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Pakistan
The Government and Politics
NATION BUILDING REMAINS a difficult process in Pakistan. But
although the country has undergone a succession of traumatic sociopolitical
experiences since achieving independence in 1947, it continues
to demonstrate its resilience and its capacity to survive and
adapt to changing circumstances. Joining the community of nations
as a bifurcated state, with its two wings separated by 1,600 kilometers
of foreign soil, Pakistan was faced with the immediate task of
absorbing large numbers of refugees from India in the months immediately
following partition. The new nation struggled with severe economic
disadvantages made acutely painful by a shortage of both administrative
personnel and the material assets necessary to establish and sustain
its fledgling government. With the death of Mohammad Ali Jinnah--the
revered Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader)--only thirteen months after
independence, the nation was dealt another severe blow.
Created to provide a homeland for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent,
Pakistan was heir to a government structure and a political tradition
that were essentially Western and secular. From its inception,
Pakistan has worked to synthesize Islamic principles with the
needs of a modern state. The young nation was immediately challenged
by a host of other factors affecting national development, including
ethnic and provincial tensions, political rivalries, and security
considerations. The country subsequently survived civil war and
the resultant loss of its East Wing, or East Pakistan, which became
the independent nation of Bangladesh in December 1971, and has
accommodated an influx of refugees resulting from the Soviet occupation
of Afghanistan (December 1979-February 1989), which over the course
of the conflict exceeded 3.2 million people.
Pakistan has had difficulty in establishing stable, effective
political institutions. The country has experimented with a variety
of political systems, has endured periods of martial law, and
has had five constitutions, one inherited from the British and
four indigenous creations since independence. Its political parties
have suffered from regionalism, factionalism, and lack of vision.
Power has shifted between the politicians and the civilmilitary
establishment, and regional and ethnic forces have threatened
national unity. However, the impulse toward cohesion has been
stronger than the impetus toward division, and the process of
nation building has continued. The return to democracy in 1988,
and the peaceful, constitutional transfer of power to new governments
in 1990 and 1993 testify to Pakistan's progress in the quest for
political stability.
Data as of April 1994
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