BY HASSAN IQBAL
The political history of Pakistan is dominated by military and civil bureaucracy. Both of these institutions had been playing key role in the policy making. As part of the colonial legacy, they were having a superior and supervisory position in the newly born state of Pakistan.
They always favored the status quo in their own better interest and never let the political institution-political parties to flourish. Consequently, it destroyed the political culture, political institution and whole political system.
Elites groups in Pakistan can be categorized into three main categories. Political elite, economic elite and social elite. The epitome of political elite in Pakistan is the top level military and the civilian bureaucrats, whose social base is traditional wealth and power.
They again attach wealth and power with land in Punjab, Sindh, tribal leadership, land in Baluchistan and northwest frontier.
Pre Ayub period actually paved the way for military rule in cohesion with civilian bureaucracy.
Military and bureaucracy was the hub of political activity then and times to come. The second thing, concisely pointed out in developing countries is the scarcity of resources.
The nature of political system in country is determined by the fact that who control, allocates and distributes these resources. The societies where political institutions were established with empowerment of political elites could overpower the military establishment and civil bureaucracies.
Putting resources in the hands of political institutions led such societies to the political development. In case of Pakistan, in the first period from 1947 to 1951 all the resources were transferred from colonial masters to the native elites including civil and military bureaucracy. It was the period of transition.
During the second period from 1951 to 1958 the civil and military bureaucracy established its hegemony on the political system of Pakistan.
The hegemony could not be broken by the political parties. That is why political institutions could not be established in Pakistan properly. Muhammad Ali Jinnah had use the vehicle of the all India Muslim League to establish a country.
The AIML was established in 1906 primarily with the objective to protect the interest of the Muslim of India and to develop cordial relation between the British government and the Muslim community.
During the period of 1937 to 1947, Jinnah successfully transformed the party into a national movement. Though the party penetrated down to the grass root level but AIML could neither pay much attention to the formal structure of the party nor could be prepare second row of the party leadership. As a result, soon after its creation newly born country fell in leadership crisis.
Regional diversity, relatively small bureaucracy and fear of India which led to dominance of civil and military bureaucracy over the political system of Pakistan.
South Asia’s indigenous orientation towards the exercise of power has reasserted itself and produces a regression in the behavior of the ruling elite.
Read:Mindless administrative reforms; dominance of administrative service bane to progress
After independence from British rule the behavior of state apparatus and political class has become more arbitrary delusional. The resulting deterioration in the intellectual and moral quality of the state apparatus continues to be moral threat to Pakistan.
(The writer is a political researcher and scholar at Peace and Conflict Studies department at NUML Islamabad)
