Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, vol. 52, no. 1, February–March 2010, pp. 17–23
Order a copy of the issue here
<First 500 words>
As a nuclear power with a population nearly six times that of Afghanistan, a country in the grip of violent insurgency, and a source of terrorism which has infected areas well beyond its borders, Pakistan is currently facing its greatest challenges since the country split apart in 1971. Because the roots of these challenges – political, economic and security-related – extend back to Pakistan’s turbulent birth 62 years ago, an understanding of the country’s history and peoples must underpin any successful effort to promote stability.
In contrast to India, whose national narrative includes an ancient and proud history and whose overriding priority in the first half of the twentieth century was to gain independence from the British Raj, Pakistan had no pre-existing national identity. Its priority was separation from Hindu-dominated India. Its disparate components, including different ethnic groups (Punjabis, Sindhis, Pashtuns and Baluchis, each with separate languages) and religious communities (including Shia and Sunni Muslims, the latter of which can be further divided into Deobandis, Barelvis and Sufis) had little reason to cooperate towards any goal of state- or nation-building. The British Raj had drawn on these peoples for its armies and they retain strong martial tendencies. Democracy did not come naturally: military leaders have presided for over half the country’s history at the expense of elected institutions. At Independence/Partition, Pakistan received less than an equitable share of the Raj’s patrimony, which exacerbated the tendency to squabble over resources. The bloody carnage associated with the massive movement of peoples – Sikhs and Hindus eastwards and Muslims westwards – has remained vivid in national memories. In such circumstances the nation has always been susceptible to separatist tendencies, as evidenced by a Pashtunistan movement in the 1950s and cycles of violence in Baluchistan which continue today. With 60% of the population, Pakistan’s Punjab province has a disproportionate share of the country’s wealth, dominates the armed forces, and is deeply unpopular among residents of the other regions.
The army has taken the lead in trying to forge a national identity intended both to protect against the threat of further separatism (following Bangladesh’s secession in 1971) and to consolidate the army’s own interests and status. The main means to this end have been maintaining the Kashmir dispute with India, which Pakistanis call ‘the unfinished business of Partition’, and the promotion and politicisation of the Muslim religion. General Zia-ul-Haq’s military autocracy was unwittingly assisted in this latter objective by the United States and others during the 1979–89 Afghan War, when Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, benefiting from huge human and financial assistance, grew into a powerful internal political instrument.
The subsequent decade, during which Pakistan was almost completely ignored by the United States, were ‘the yo-yo years’ of elected government, which ended with General Pervez Musharraf’s popular coup in 1999. In this period, the performance of Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who each served two prematurely ended terms, grew steadily worse. In 1989, attention turned to Kashmir, where local separatists received increased support from the ISI…
Get full article here
Hilary Synnott is a Consulting Senior Fellow at the IISS, and served as British High Commissioner to Pakistan from 2000 to 2003. He is the author of Transforming Pakistan: Ways Out of Instability (Routledge for the IISS, 2009).
Related articles
Pakistan’s War Within by C. Christine Fair and Seth G. Jones (December 2009–January 2010)
The Unravelling of Pakistan by John R. Schmidt (June–July 2009)
What is Happening in Pakistan? by Hilary Synnott February–March 2009)
Pakistan: Transition to What? by Teresita C. Schaffer (February–March 2008)
Pakistan’s Dangerous Game by Seth G. Jones (Spring 2007)
