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Pakistan
Society and Its Environment
PAKISTANI SOCIETY IS ETHNICALLY DIVERSE yet overwhelmingly Muslim.
It is largely rural yet beset by the problems of hyperurbanization.
Since its independence in 1947, Pakistan has enjoyed a robust
and expanding economy--the average per capita income in the mid-1990s
approached the transition line separating low-income from middle-income
countries--but wealth is poorly distributed. A middle-class is
emerging, but a narrow stratum of elite families maintains extremely
disproportionate control over the nation's wealth, and almost
one-third of all Pakistanis live in poverty. It is a male-dominated
society in which social development has lagged considerably behind
economic change, as revealed by such critical indicators as sanitation,
access to health care, and literacy, especially among females.
Increasing population pressure on limited resources, together
with this pattern of social and economic inequity, was causing
increased disquietude within the society in the early 1990s.
Pakistan was created in 1947, as a homeland for Muslims in South
Asia, and about 97 percent of Pakistanis are Muslim. The founders
of Pakistan hoped that religion would provide a coherent focus
for national identity, a focus that would supersede the country's
considerable ethnic and linguistic variations. Although this aspiration
has not been completely fulfilled, Islam has been a pervasive
presence in Pakistani society, and debate continues about its
appropriate role in national civic life. During the 1990s, Islamic
discourse has been less prominent in political controversy, but
the role that Islamic law should play in the country's affairs
and governance remains an important issue.
There is immense regional diversity in Pakistan. Pakhtuns, Baloch,
Punjabis, and Sindhis are all Muslim, yet they have diverse cultural
traditions and speak different languages. Ethnic, regional, and--above
all--family loyalties figure far more prominently for the average
individual than do national loyalties. Punjabis, the most numerous
ethnic group, predominate in the central government and the military.
Baloch, Pakhtuns, and Sindhis find the Punjabi preponderance at
odds with their own aspirations for provincial autonomy. Ethnic
mixing within each province further complicates social and political
relations.
Expectations had been raised by the return of democracy to Pakistan
in 1988 after the death of Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, by the continued
economic expansion in the 1990s, and by some observable improvement
in the volatile relations among ethnic groups that had so divided
the country in years past. Also in the early 1990s, previously
peripheralized social movements, particularly those concerning
women and the environment, assumed a more central role in public
life. As bilateral and multilateral development assistance has
dwindled, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) committed to economic
and social development have emerged and begun to take on important
responsibilities (see Foreign Aid , ch. 3). Nonetheless, the problems
that confront Pakistan pose a significant threat to its cohesion
and future.
Sociologists speak of a loss of a sense of social contract among
Pakistanis that has adversely affected the country's infrastructure:
the economy, the education system, the government bureaucracy,
and even the arts. As population pressure increases, the failure
of the populace to develop a sense of publicly committed citizenship
becomes more and more significant. The self-centeredness about
which educator Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi complained soon after independence
is increasingly noticeable in many areas of social life. Although
many people once imagined that economic development would by itself
improve the quality of life, few any longer believe this to be
true.
Family or personal interest and status take precedence over public
good in Pakistan. Thus traffic laws are often enforced solely
according to a person's political clout rather than due process,
and admission to school depends more upon connections or wealth
than on ability. Salaries, as compared with bribes, are so inconsequential
a privilege of employment that people sometimes plead to be given
appointments without pay.
Failure to develop civic-minded citizenship is also evident in
public administration and imbalanced government spending. For
example, military expenditures vastly exceed combined expenditures
on health and education. The bureaucracy, a legacy of the British
colonial period, has not modernized sufficiently to incorporate
new technologies and innovations despite efforts by the government
staff colleges.
Although in the mid-1980s the World Bank (see Glossary) forecast
the advancement of Pakistan to the ranks of middle-income countries,
the nation had not quite achieved this transition in the mid-1990s.
Many blame this fact on Pakistan's failure to make significant
progress in human development despite consistently high rates
of economic growth. The annual population growth rate, which hovered
between 3.1 and 3.3 percent in the mid-1990s, threatens to precipitate
increased social unrest as greater numbers of people scurry after
diminishing resources.
An anonymous Pakistani writer has said that three things symbolized
Pakistan's material culture in the 1990s: videocassette recorders
(for playing Hindi films), locally manufactured Japanese Suzuki
cars, and Kalashnikov rifles. Although the majority of the people
still reside in villages, they increasingly take social cues from
cities. Videocassette tapes can be rented in many small villages,
where residents also watch Cable News Network (CNN)--censored
through Islamabad--on televisions that are as numerous as radios
were in the 1970s. The cities are more crowded than ever; parts
of Karachi and Lahore are more densely populated even than Dhaka,
the capital of Bangladesh. In many areas, tiny Suzuki automobiles
have replaced the bicycles and motorcycles that were in great
demand merely a decade earlier. Whereas urban violence was traditionally
related to blood feuds, it has become more random and has escalated
dramatically.
Data as of April 1994
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