About the Author(s)
Jai Kumar
The author is a graduate of International Relations from the University of Sindh Jamshoro with a keen interest in global issues and strategic studies.
“Political Conflict in Pakistan” is authored by Muhammad Waseem, who is a Professor of Political Science at Lahore University of Management Sciences. Especially, the theme of political conflict is warlike and sincere throughout the variety of nadis of this book. He has many books to his credit, including Politics and the State in Pakistan and Democratization in Pakistan. This book has a total of 576 pages, and in order, they are arranged into 9 chapters, followed by an introduction and a conclusion. I must appreciate this research. On every page of this book, the narrative and findings are very informative, and it is rather a reality check for every Pakistani, more specifically for those who are representatives and decision-makers of the state. I chose to read this book because the author discusses the issues that are at the core of concerns in Pakistan, thus making it useful for getting rid of these problems to foster a better society.
The definition of conflict, when it appears, and why Pakistan has a constant conflict situation are explained by Muhammad Waseem in the first chapter entitled Introduction. He quotes Steve C. Caton to explain why conflict escalates: Due to conflict of idea and event with the rights and demands, which are time-bound by a specific issue and number of people involved, conflict arises, and this is the reason Waseem has categorized Pakistan as a conflict state, and the conflicts are categorized in four categories: state: conflict within, state and religion, subaltern (non) conflict, and state and ethnicity. Moreover, he notes that since the partition of India, two forces have been developed that are also in conflict. The first is the military and judiciary, which is part of the middle class, and the second is the landed elite and professional elite, which are on the assembly floor. Claiming more power than the elite, the middle class cultivates the state’s identification, makes state politics, and tells the master script.
For more than seventy years, the demographic characteristics of the population of the Indian subcontinent have experienced a certain evolution. There is chapter two by Waseem entitled Seventy Years of Partitions: An Analysis of Demographic Displacement; he better analyzes how these separations have affected the region more deeply than the altering of geography. He continues to state that these demographic changes have been advantageous to the two elite politicians on the Pakistani and Indian sides. The first internal crisis within the socio-political Pakistan was the attempt to ‘de-Indianize’ the masses since the latter was born out of India in 1947. But here, India did not sever the connection from the cultural and social aspects of Pakistan. Waseem notes that the elites’ narrative was more focused on UP and Punjab, neglecting local identities in Sindh, Pashtun areas, and Balochistan. In addition, the population of refugees was mostly in the province of Sindh, which had depressing impacts on the changes in the urban population of the province. Thus, as per the census conducted in 1951, only 25. Punjab, which got only 6% refugees, became as per 63%. Therefore, Waseem calls it a migrant state, and the majority of administration of the country was manned by the migrants, who were previously civil servants during British rule.
Each state has the objective of popularizing its agenda among the citizens. The chapter that describes this process is called Master Narrative and has been written by Muhammad Waseem. He starts by making a grand argument that the state regulates national discourse in various means. Waseem also points out that Pakistan’s elite likes to establish links with Arabs and Mughals. In addition, it builds a lot of propaganda that presents Hindus as demons, which hinders the development of sub-identities within a similar religion. The narrative also fosters the idea in every citizen of Pakistan that the West is against Pakistan and wants to subdue it in combination with India; Waseem sarcastically calls it “Paranoidistan.” However, Waseem claims that Pakistan has never acknowledged its past, geographical boundaries, or language. He called Pakistan a state without history because the decision-makers in Pakistan have not been able to relate and contextualize Pakistan’s history with Indian history. The concept of the two-nation theory did not work after the formation of a new country called Bangladesh. Therefore, the state came up with the idea of cultural heritage, telling the world that Pakistan is from the Indus civilization, which is one of the oldest civilizations in the world.
In the next chapter, Two Power Centers, the central theme is the conflict between two elite groups in Pakistan. On one side are the state elites, led by the military establishment, and on the other are the political elites, represented by political parties and the parliament. These two groups draw heavily on two power bases: the middle class and the political class. The middle class consistently supports the state elites, while the political class is divided between party politics and electoral politics. The political parties themselves are further categorized into three groups: mainstream parties, ethnic parties, and Islamic parties.
In another chapter, An Establishmentarian Democracy, Waseem continues Pakistan was not a democratic state from the beginning. On the other hand, the Indian National Congress was the national party, which was quite active in India at that time. But in Pakistan, the Muslim League was not a party that had local support, did not have a majority, or was governing any province. As a result, the Muslim League’s high command dissolved the ruling coalition of the Unionist Party in Punjab, dismissed Dr. Khan in KP, and Ayub Khuro in Sindh, and made Nazimuddin the Chief Minister of Bengal. New rulers limited democracy by influencing governments in power and out of power. Consequently, the military enlarged its authority within the system, where judicial systems acted in its favour to achieve permanency of power.
In the fifth chapter, Constitutional Dynamics, Waseem discusses how parliamentary sovereignty was questionable from 1947 to 1973, as Pakistan did not have a proper constitution during this period. Until the 1973 constitution, Pakistan was not a federal state. The 1973 constitution introduced the first genuine federalism project, motivated by the fear of further separation after the loss of Bengal. Additionally, Waseem highlights the ongoing conflict over whether Pakistan should follow Islamization laws, given that the country was created in the name of Islam.
In the chapter Mass Public, the long game is shaped by education, according to him, whereas the media plays the short. The education system in Pakistan is the foremost modus operandi of propagating a state-templated narrative. Waseem encapsulates these shifts over three generations: from 1947 (the year of partition) to about 1951, textbooks introduced the idea of Islamic socialism; between 1951 and the mid-1970s, Islam was increasingly used in classrooms as a means of building national identity; after that period through to today, Islam itself is taught. He quotes Pervez Hoodboy to say that Pakistan is busy crafting a theocratic society. Electronic and social media, on the other hand, serve as a digital arm to propagate its narrative since it is in the hands of the same establishment.
In the concluding chapter, The Outsider, Waseem contends that outsiders have caused a cultural genocide. Christophe Jaffrelot (2002) has labelled Pakistan as “the first, most well-known, and best-documented case of nationalism without a nation.” Waseem contends that the state always keeps ‘outsiders’ in its tent to sell its narrative, such as it did through One Unit and Kalabagh Dam.
This book stands out as one of the most insightful critiques of the diverse methods used to promote Pakistan’s policies. However, the fact remains that these policies have divided the people. Pakistan is not just for Punjabis or Mohajirs but also for Sindhi, Balochi, Pashtuns, and all Pakistanis who are being suppressed so forcefully that they are seen as second-class citizens. The state must ensure the basic needs of every human being under constitutional covers so that every province would have control over what belongs to it rightfully. Moreover, Pakistanis can switch their nationalities with ease and alternate between Arab ancestry and Turkish heritage, which has been demonstrated by many of Pakistan’s obsession with Turkish dramas like Ertugrul. It would be very hard-hitting, therefore important to establish and confront these identity issues along with many more truths discussed in the book if we are going to grow as a country. Then the world is moving towards artificial intelligence and exploring new planets, where we stand stationary in this dark area. We must confront our demons to move forward.