Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine the argument that violence was central to the state formation process of Pakistan, and such is crucial to understanding contemporary developments and the future evolution of Pakistan.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will explore the long-term consequences of Partition violence on the process of state formation in Pakistan. It will argue that because mass violence was central to the creation of Pakistan as a state, its institutionalisation within the structures of the state and as an instrument of state policy has been the defining characteristic of the post-1947 polity. Neither exogenous explanations of Pakistan's insecurity nor indigenous accounts of its failed democratization fully acknowledge the centrality of violence to the realization of the idea of Pakistan Indeed, the paper will argue that there is a need to revisit and re-examines the cycles of violence between 1947 and 1950 to rethink the relationship between these forms and their everyday routinization after 1947. Much as communal violence now defines the post-1947 Indian polity, mass violence and violence across borders has become the hallmark of Pakistani politics, of a catastrophic failure of nation and state-building.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will trace the convoluted process of the constitutional integration of the princely states, the principles behind such a process, and the effects of such a policy on constructing a new nation-state and identity.

Paper long abstract:

Western Pakistan was half its current size on August 15, 1947. Nine princely states eventually formed a part of it through a long process of accession negotiations. Just as the accession issue lingered on for eight months (and the question of the accession of Hunza and Nagar has still not been settled), the constitutional integration of these states also took a very long time.

Whereas in India by the states reorganisation of 1956 almost all the princely states had eased to exist, in Pakistan a number of states retained their status till 1955, while a few survived as late as 1969 and even 1973. The staggered process of integration, especially constitutional integration, prevented the formation of a strong national identity in the country and created structural problems which exist even today. Using hitherto unused primary sources, this paper, for the first time, will trace the convoluted process of the constitutional integration of the princely states, the principles behind such a process, and the effects of such a policy on constructing a new nation-state and identity.

Paper short abstract:

This paper attempts to provide a theory for the continuous oscillation between authoritarian and democratic tendencies in Pakistan's hybrid political regime by examining the recruitment and selection of the political elite as a window into regime dynamics.

Paper long abstract:

Pakistan is a case in which fragmentation of power among the ruling classes has endured since the country's inception, creating a kind of "persistent instability". This may sound oxymoronic but I argue that to understand political regimes that have remained locked in their hybrid state, yet have been unstable due to the presence of both authoritarian and democratic tendencies, we need a concept of regime change that can address lasting instability.

The normative concern driving the scholarly discussion of Pakistan's regime is to understand the failure of democracy. Explanations have focused on military interventions and the ineffectiveness of narrow-minded and corrupt politicians. This has led to analyses that are not only one-sided but also view regime change as linear and uni-directional. I contribute a voluntarist explanation of regime change and stability in Pakistan by investigating the role of the military and 4 main political parties in the processes of recruitment and selection of the political elite. I suggest that the question of political recruitment and selection is important because it determines who gains power, empowers the recruiters, and defines the relationship between the rulers and the ruled by guiding and affecting the behavior of political leadership. Furthermore to understand the ensemble of institutions and norms that make up a regime, we need to examine the totality of incentives operating on political actors that have access to principal public offices. These incentives are rooted in recruitment and selection processes and consequently in the access to public goods.

Paper short abstract:

This paper, using especially the political thought of Muhammad Iqbal and Mawdudi, will try to analyse how Islam was used to justify a separate state for the Indian Muslims, and the impacts and challenges on the political process and its evolution.

Paper long abstract:

On the occasion of the 25th session of the All-India Muslim League, in 1930, Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) devised for the first time the creation of a separate state for the Indian Muslims, for whom, according to him, the main formative force through History had been Islam, giving to them the emotions and basic loyalties which gradually transformed scattered individuals and groups into a well defined people.

Although predicated upon secular ideologies, the Pakistan movement was able to mobilize the masses only by appealing to Islam. Nationalism became dependent on Islam and, as a result, politicized the faith. A number of Muslim religious and communal organizations pointed to the importance of promoting Muslim nationalism, political consciousness and communal interests.

As the creation of Pakistan became more and more likely, Mawdudi (1903-1979), a friend and close associate of Muhammad Iqbal, increased his attacks on the Muslim League, objecting to the idea of Muslim nationalism because it would exclude Islam from India and surrender the domain of the Mughals to the Hindus.

The increasingly communal character of the Indian politics of the time, and the appeal made to religious symbols in the formulation of new political alliances and programmes by various Muslim groups as well as Muslim League leaders, created a climate in which Mawdudi's theological discourse found understanding and relevance.

Accepting the Partition and the creation of Pakistan as inevitable, Mawdudi worked, until his death, for the Islamization of the new country through his organization, the Jama'at-i Islami.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the part that the exchange of population and redistribution of ‘evacuee property’– the agricultural land abandoned by departing Hindus and Sikhs during the mass migrations after Partition – played in changing the balances of power in the Pakistan Punjab.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will explore the long-term consequences of the refugee settlement by arguing the departure of agriculturalist Hindu and Sikh landlords and the arrival of incoming smallholding peasantry stiffened the grip of large landlords in West Punjab in the early years of the nation-state's history. The schemes of redistribution of evacuee property not only provided the opportunity to the local landholders to consolidate their power, but also big refugee landlords needed to rebuild their constituencies by siphoning off the vacated resources for their former clients and tenants as they had no political base in Pakistan. The local tenantry faced hardship because of the migration of their former patrons, as their holdings were greatly reduced to resettle the incoming Muslim refugees. The paper will also explain the ways in which the governing landlord gentry in Punjab watered down every effort of the migrant-dominated Central Government of Pakistan to introduce any prospect of the land reforms in the province. Instead, they tried to contrive the different schemes for the 'nationalisation' of the large properties of the so-called 'anti-national and unpatriotic'- namely Khizar Hayat Tiwana and other main members of the Unionist Party. The paper concludes that despite nation-building mythology, the early post-independence period in Pakistan was marked by disharmony, rather than unity and that this focused around the scramble for resources left behind by departing Hindus and Sikhs. The conflict was especially corrosive of democratic consolidation in the Punjab heartland of the country. This study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the transitional state in Pakistan

Paper short abstract:

This paper uses the concept of path dependence to explain the ability of landowning elites in Punjab to reproduce their power over time, focusing in particular on the mechanisms through which this is done. The paper also considers the potentialities for institutional change in Punjab.

Paper long abstract:

Despite tremendous economic and social change, landowning elites in Punjab continue to exercise tremendous political power. In addition to being disproportionately represented in the different levels of representative government, they remain deeply embedded within the political party system, and continue to function as the rural foci of the province's patron-client politics.

This paper uses the concept of path dependence will be used to explain the continued power of landowning elites in Punjab. Using a diverse array of archival sources, and by focusing on key critical junctures in the colonial and post-colonial periods, it will be shown how the landowning elite were able to enter into a bargain with the British and Pakistan's military-bureaucratic establishment, trading political support for state patronage. This allowed the landowning elite to increasingly entrench themselves within the institutional framework of Punjab's politics by deploying three main mechanisms; the exercise of legislative power to shape the arena for political contestation and economic accumulation, the cultivation of links with the bureaucracy and military to strengthen their position as rural patrons, and the manipulation of electoral party politics to guarantee their direct participation in government. The paper argues that these mechanisms have underpinned the reproduction and reinforcement of landed power in Punjab, allowing landowning elites to deepen their relationship with the state, adapt to the shifting terrain of Pakistan's politics and, following the logic of path dependence, make it increasingly difficult to challenge their power over time. The paper concludes by examining potentialities for institutional change that could allow for a more progressive and participatory politics in rural Punjab.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the significance of contemporary discourses on religious minorities in Pakistan, drawing upon anecdotal and ethnographic evidence from rural Punjab.

Paper long abstract:

The status of religious minorities has brought to the fore the position which non-Muslims hold within an on-going hegemonising nationalist discourse on religion in Pakistan. The conceptualisation of religious 'minorities' in Pakistan has been central to notions of national cohesion and identity since its inception. The official census approximation of 97% of Pakistan's religious make-up as Muslim conceals a heterogeneous social fabric which is more contested than the figure denoting religious identity suggests. Meanwhile the establishment of the 'majority' in religious terms serves many purposes of nationalist discourse and state formation in Pakistan. This paper will explore the impacts which the official streamlining of identity through the religious question has had upon the discourse of minorities in Pakistan with particular reference to the position and experiences of Christians. The vulnerabilities experienced by Christians in Pakistan in both caste and religious terms, most notably through violent attacks upon Christians in Shantinagar in 1997 and Gojra in 2009, reflect this discourse while the looming blasphemy laws highlighted by the case of Aasiya Bibi in Punjab reflect an on-going fracturing and demise of the defense of minorities in Pakistan. The implications of this minority discourse will be explored in this paper through qualitative material drawn from a Christian village in Punjab in terms of perceptions and perspectives of place, social status and rights. Minority discourse will be examined as a tool for the state to utilise religiously prescribed identities across communities otherwise shaped by feudal relations and caste distinctions both historically and in the present context of contemporary Pakistan.

Paper short abstract:

Since its inception, Pakistan has been the arena of a heated competition around the “assets of salvation” (Max Weber). Sufism, as the contested “mystical” aspect of faith, has naturally become part of the ideologization of Islam and hence of the language of Muslim symbolic politics. It emerges as a relevant symbol to analyze the never-ending ideological debate on the identity of a country caught in controversial political contexts.

Paper long abstract:

to follow

Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine ethnic conflict in Baluchistan and evaluate various perspectives that have been used to explain the present crisis.

Paper long abstract:

The management and incorporation of ethnic identities in Pakistan is a general problem that historically has been far more problematic in Baluchistan. The region, reluctantly, was merged into the federation and has been the site of periodical resistance and overt conflict over the last sixty years. The issue of provincial autonomy, control of mineral resources and deprivation have been recurrent themes. With the death of Akbar Bugti the province became politically polarized and has descended into a new cycle of bombings, abductions and murders. The rebellion has resulted in a major security operation, which pits the security forces against the Baluch people and threatens to derail major development projects and increase instability in the country as a whole. The contours of the insurgency however are different from previous rebellions in the province and unlike the 1970s, which was inter-ethnic coalition against the centre under the leadership of NAP. This time it is a Baluch rebellion that is spread throughout the province and there is increasing hostility to Pukhtun and Punjabi residents. This paper will consider various perspectives that have been deployed to explain the present conflict: external intervention, resistance to social change, resource driven conflict theory, centre-periphery approach and integration and assimilation arguments and transnationalism.

Paper short abstract:

Political life in Sindh since 1947 has witnessed the growth in support for, often competing, so-called ethnic nationalisms. This paper looks at identity politics in the context of Pakistan from the perspective of Sindhi nationalism, considering legacies of the colonial past alongside the changing realities of the post-independence decades.

Paper long abstract:

It could be argued that tension between the centre and the provinces was programmed into Pakistan's DNA at the time of the new state's creation. Certainly in the decades since independence, identity politics have proved to be a more-or-less permanent feature of Pakistan's political landscape, extending from the early example of East Pakistan, to more recent developments in Baluchistan. The province of Sindh too has experienced its share of this kind of political dispute, its relationship with the centre and other parts of the country characterised over the years by bouts of tension, whether in relation to the provincial government or at a more popular level, even when this resistance has been overlooked or downplayed. A commonly-recognised crunch point came in 1983 when the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), which had widespread popular support in Sindh, challenged General Zia's Punjabi-dominated military regime. But Sindh's difficulties with the centre date back much further than this - to before independence when a pattern of relations was established that continues to affect centre-province relations to the present day, and then to the early nation-building years after 1947. This paper accordingly looks at identity politics in the context of Pakistan from the perspective of Sindhi nationalism, considering legacies of the colonial past alongside the changing realities of the post-independence decades.

Paper short abstract:

By and large, the Pakistani Barelwis are submissive in their religio-political behavior. However, ST-a relatively new religio-political movement has some tendency towards militancy. In religious side they are rivals of Deobandis and in political field its targets are the MQM and Jama'at-i-Islami.

Paper long abstract:

Sunni Tehrik was organized in April 1990 in Karachi with the aims of safeguarding the Barelwis' religio-political rights. ST also vows to counter the religio-political activities of other sects, especially of the Deobandis. It also involved itself in restarting the battle of control over mosques, especially in the Punjab, started in the 1980s. In May 2001, Muhammad Salim Qadiri (1960-2001), leader of the ST was assassinated in Karachi. The tragic incident of Nishter Park, Karachi (April 11, 2006), was also a great setback for the ST and Barelwis, where almost all its frontline leadership and some seventy other prominent Barelwi ulama and leaders were killed in a bomb blast.

ST is an organization having country-wide influence. Due to its alleged involvement in militancy and schism, it has been put in watch list by the Government of Pakistan since January 2001. ST, now a full-fledged political party, also vowed to introduce new political culture in Pakistan based on the Islamic principals of polity.

Drawing on primary source material, an attempt will be made in this paper to discuss and analyze the religio-political stance of the ST and its emergence as a militant group.

Keywords: Sunni Tehrik, Barelwis, Militancy, Schism, Salim Qadiri

Paper short abstract:

This paper will discuss the ethnic politics of Karachi examining the various ethnic allegiances of political parties and the implications for these on the politics and future of Pakistan.

Paper long abstract:

Ethnicity has been intimately imbricated in the creation of Pakistan and it has been fundamental to the history of the country. Of all the factors that characterise the political dynamics of the Pakistan state, from its feudal landowners to its domination by the military, ethnic allegiance and ethnic rivalry have been and remain a major factor in how Pakistan is governed. The major ethnic groups in Pakistan: Punjabis, Baluchis, Sindhis, and Pashtoons, all have a sub-national identity which impinges on their social and political allegiance and their political behaviour. Nowhere in Pakistan is the mix of ethnicities as great as in Karachi and it is in Karachi that the politicisation of ethnicity can be studied as emblematic of the whole nation. This paper will examine the ethnic politics of Karachi in the new millennium and discuss how the congregation into Karachi of the largest number of Pashtun-speaking people in the world has affected the politics of the city. With Pakistan's population expected to double to some 335 million people over the next forty years, and with internal ethnic rivalries being increasingly exacerbated by the play of international relations and global forces, political mobilization along ethnic lines will become increasingly prevalent. Karachi is a harbinger of this trend.