Military, State and Society in Pakistan

“Disarming Violence”: Development, Democracy, and Security on the Borders of India

“…Within South Asian studies, the linkages between military governance and the civil state have been the subject of scholarly evaluation in Pakistan (see, e.g. , Jalal 1990;Rizvi 2000), but have been largely neglected in the study of postcolonial India. By deconstructing the implications of the social, political, and economic "goodwill" underlying Operation Sadbhavna, we offer a critical framework for questions of governance, development, and security in the borderlands of India.…”

“…In postcolonial years, too, the dominant ideology that has been associated with the Indian state is its emphasis on democratic institutions and the primacy of electoral processes. In contrast, in Pakistan, where state survival was seen as severely threatened by extraneous security factors, state control was ensured by relying on a robust military force, a political direction that critics allege was accomplished at the expense of debilitating the civil state apparatus and participatory political processes (Rizvi 2000).…”

Rhetorics and realities of management practices in Pakistan: Colonial, post-colonial and post-9/11 influences

“…The University Grants Commission (UGC) was subsequently set up to regulate higher education and university affairs across the country. 73 Though popular with voters, many critics of nationalisation argue that the decision was inherently flawed and that it virtually crippled economic progress in the 1960s. 74 Among the concerns raised was that nationalisation provided bureaucrats with new wide-ranging powers as they suddenly became heads of banks, industries and public corporations.…”

“…Employers were made responsible for the educational expenses of one child per worker, and the settlement of industrial disputes was revised to prevent the victimisation of the workforce by management. 90 Trade unions in Pakistan have been considered important players in the development of employment management. The Government of Pakistan inherited British colonial labour laws, such as the Trade Union Act 1926, the Factories Act 1934, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 and interventionist policies of managing labour relations.…”

Why Has Democracy Been Less Successful in Pakistan Than in India?

“…The Muslim League, which had served as the vanguard of the freedom struggle, utterly failed to transform itself from a nationalist movement to a national party which could serve as an effective political machine for aggregating national interests and identities into a plural and participatory national framework. 18 In this context, the early death of Jinnah not only removed the one man in Pakistan who might have emulated Nehru, but also struck a severe blow to the prospects for democracy in Pakistan, precisely because there were few other leaders of stature and even fewer who were inspired by the vision of Pakistan as a democratic Muslim state. Indeed, most of those who assumed leadership in the Muslim League and rose to power in the newly independent country had no real attachment to the norms of democracy.…”