The state and civil society in Pakistan: From crisis to crisis

Asian Survey

Volumn 36, Issue 7, 1996, Pages 673-687

  Malik, Iftikhar H ^a  

^a BATH SPA UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

POLITICAL CHANGE; STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS;

PAKISTAN;

EID: 0030438913     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.1996.36.7.01p0149s     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. The Opposition accused the president of being involved in a financial scandal amounting to millions of rupees in a fraudulent land deal generally known as "Mehrangate." A swindler named Yunus Habib, after his arrest, revealed the names of those to whom he had paid huge sums of kickbacks while running a bank in the private sector.
2. In November 1994, certain Pushtun tribals began armed militancy demanding the imposition of Sharia. They took several civilian officials hostage, blocked the vital Karakoram Highway (KKH) linking Pakistan with northern areas and China, and momentarily captured the Mingora airport in Swat District. Eventually, the army was called in to quell the movement. A few days later, the government, in its negotiations with local religious leaders, committed itself to a partial implementation of Sharia laws.
3. The ASSP, claiming to represent the Sunni majority, demanded minority status for the Shias in the country. In retaliation, the TNFJ led organized attacks on Sunni mosques.
4. As the author personally observed, very few people turned out to join the hartal on 24 December 1995 and no untoward incident was reported anywhere in the country.
5. In the first seven months of 1995, ethnic volatility had claimed the lives of more than 1,250 citizens and paramilitary personnel.
6. In early 1994, Pakistan's embassy in Kabul was gutted and its diplomats repatriated to Islamabad. It was a major setback for the country that had suffered so much for its Afghan neighbors in their 15-year ordeal. In April 1994 Pakistan had to withdraw an otherwise mild resolution from the human rights committee in Geneva censoring India's atrocities in the disputed territory of Kashmir. In November Pakistan failed to table a motion on Kashmir at the U.N. as not a single "ally," even from the Muslim world, showed any enthusiasm for it. Such reversals in major foreign areas were seen as drift in a political system that lacked strong leadership and coherent policies.
7. In other words, the Army's interventionist role in governance remains unchallenged and unchanged, though an increasing number of critical reviews have appeared in the national press, especially in reference to the situation in Sindh.
8. Pakistanis are definitely worried about the Indian military support to the Rabbani-led government in Kabul. They see a new strategic consensus emerging on their western frontiers involving Kabul, Delhi, Teheran, and Moscow, while their own role in Afghanistan seems to have been marginalized following the peripheralization of the Pushtuns in Afghanistan. Pakistan undertook a new diplomatic initiative in February 1996 when various jehad leaders gathered in Islamabad to try to establish a viable order in Kabul. But neither Rabbani nor his Tajik defense minister, Ahmed Shah Masood, participated in the parleys.
9. But not the first Pakistani woman politician to take on a military regime; in 1964 Fatima Jinnah, sister of Quaid-i-Azam M. A. Jinnah, led a very powerful presidential campaign. The incumbent president, General Mohammad Ayub Khan maneuvered his victory largely through state functionaries using both cooption and coercion.
10. The worst case of domestic violence to receive national media coverage was that of Zainab Noor, who had been constantly and viciously maltreated by her fanatic husband. Following a national uproar in April 1994, the prime minister sent her to London for medical treatment.
11. A significant development in gender-related issues was the establishment of the Commission on the Status of Women, a high-powered authority to investigate social and legal problems confronting Pakistani women. See National Commission on Status of Women (Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, 1984).
12. Nawaz Sharif ordered that Maleeha Lodhi, editor of a Lahore-based daily, be tried but collective media pressure forced him to revoke the order. Benazir Bhutto's government imposed a 60-day ban on six evening Urdu-language newspapers in Karachi in June 1995 following their detailed reportage of gruesome killings in the city.
13. Following serious threats from the MQM, the editors of the monthly Herald and Newsline had frequently to seek military protection, and Zaffar Abbas, the BBC correspondent in Karachi, was physically beaten by MQM supporters. The worst case has been that of Salah-ud-Din, editor of the Urdu weekly, Takbeer, known for his vocal denunciation of MQM-led militancy, who was killed on December 4, 1994, presumably by MQM death squads.
14. The presidential electoral college consists of the Senate, National Assembly and all four provincial assemblies. The senate is also indirectly elected from the four provincial assemblies on the basis of inter-provincial parity.
15. Issues such as violence against women, minority rights, bonded labor, child labor, embezzlement of public funds, and other concerns are being discussed daily in English, Urdu, and vernacular publications.
16. A number of civil and military intelligence agencies have masterminded political alliances and counter-alliances. See Maleeha Lodhi and Zahid Hussain, "The Invisible Government," Daily Jang (London), 31 October 1992; also, Munir Ahmed, Pakistan Mein Intelligence Agencion Ka Siyasi Kirdar [Political role of intelligence agencies in Pakistan], Lahore, 1993 (in Urdu).
17. A number of civil and military intelligence agencies have masterminded political alliances and counter-alliances. See Maleeha Lodhi and Zahid Hussain, "The Invisible Government," Daily Jang (London), 31 October 1992; also, Munir Ahmed, Pakistan Mein Intelligence Agencion Ka Siyasi Kirdar [Political role of intelligence agencies in Pakistan], Lahore, 1993 (in Urdu).
18. Quaid-e-Azam Mahomed Ati Jinnah: Speeches as Governor-General, 1947-1948 (Karachi, Govt. of Pakistan, n.d.), p. 58. He did not reject Islam as a guiding force but envisioned Pakistan as a democratic country not "to be ruled by priests with divine mission," p. 65.
19. It is interesting to note that in 1953 the state used military power to crush the anti-Ahmedi agitation in Lahore led by the Jama'at-i-Islami, and 20 years later the state itself encouraged a witchhunt against the same community.
20. The Federal Sharia Court, established by General Zia's ordinances and incorporated in the Constitution through amendments, issued verdicts in the summer of 1992 against charging interest. Accordingly, it was stipulated that the entire banking system in Pakistan was un-Islamic and needed to be replaced. This created a crisis with many foreign financiers worried about their investments. The government tried to allay their fears, though the issue still remains unresolved. In addition, turbulence in Afghanistan and Kashmir allowed religio-political parties to assume a significant role. Kathy Evans, "Pakistan Banks Contest Usury Ruling in Court," The Guardian, 22 January 1992.
21. In 1993-94, sectarian agitators reportedly hurled bombs at mosques and imambaras, and in May 1994, the ASSP MPs tried to bulldoze a bill through the Assembly almost tantamount to declaring Shias a religious minority in Pakistan. While faced with wide-ranging opposition, they forcibly captured the speaker's chambers to try to dictate to the whole House.
22. According to various estimates, there are more than two million Bangladesh refugees in Karachi alone, most of them illegal.