The problem
THE study of Pakistani politics is not only captivating in
its sheer dynamism but also imposing in the task of decoding its manifold
complexities, hidden forces and intricate nuances. Scholars and commentators
grappling with domestic political developments in Pakistan are required often
to contend with the blinding pace of political change, the fluid shifting
nature of political alliances and the kaleidoscopic blur of new and evolving
configurations of political actors.
Moreover,
Pakistan is situated in a sensitive regional context marked often by
instability, suspicion and competition rather than cooperation, collaboration
and trust. The country’s
internal make-up consists of a mosaic of cultures, languages, religions and
religious sects, and a layered, often hierarchical, social
strata.
This
tense regional setting and complex internal sociology is embroiled in the
makings of and contestation over local and national identities, as well as
political struggles over issues of recognition, resource allocation and
representation. Home to recurring ethnic as well as sectarian nationalisms and
disputed borders with neighbouring nations, an
encompassing, stable and inclusive sense of Islamic nationhood has been
difficult to define in Pakistan. The religious ‘other’
occupies a contested space in the Pakistani national imagination.
What
it means to be Pakistani is an ongoing source of intense social, political, and
often violent conflict since the founding of the state in August 1947. This
tension bears heavily over the design of laws, socio-cultural policies and the
constitutional set up within Pakistan, and foreign engagement and international
activism abroad.
That
Pakistan sits at the intersection of major global trade routes renders the
country crucial to the imperial ambitions of global superpowers. Not
surprisingly, Pakistan has often been wound up in global political and
ideological struggles. Whether it is the Afghan jihad of the 1980s, or the ‘War on Terror’ following the tragic events of September 11, or the Belt and
Road Initiative in recent years, Pakistan is often central to the imperial
designs of world powers. Its involvement in these grand military, ideological
or economic projects continues to shape and transform its domestic politics and
economic inner workings to the present day. History, in other words, both
recent and the past, is indispensable to the observer and analyst in coming to
terms with the broader trajectories of Pakistan’s internal flux and its place in the world.
Pakistan’s declining economic fortune adds new
layers of instability as it struggles to grapple, negotiate, and manoeuvre between the whims and limits imposed between
donors and lenders. There is also the factor and influence of the
establishment, a euphemism for Pakistan’s
powerful and seemingly omnipresent armed forces and intelligence agencies. The
influence of these institutions on political developments is often difficult to
underestimate and harder still to determine, making the puzzle of Pakistani
politics even more perplexing. Unravelling the hidden
machinations of inimical foreign powers and the influence of powerful internal
forces remains a fixture of Pakistan’s
public and political discourse, fuelling conspiracies and raising questions
over the loyalties of Pakistan’s
political class and the legitimacy of its formal democratic, electoral, and
constitutional processes.
This
issue of Seminar aspires to place recent developments in Pakistan in a
broader perspective and identify the key tensions driving political contestations
in the country. It presents short, accessible but comprehensive and provocative
essays which take stock of the complex interactions between the historical and
the contemporary, state and society, between the local, the regional and the
global, and between the structural or institutional, with the evolving social,
political. It asks the following questions: what are the foremost domestic
political and economic issues facing Pakistan? What are their origins, causes
and impacts? How have the various recent political dispensations in Pakistan
sought to mitigate, navigate and respond to these challenges? How have these
challenges evolved in response to ongoing political developments in the
country? And how have they reshaped domestic civil-military, centre-periphery,
and majority-minority relations within and Pakistan’s relations with its neighbours,
other Muslim majority states and global powers?
What
happens in Pakistan is of profound global significance. Domestic developments
have extra-regional repercussions, rendering the need to understand Pakistan an
ongoing imperative within and beyond the country. Moreover, Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities, its geography as nexuses
between South and Central Asia, and South Asia and the Middle East, its emergence
as a Muslim middle power on the world stage, its close relationships with the
major world players, its potential to spread Islamist radicalism or its
capacity to compound regional instability, are factors often cited as reasons
for taking Pakistan seriously.
But
recognition of Pakistan’s
global geopolitical significance poses challenges for scholarly inquiry. The
urge to box Pakistan into taxonomic political science categorisations
such as ‘failed state’ or ‘terrorism
ground zero’ is an
inviting, easy but misguided temptation. A burgeoning genre of analytical and
policy writing has emerged, especially in the aftermath of September 11, which
frames Pakistan as a geopolitical problem requiring bold and calculated
solutions. However, this literature is often reductive and fails to recognise Pakistan’s
unique historical, sociological and economic circumstances and its almost
unwavering resilience in enduring frequent cycles of crisis, political
deadlocks and social conflict. It is also often remiss of the fact that
Pakistan itself is often the nearest and most affected casualty of the
instability it experiences.
The
contributions in this collection elucidate aspects of Pakistan’s inner workings and the multifaceted
dimensions of the political and economic challenges the country faces.
IMRAN AHMED