal parliamentary republic with a president and prime minister at the helm.

The Military’s Influence: A Persistent Challenge

A major impediment to democracy in Pakistan has been the enduring influence of the military on the political landscape. Pakistan’s history is replete with instances of military interventions in civilian governance, including several coups and martial law declarations. This persistent interference not only undermines democratic principles but also erodes public trust in the democratic system. Additionally, intelligence agencies have faced accusations of wielding substantial influence in the political sphere, further eroding democratic institutions and processes.

Corruption as a Hindrance: A Deep-Seated Issue

Another significant challenge is the pervasiveness of corruption within Pakistan. Corruption has become deeply ingrained in the country, with numerous politicians and government officials implicated in embezzlement and bribery. This deeply rooted issue corrodes the legitimacy of the democratic process and erodes public trust in the government. The adverse effects of corruption are most acutely felt by marginalized communities, who suffer from a lack of essential public services and resources.

The Resilience of Democratic Aspirations: Signs of Progress

Despite these formidable challenges, the citizens of Pakistan persistently strive to defend their democratic rights and fortify democratic institutions. In recent years, the country has seen a notable rise in the number of civil society organizations dedicated to advocating for transparency, accountability, and the promotion of awareness regarding democratic rights and freedoms. Additionally, the media has played a pivotal role in promoting democratic values and holding the government accountable for its actions.

The Role of Civil Society

Civil society organizations have emerged as vital agents of change in Pakistan’s democratic landscape. They tirelessly work to bridge the gap between the government and the governed, acting as watchdogs for accountability and transparency. Through advocacy, awareness campaigns, and public mobilization, these organizations have managed to shine a spotlight on the pressing issues of democracy and governance in Pakistan. Their activities range from monitoring elections to exposing corruption and advocating for the rule of law.

Media as the Fourth Estate

The media in Pakistan has undergone a transformational journey, evolving into a vibrant fourth estate that plays a crucial role in promoting democratic values. While media outlets often grapple with challenges such as censorship and intimidation, they continue to serve as a check on government power and a forum for diverse voices. Investigative journalism has uncovered corruption scandals, challenged authoritarianism, and provided a platform for citizens to engage in political discourse.

In conclusion, democracy in Pakistan remains an imperfect yet indispensable system, despite the numerous setbacks and challenges it has encountered. The people of Pakistan ardently safeguard their democratic rights, and the fortification of democratic institutions and processes is pivotal for the nation’s future. The enduring challenges posed by military influence, corruption, and public mistrust can only be surmounted through persistent efforts and sustained citizen engagement in the democratic process. As Pakistan continues its journey towards a more robust democracy, the world watches with hope and anticipation, recognizing the nation’s potential to overcome its challenges and achieve democratic excellence. The path may be long and arduous, but the resilience and determination of Pakistan’s people offer a promising outlook for the future of democracy in the country.

Quotes Related to Democracy

Here are a few quotes related to democracy and its challenges in Pakistan:

“A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” – Milton Friedman, Economist

“The greatest threat to democracy is not the enemies from without, but the enemies from within.” – Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States

“I believe that the real solution to the problems facing Pakistan lies in true democracy and the rule of law.” – Imran Khan, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” – John Philpot Curran, Irish Orator and Statesman.

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Sir you have used a lot of bitter words in this essay which are enough to awake a nation.😭😭😭😭 But It’s reality I think inshallah one day we will achieve that original democracy which will prevent our basic rights and our motherland…..

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In 1947 the newly independent Pakistan consisted of two distinct parts: the smaller but more densely populated East Pakistan, centred on the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta region, and the much larger West Pakistan, occupying the northwestern portion of the Indian subcontinent . The country’s government, functioning under a modified 1935 Government of India Act , was associated with a British-inherited parliamentary system , containing a strong central government as well as governments in the several provinces that also gave it a federal form. However, in 1971, after the country had experienced more than two decades of turbulent politics, the eastern region seceded and established itself as the independent state of Bangladesh . In the aftermath of that event, Pakistan (now reduced to the former West Pakistan) faced a number of political and economic problems and uncertainties about its future.

Several seemingly irreconcilable domestic conflicts have left their mark on the politics of Pakistan. The first of these occurred at the highest levels of leadership, involving the key political actors from the political parties, the higher bureaucracy , and the upper echelon of the armed forces (notably the Pakistani army). Constitutions in Pakistan have been less about limiting the power of authority and more a legal justification for arbitrary action. The country’s several constitutions reflected more the preeminence of the person holding the highest office than the restrictions imposed on authority, and the national government consistently has been more personalized than institutionalized. The viceregalism of the colonial past has haunted Pakistan from its inception, and struggles for power are therefore more personal than constitutional . In addition, given the ever-present external threat posed by India , the military not only improved and modernized its fighting capability, but it also felt compelled to intervene in the country’s political affairs when it perceived that civilian leadership was unable to govern. The result has been several military administrations (1958–69, 1969–71, 1977–88, and 1999–2008), which ruled Pakistan for roughly half of its history.

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A second conflict has taken place between regional groups . The regions that originally made up Pakistan had to be fitted into a design not of their own choosing. The different cultural and historical circumstances, as well as natural and human endowments of those regions, have tested the unity of Pakistan time and again; the loss of East Pakistan demonstrated the failure of Pakistan’s leaders to orchestrate a workable program of national integration . Even after that event, Pakistan has had difficulty reconciling rival claims. Punjab , being the largest and most significant province, has always been perceived as imposing its will on the others, and even attempts at establishing quotas for governmental and nongovernmental opportunities and resources have not satisfied the discontented. The demands for an independent Sindhu Desh for the Sindhis and a Pakhtunistan for the Pathans, and the violently rebellious circumstances in Balochistan in the 1980s and since 2002, illustrate the nature and depth of the problem of national integration. Because these various struggles have been directed against centralized authority, they have merged with the democratic struggle. But their express aims have been to secure greater regional representation in the bureaucratic and military establishment, especially in the higher echelons, and to achieve effective decentralization of powers within the federal system by emphasizing regional autonomy .

A third conflict sprang from the struggle over economic resources and development funds among the more-deprived regions and strata of the population. This resulted in a number of violent confrontations between the less-privileged segments of society and the state. Some of these confrontations, such as those in 1969 and 1977, led to the fall of constitutional government and the imposition of martial law .

A fourth conflict took place between the landed aristocracy that dominated Pakistan’s political and economic life for much of the country’s history and a new urban elite that began to assert itself in the late 1980s. One manifestation of this conflict was the struggle that broke out between Punjab provincial leaders and federal authorities in the late 1980s. Under the Islamic Democratic Alliance , the Punjab government continued to back the interests of the landed aristocracy, while the national government—headed by Benazir Bhutto , with a more liberal bent and a wider base of support—espoused the economic and social interests of urban groups and non-propertied classes. The two governments often clashed in the late 1980s, creating serious economic management problems. Issues regarding power sharing between the federal and provincial governments were largely ignored during the period of military rule in 1999–2008.

However, in the 21st century the success of any government in Pakistan—civilian or military—appeared to rest on the handling of what might be considered a fifth area of major conflict. Since 2001 the country has been confronted by a campaign of ceaseless terror , generally but not exclusively cast in religious terms, that has been mounted by religious forces opposed to secular modernism in all its forms. Government has always been mindful of the need to placate the religiously motivated populace, but finding a balance between those envisioning Pakistan as a theocratic state and those determined to pursue a liberal, progressive agenda has proved to be the most significant test. A climate of virtually irreconcilable forces has emerged, much of it manifested by external militant Islamic elements led by the al-Qaeda organization and a revived Afghan Taliban .

Electoral System of Pakistan and its Evolution: Proportional Representation

• August 2, 2021 |

Muhammad Mehran Iqbal ,

Dr. imran rashid ,.

• Image Credit: Aniqa Haider

It has been 73 years of Pakistans emergence as an independent state on the world map. The political setup that it inherited from the British in 1947 had various issues at first. One of the major issues was to establish a stable political set-up that involved modelling of an electoral process.

The constitution of Pakistan 1973 preserves and explains the electoral system of Pakistan. Article 51 of the constitution explains number of seats in the national assembly and candidates’ requirements, while Part VIII with the title Elections is about elections law – election day, roll, responsibilities of authorities, mode of conduct, etc.

The political history of Pakistan experienced many military coups. It has been two decades since the last coup and there have been three successive democratic governments after that. So, Pakistan has achieved political stability to an extent. Now it is high time to move further from core issues to advanced problems.

Evolution is the key to progress. Pakistan needs to explore a better system which can deal with advanced issues. Changes are needed in the electoral system to keep up with the world and to deal with the contemporary problems.

In general, there are two basic electoral systems to elect the members of legislative council. The most used worldwide including Pakistan is First Past the Post (FPTP), while the other is Proportional Representation which is implemented in some of the first world countries and under consideration among others.

The First Past the Post is the simplest electoral system, which is implemented in most of the countries such as US, Canada, African States, UK and its former colonies including Pakistan and India. In this method, the voters receive the ballot paper that contains the list of all the candidates from each constituency. The voters get to put a stamp/cross in front of their favorite candidate to choose the one they want to elect as their representative in the legislative assembly. The person who receives maximum votes is elected.

However, there are some flaws in this system. Usually with this method, two big parties make government mostly. Most parties do not tend to make enough seats due to the fewer number of candidates elected. This system also tends to promote two or few parties system.

Pakistan has a parliamentary system in which the legislature is elected directly by public voting through secret ballot in constituencies. In the 2013 general elections, Pakistans Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) established the government receiving 32.77% of total votes. Similarly in 2018, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the elections and formed the government by receiving the majority of votes i.e., 31.82%. In both cases, over half of the countrys population did not vote for these parties yet they formed governments based on majority. The system promotes the general will, and not will of all voters.

The electoral system of Pakistan has other demons as well, for which it needs to go through a scrutiny. Being a debt-ridden country, Pakistan spends a lot on elections. It is estimated to have spent a whopping amount of Rs440 billion on 2018 elections, which is 10% higher than the total cost of the previous elections of 2013. The Election Commission of Pakistan tried to put a bar on the amount spent by a single person /seat /constituency to limit the overall expenses of the elections. But in a country like Pakistan the bar is not very effective as all the assets are not declared by people in tax returns, so a lot of involved money is black and hard to track. In case by-elections are required during the mid-tenure, it creates chaos in itself with many violent protests and strikes along with a lot of expenses on the government.

Among many other setbacks of elections in Pakistan, the most major is the swift boating among electables within each constituency. Such politics include defamation and character assassination of the opposite party. Violent fights among opposing parties are also commonly observed in many constituencies. Political parties choose electables that can ensure maximum votes. In this race, many competent candidates refrain from participating.

The post-election scenario is also challenging as the blame game starts among the political parties that last for months. The role of opposition is also uncertain and non-rational which keeps it from focusing on national problems and generating a collective policy to deal with local, regional and global issues. The opposition remains in an effort to destabilise government and end its tenure before the constitutional deadline.

Contrastingly, Proportional Representation is emerging as a new sensation among the developed countries. The political scientists of the countries like Canada , United States (US), and India are exploring variants of proportional representation to mix them with the existing system to have an improved electoral method.

Meanwhile, the proportional system is already adopted in many countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain, Israel, and Russia. It is an electoral system that seeks to create a legislative council that reflects the overall distribution of public support for each political party. The FPTP system or majority system on the other hand effectively rewards strong parties and penalises the weaker ones by providing the representation of a whole constituency to a single candidate, who in most cases may be elected by less than 50% of the votes cast. Advocates of proportional representation argue that the purpose of elections is to get a consensus on how a country should be governed, and if the assembly represents the full diversity of opinion of the country, the decisions are regarded as legitimate. There are three methods that can be used to achieve proportional representative electoral system: Single Transferable Vote Method (STV), the Party-List System, the Additional Method System

The single transferable vote method, though not widely adopted, is a system in which parties nominate more than one member for constituencies and people also have to elect more than one person. The public can vote as per their preferences, or the election commission will collect votes and distribute them among candidates through a regulated system.

According to Party List System, the public will not vote for the candidates but for their preferred party. The party itself will engender a list of candidates that can be public or confidential. The party seats will be directly proportional to votes it gets, and later party allocates seats as per the pre-decided list.

The additional method system is a mixed system that is widely adopted. Under this method, half of the seats are elected via constituencies elections and others via proportional representation. Voters cast two votes – one for the preferred person and the other for the party. In this method, mostly the party vote determines the seats for the composition of a legislative assembly.

Pakistan also needs to explore the option of a proportional representation system. For starters, if not fully, it can adopt a mixed system of both FPTP and proportional representation – one for provincial assemble and the other for the national respectively. This could result in a stable electoral process.

The most significant benefit we can accomplish via proportional representation is getting rid of constituency politics at the national level. As there will be no more need for electables and their local fames. Therefore, political parties will be encouraged to focus on policies and long-term planning with candidates and put forth genuine experts and technocrats without fear of being beaten out by electables.

When thousands of people vote for a small political party, but the party loses a seat by a margin of a few hundred votes, the votes of thousands of voters go to waste. The proposed system would be effective for smaller parties to get more seats in the National Assembly.

If proportional representation is implied at the national level, the vote of every voter will count in the making of the legislative assembly. A collated government would be established as a result that could focus more on development, relying more on experts and technocrats rather than the members that help win the constituencies. This could also rid the nation of party hoopers in the process. The amount officials spend during an election will be minimised, and the amount wasted on by-elections will be saved by the system.

Muhammad Mehran Iqbal

Muhammad Mehran Iqbal is a Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Central Punjab.

Dr. Imran Rashid

Dr. Rashid is an Assistant Professor and currently designated as the Head of Department of Politics and International Relations, at University of Sialkot.

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What is happening in Pakistan’s continuing crisis?

Subscribe to the center for middle east policy newsletter, madiha afzal madiha afzal fellow - foreign policy , center for middle east policy , strobe talbott center for security, strategy, and technology , center for asia policy studies @madihaafzal.

May 20, 2022

Even by the standards of Pakistan’s perpetually unstable politics, the last ten weeks in the country have been exceptionally turbulent. Pakistan has a new government as of April 11 after Imran Khan was forced out via a vote of no confidence. The weeks leading up to the vote, from the filing of the motion on March 8 to the vote on April 10, were dramatic and full of intrigue. Now, the country is in economic and political crisis. Shahbaz Sharif’s new government has been in a state of decision paralysis and is struggling to find its footing, while the ousted prime minister is leading rallies across the country attacking the government’s legitimacy and calling for fresh elections. At the same time, Pakistan is also in the grip of an acute climate emergency. It’s not only political temperatures that are spiking: an unprecedented heat wave has enveloped Pakistan for weeks.

The fall of Khan’s government

Crucial to the current crisis is understanding how Khan’s government fell. While Khan was Pakistan’s first prime minister to be ousted via a  no-confidence vote, he joined each of his predecessors as prime minister in not lasting five years — the length of parliament’s electoral term — in office. Pakistan’s major opposition parties had been clamoring for Khan’s exit since he came into office — calling him “selected” by the military as opposed to “elected” — and had formed an alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), in the fall of 2020 for that purpose. This spring, the opposition gained traction. On the surface, the opposition blamed governance and economic failures under Khan. But the underlying reason their maneuvers were successful was that Khan had lost the support of Pakistan’s military, which helped him rise to power.

Several factors were responsible for the fracture between Khan and the military, who previously had functioned on a much-touted “same page.” The biggest was an impasse over the transfer of the director general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in October 2021. Khan refused to sign off on the director general’s transfer, already approved by the military, for weeks. The then-ISI chief was a Khan loyalist, and speculation was that Khan wanted him to be around for the next election (or perhaps even to appoint him the next army chief).

Once Khan lost the military’s support — though the military said it had become neutral — space was allowed to the opposition to make their moves. Two small parties allied with Khan in the ruling coalition switched to the opposition, enough to deprive him of his razor-thin majority in the National Assembly.

Khan hatched a conspiracy theory to blame for his government’s collapse — alleging , without evidence, U.S. “regime change” for following an “independent foreign policy,” and claiming “local abettors” were responsible — claims that Pakistan’s National Security Committee has rebuffed . But Khan and his allies have also alluded to the military being responsible for his exit — sometimes in veiled language and sometimes pointing fingers more directly at the “neutrals,” as they now refer to the military. In so doing, they are testing the limits of political confrontation with the military, receding only when it pushes back on their claims.

An intense polarization

Khan has used his ejection to galvanize his supporters. Day after day, in huge rallies across the country, he calls the new government an “imported government” and the new prime minister a “crime minister.” Khan has used his rallies and interviews to command media attention, and argues that his government’s fall returned to power the corrupt politicians that are responsible for Pakistan’s problems. His supporters, many of them middle class, young, and urban, and furious at what they see as Khan’s unceremonious, orchestrated ousting, repeat his words on social media. With this narrative of grievance, Khan aims to undermine the new government’s legitimacy; his party resigned from parliament and he is calling for fresh elections. He now plans to lead a “freedom march” to Islamabad, likely later this month , to further pressure the government for elections.

By contrast, supporters of the parties that constitute the government see Khan’s exit as having occurred democratically and see his politics as dangerous. Pakistan today has echoes of the post-January 6 moment in the United States, a polarization so deep that each faction sees no validity in the other’s arguments. Khan’s supporters in particular distrust anything the new government or the military says. In recent weeks, politicians from each side have also resorted to using religion to attack the other side, dangerous in a country where the weaponization of religion can spell a death sentence.

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The new government

The new government, led by the PML-N’s Shahbaz Sharif, faces formidable challenges — and not just from Khan. Shahbaz’s brother, three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was deposed in 2017 on corruption charges and now lives in London, still exercises outsized control over the party, and indeed the government. Shahbaz, a three-time former chief minister of Pakistan’s largest province of Punjab, has throughout his political career played second fiddle to the more charismatic Nawaz. Last week, the prime minister and key members of his cabinet made a sudden trip to London to consult with Nawaz on the direction of the new government. While they were overseas, Pakistan’s economy continued its downward spiral. The rupee continued its precipitous slide relative to the dollar; the stock market also lost value.

The government faces a key decision on whether to continue costly, unsustainable fuel subsidies that Khan’s government installed, and that the International Monetary Fund wants removed as a precondition for renewing Pakistan’s loan program. Removing subsidies would certainly be unpopular, which worries a government with limited time in office before the next election. So far the government has stalled, announcing earlier this week, against its own finance minister’s advice, that it would maintain subsidies (for now).

Shahbaz’s overall hesitancy likely reflects deference to Nawaz and his team, who may have different views, and the fact that he commands an unwieldy coalition of rival parties, who will be competing against each other in the next election. But part of the indecision has to do with the fact that the main goal of the PDM was to oust Khan; they did not actually devise an alternate governance plan or economic strategy before coming into power. That lack of a plan is now showing in the face of Pakistan’s economic crisis.

The next election

A major question contributing to the political uncertainty in Pakistan is the timing of the next election, which must be held by the summer of 2023. Khan has made clear that he wants to ride his present momentum to immediate elections. In the days preceding his downfall, he aimed to deprive the then-opposition of a runway in government by extra-constitutionally dissolving parliament, a decision Pakistan’s Supreme Court (correctly) reversed. The new government, for its part, can use its time in power to turn things in its favor, including resolving outstanding corruption cases.

There is the question of whether Nawaz can or will return to Pakistan before the next election. If he does, that could boost the PML-N’s base, but if he does not face prosecution on his return, that will bolster Khan’s argument that the Sharifs have politically manipulated the corruption cases against them. The PML-N also faces considerable hurdles, including an economic crisis that is partially shaped by exogenous factors, a tussle over power in Punjab, and a president who belongs to and is loyal to Khan’s party. The coalition government this week has said it will not go to early elections; former president Asif Ali Zardari has insisted that elections not be held before parliament can undertake electoral reform.

Whenever the next election is held, it’s far from clear what the outcome will be. What matters in Pakistan’s parliamentary system is which party can get the most “electables” — powerful politicians in local constituencies — on their side. Large urban rallies may attest to Khan’s personal popularity, but will not necessarily define how his party does in parliamentary elections. The other factor, one that has historically determined which party electable politicians align themselves with, is where the powerful military’s support is leaning.

The bottom line

That brings us to the bottom line. The fundamentals of the system in Pakistan, beneath the intense ongoing political tug of war, remain the same. What matters for political success is whether you have the support of Pakistan’s military. Political parties now directly point to the military’s interference in politics, but only when they are in opposition; when they are in government and enjoy that support, they do little to challenge it. This was true of Khan’s party when it was in power, and it is true of Sharif’s government now.

In the end, what Pakistan’s soaring political tension amounts to is an opportunistic struggle for power. It has left the country a political tinderbox. And in all of it, little regard is displayed on either side for the ongoing suffering of ordinary Pakistanis, who continue to pay the price for the country’s long history of political instability.

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Pakistan and its Politics Essay

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Introduction

Reason for move towards islamic state, impact of islamic state on democracy, works cited.

Pakistan was established as a state in 1947 after a separation from the Indian British Empire. From its beginning, the country has had a turbulent life with political instability and ethnic disputes characterizing its existence. While Pakistan was established as a secular state with a Muslim majority, the country has exhibited over the decades showed signs of evolving into an Islamic State. Such an outcome would have dire consequences for democratization.

The prevailing economic conditions have increased the popularity of Islamic movements all over the country. Farhat notes that most Pakistanis blame bad government policies for the high unemployment, inflation, and lack of access to education and healthcare in the country (121).

Islamists express skepticism over the ability of the secular leadership, which is blamed for Pakistan’s problems. Saudi influence has also been a contributing factor to the evolution of Pakistan into an Islamic state.

Due to the lack of financial opportunities in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia has been a major destination for Pakistanis working abroad since the 1970s. When the Pakistani workers return home from this Islamic state, they are influenced by the religious teachings of Saudi clerics (Farhat 122).

Western dominance has also accelerated the move towards Islamic reform in Pakistan. After the events of 9/11, the cooperation between the Pakistani government and the United States has increased with Pakistan becoming a key strategic ally. Radical Islamists see this as a corruption of Islam by the West.

Farhat points out that this challenge of the West has become the single most important factor promoting the renewal of Islamic movements in Pakistan today (129). Western dominance has fueled nationalistic sentiments and many people are in support of an Islamic renewal.

Evolution to an Islamic State will hurt democracy in Pakistan. Politicians have been known to employ religious criteria to justify their actions in Islamic states. This will be to the disadvantage of Pakistanis of other religions and Islamic sub-sects.

Ishtiaq observes that While Pakistan has a Muslim majority with 96% of Pakistanis being Muslims, the Muslim community is not monolithic and it contains different sub-sects (195). An Islamic state would therefore threaten democracy since it would give rise to sectarianism in Pakistani territories.

By adopting an Islamic character, Pakistan has enacted many laws that are discriminatory to non-Muslims. For example, the third constitution of 1973 required the president and the prime minister to be Muslims (Ishtiaq 198). Such laws are not in line with the democratic principles that give each person equal opportunity in the state.

The Islamic state will ensure that only practicing Muslims can take up key leadership positions in the country. An Islamic state will also hurt democracy since the ruling elite may resort to Islamic rhetoric to undermine the opposition. Farhat demonstrates that Islamic symbolism may be used to legitimize leadership that would otherwise be voted out in a true democracy (127).

Pakistan is a country with a rich Islamic history spanning centuries and the country was created with these religious and cultural bearings in mind. However, Pakistan was created as a Muslim state and not an Islamic State. The trends articulated in this paper are moving Pakistan towards becoming an Islamic State. If this happens, the democratic values currently enjoyed by the country will suffer as Islamic laws becomes adapted all over the land.

Farhat, Haq. “A state for the Muslims or an Islamic state?” Religion and Politics in South Asia . Ed. Ali Riaz. NY. Routledge, 2010. 119-145. Print.

Ishtiaq, Ahmed. “The Pakistan Islamic State Project: A secular Critique.” Religion and Politics in South Asia . Ed. Ali Riaz. NY. Routledge, 2010. 185-211. Print.

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The Political System of Pakistan

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Democratic framework, challenges and complexities, democratic progress and reform.

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