India History

Europeans in India
India was a British colony. The British left behind them in India a strong imprint of
their philosophy and culture and even today it is evident that English which is a
foreign language is the most important and respected language in India. But the
British were not the only Europeans to arrive in India and have their imprint. Since
ancient period even before the beginning of the Christian era there were relations
between Europeans and Indians. The main Europeans to arrive in ancient India
were Greeks. The Greeks are referred to in ancient Indian history as Yavanas. Even
the most famous ancient Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great, arrived in India.
But actually he arrived up to the present India-Pakistan border. But there were
other Greeks who arrived in India and established kingdoms. Many of these Greek
communities later on adopted Hinduism and integrated in the Indian caste system.
Even today there are communities in Kashmir who claim to be of Greek origin. Not
all Greeks arrived in India to conquer it. There were also Greek scientists who
arrived in India for scientific research, especially in astronomy and mathematics.

Later on other Europeans arrived in India because of commercial reasons. The

Indian sub-continent was then world famous for its spices. But when the Muslim
Ottoman Empire of Turkey ruled the Middle East, they caused lots of problems to
European Christian merchants who tried to pass through their land. Therefore the
Europeans tried to find other routes to reach India. And so accidentally Christopher
Columbus found the continent of America. Columbus tried to get to India while
sailing westwards from Europe. Columbus presumed that because the earth is
round he would eventually get to India while sailing westwards, instead he found the
continent of America whose existence was not known then to the Europeans.
Columbus thought that he had arrived in India and called the natives Indians.

From the 15th century the European representatives arrived in India, namely
English, French, Dutch, Danish and Portuguese. Among these European powers the
Portuguese arrived first in India in 1498 via sea after they had circled the whole of
the African continent. These representatives arrived in India after they received
from their country rulers charter to do business with India.

These Europeans at first requested from the local rulers permission to trade in their
entities. Later on they requested from the local rulers permission to build factories.
After they built factories they requested to build forts around these factories to
defend them from pirates and other dangers. Then they requested to recruit local
Indians to serve as guards and soldiers in these forts and so on they slowly created
their own armies. And so one of the European power's representative, the British
East India Company, became the ruler of India.
The British control of India was a result of several factors. The Portuguese, who
along with their business tried to enforce Roman Catholicism on the Indians were
defeated by local rulers sometimes in collaboration with Protestant European
powers. But still the Portuguese remained in India with small pockets. Their main
center in India was Goa. The Dutch, who had holds in south India and the Danes,
who had holds in east India, left India for their own reasons. The two main
European powers that remained in India were British and French. These two
powers tried different ways to control India and to defeat each other. Each of these
European powers sometimes collaborated with local Indian rulers to defeat the
other European power. Eventually the British became the rulers of India. But the
French like the Portuguese remained in India with small pockets and both these
powers remained in India even after the British left India in 1947.

The British East India Company was actually a trading company and it received
from the British crown charter to trade with the Indian sub-continent. They arrived
in India for spice trade in 1600. Like other European powers that arrived in India,
they at first requested from the local rulers permission to trade in their entities. The
British East India Company was more sophisticated than other Europeans who
arrived in India. This company offered different sophisticated agreements to the
different Indian ruling families, which made them the actual managers of the Indian
kingdoms. They sometimes used their army against local rulers and annexed their
territories with the result that there was lot of embitterment among the Indians
against the British. After the 'Indian Mutiny' of 1857, the British Crown took back
the charter from the East India Company and ruled India directly through a
Viceroy. The British gave India independence in 1947, but its last soldier left India
eventually in 1950. The French also left India in 1950. The Portuguese were the last
to leave India in 1961.

Even though the European powers arrived in India for commercial reasons, they
also started converting local Indians to Christianity. Of the five European powers
the Portuguese were most enthusiastic to baptize Indians. The Portuguese inspired
by the Pope’s order to baptize people around the world not only fought wars against
the local Indian rulers, but also they tried to enforce their Roman Catholic prayers
on Syrian Christians who were in India before the modern European powers
arrived in India (see Christianity in India).
After many wars the Portuguese were defeated by local rulers and they had only one
big pocket of control in India, Goa. Goa was made the capital of Portuguese colonies
in the eastern hemisphere. The Portuguese not only fought the Indian rulers, but
they also fought against other European powers in India especially Dutch and
English. Many Portuguese churches in Kerala were converted into English and
Dutch churches after they were captured by these powers.
The English missionaries started acting in India at a much later period. The British
arrived in India in 1600 and they allowed the missionaries to enter their territory
only from 1813. The British allowed different churches to establish missionaries in
their territory. The missionaries didn’t only spread Christianity, but they also did
humanitarian deeds giving the needy the basic necessities of life like food, clothes
and shelter. The missionaries also built schools in India and many of them exist even
today and have Christian or European originated names.

The British church missionaries succeeded less than the Portuguese in converting
Indians to Christianity, but unlike the Portuguese who tried to enforce Christianity,
these Protestant converts were voluntary. The Portuguese were also aware of the
Indian custom according to which the wife followed her husband’s faith and
therefore married their men to Indian women. Most of the Portuguese baptized
Christians in India have Portuguese oriented surnames, like Fernandez, De Silva,
De Costa and others.

There is also an Anglo-Indian community in India, who are also descendants from
European (English) fathers and Indian mothers, but these relations between English
men and Indian women started because of romantic reasons. The Anglo-Indians are
mostly Christians and have adopted English as their first language. According to the
Indian Constitution, two seats in the Indian Parliament are reserved for the Anglo-
Indian community members.
A Timeline of India in the 1800s

The British Raj Defined India Throughout the 1800s

The British East India Company arrived in India in the early 1600s, struggling and nearly
begging for the right to trade and do business. By the late 1700s the thriving firm of British
merchants, backed by its own army, was essentially ruling India.

In the 1800s English power expanded in India, as it would until the mutinies of 1857-58. After
those very violent spasms things would change, yet Britain was still in control. And India was
very much an outpost of the mighty British Empire.

1600s: The British East India Company Arrives

After several attempts to open trade with a powerful ruler of India failed in the earliest years
of the 1600s, King James I of England sent a personal envoy, Sir Thomas Roe, to the court of
the Mogul emperor Jahangir in 1614.
The emperor was incredibly wealthy and lived in an opulent palace. And he was not interested
in trade with Britain as he couldn't imagine the British had anything he wanted.

Roe, recognizing that other approaches had been too subservient, was deliberately difficult to
deal with at first. He correctly sensed that earlier envoys, by being too accommodating, had
not gained the emperor's respect. Roe's stratagem worked, and the East India Company was
able to establish operations in India.

1600s: The Mogul Empire at Its Peak

of Congress
The Mogul Empire had been established in India in the early 1500s, when a chieftain named
Babur invaded India from Afghanistan. The Moguls (or Mughals) conquered most of northern
India, and by the time the British arrived the Mogul Empire was immensely powerful.
One of the most influential Mogul emperors was Jahangir's son Shah Jahan, who ruled from
1628 to 1658. He expanded the empire and accumulated enormous treasure, and made Islam
the official religion. When his wife died he had the Taj Mahal built as a tomb for her.

The Moguls took great pride in being patrons of the arts, and painting, literature, and
architecture flourished under their rule.

1700s: Britain Assumes the Upper Hand

The Mogul Empire was in a state of collapse by the 1720s. Other European powers were
competing for control in India, and sought alliances with the shaky states that inherited the
Mogul territories.
The East India Company established its own army in India, which was composed of British
troops as well as native soldiers called sepoys.

The British interests in India, under the leadership of Robert Clive, gained military victories
from the 1740s onward, and with the Battle of Plassey in 1757 were able to establish
dominance.
The East India Company gradually strengthened its hold, even instituting a court system.
British citizens began building an "Anglo-Indian" society within India, and English customs
were adapted to the climate of India.

1800s: "The Raj" Enters the Language

, circa 1850/now in public domain
The British rule in India became known as "The Raj," which was derived from the Sanskrit
term raja meaning king. The term did not have official meaning until after 1858, but it was in
popular usage many years before that.
Incidentally, a number of other terms came into English usage during The Raj: bangle,
dungaree, khaki, pundit, seersucker, jodhpurs, cushy, pajamas, and many more.

British merchants could make a fortune in India and would then return home, often to be
derided by those in British high society as "nabobs," the title for an official under the Moguls.

Tales of life in India fascinated the British public, and exotic Indian scenes, such as a drawing
of an elephant fight, appeared in books published in London in the 1820s.

1857: Resentment Toward the British Spills Over

The Indian Rebellion of 1857, which was also called the Indian Mutiny, or the Sepoy Mutiny,
was a turning point in the history of Britain in India.
The traditional story is that Indian troops, called sepoys, mutinied against their British
commanders because newly issued rifle cartridges were greased with pig and cow fat, thus
making them unacceptable for both Hindu and Muslim soldiers. There is some truth to that,
but there were a number of other underlying causes for the rebellion.

Resentment toward the British had been building for some time, and new policies which
allowed the British to annex some areas of India exacerbated tensions. By early 1857 things
had reached a breaking point.

1857-58: The Indian Mutiny

The Indian Mutiny erupted in May 1857, when sepoys rose up against the British in Meerut
and then massacred all the British they could find in Delhi.
Uprisings spread throughout British India. It was estimated that less than 8,000 of nearly
140,000 sepoys remained loyal to the British. The conflicts of 1857 and 1858 were brutal and
bloody, and lurid reports of massacres and atrocities circulated in newspapers and illustrated
magazines in Britain.

The British dispatched more troops to India and eventually succeeded in putting down the
mutiny, resorting to merciless tactics to restore order. The large city of Delhi was left in ruins.
And many sepoys who had surrendered were executed by British troops.

1858: Calm is Restored in British India

Following the Indian Mutiny, the East India Company was abolished and the British crown
assumed full rule of India.
Reforms were instituted, which included tolerance of religion and the recruitment of Indians
into the civil service. While the reforms sought to avoid further rebellions through conciliation,
the British military in India was also strengthened.

Historians have noted that the British government never actually intended to take control of
India, but when British interests were threatened the government had to step in.
The embodiment of the new British rule in India was the office of the Viceroy.

1876: Empress of India

The importance of India, and the affection the British crown felt for its colony, was emphasized
in 1876 when Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli declared Queen Victoria to be "Empress of
India."
British control of India would continue, mostly peacefully, throughout the remainder of the
19th century. It wasn't until Lord Curzon became Viceroy in 1898, and instituted some very
unpopular policies, that an Indian nationalist movement began to stir.

The nationalist movement developed over decades, and, of course, India finally achieved its
independence in 1947.

The British Raj in India

By Kallie Szczepanski, About.com

The very idea of British India seems inexplicable.

Consider the fact that Indian written history stretches back almost 4,000 years, to the
civilization centers of the Indus Valley Culture at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. In addition, by
1850 A.D., India had a population of some 200 million or more.

Britain, on the other hand, had no indigenous written language until the 9th century A.D.
(almost 3,000 years after India). Its population was about 16.6 million in 1850.

How, then, did Britain manage to control India from 1757 to 1947?

The keys seem to have been superior weaponry, a strong profit motive and Eurocentric
confidence.

Europe's Scramble for Colonies in Asia:

From the moment the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope on Africa's southern tip in
1488, opening sea lanes to the Far East, the European powers strove to acquire Asian trading
posts of their own.

For centuries, the Viennese had controlled the European branch of the Silk Road, reaping
enormous profits on silk, spices, fine china and precious metals.

The Viennese monopoly ended with the establishment of the sea-route. At first, the European
powers in Asia were solely interested in trade, but over time, the acquisition of territory grew
in importance.

Among the nations looking for a piece of the action was Britain.
The Battle of Plassey (Palashi):

Britain had been trading in India since about 1600, but it did not begin to seize large sections
of land until 1757, after the Battle of Plassey.

This battle pitted 3,000 soldiers of the British East India Company against the 5,000-strong
army of the young Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud Daulah, and his French East India Company
allies.

Fighting began on the morning of June 23, 1757. Heavy rain spoiled the Nawab's cannon
powder (the British covered theirs), leading to his defeat.

The Nawab lost at least 500 troops, to Britain's 22.

Britain took about $5 million from the Bengali treasury, which financed further expansion.

India under the East India Company:

The East India Company traded in cotton, silk, tea and opium. Following the Battle of Plassey,
it functioned as the military authority in growing sections of India, as well.

By 1770, heavy Company taxation and other policies had left millions of Bengalis
impoverished. While British soldiers and traders made their fortunes, the Indians starved.

Between 1770 and 1773, about 10 million people died of famine in Bengal - 1/3 of the
population.

At this time, Indians also were barred from high office in their own land. The British
considered them inherently corrupt and untrustworthy.

The Indian "Mutiny" of 1857:

Many Indians were distressed by the rapid cultural changes imposed by the British. They
worried that Hindu and Muslim India would be "Christianized."

Early in 1857, a new type of rifle cartridge was given to the soldiers of the British Indian
Army. Rumors spread that the cartridges had been greased with pig and cow fat, an
abomination to both major Indian religions.

On May 10, 1857, the revolt started, when mainly Bengali Muslim troops marched to Delhi and
pledged their support to the Mughal emperor.

Both sides moved slowly, unsure of public reaction. After a year-long struggle, the rebels
surrendered on June 20, 1858.

Control of India Shifts to the India Office:

Following the Rebellion of 1857-58, the British government abolished both the Mughal
Dynasty, which had ruled India more or less for 300 years, and the East India Company.

The Emperor, Bahadur Shah, was convicted of sedition and exiled to Burma.

Control of India was given to a British Governor-General, who reported back to the Secretary
of State for India and the British Parliament.

It should be noted that the British Raj included only about 2/3 of modern India, with the other
portions under the control of local princes. However, Britain exerted a lot of pressure on these
princes, effectively controlling all of India.

"Autocratic Paternalism":

Queen Victoria promised that the British government would work to better its Indian subjects.
To the British, this meant educating them in British modes of thought, and stamping out
cultural practices such as sati.

The British also practiced "divide and rule" policies, pitting Hindu and Muslim Indians against
one another.

In 1905, the colonial government divided Bengal into Hindu and Muslim sections; this division
was revoked after strong protests. Britain also encouraged the formation of the Muslim League
of India in 1907.

The Indian Army was made up mostly of Sikhs, Nepalese Gurkhas, and other minority groups,
as well.

British India in World War I:

During World War I, Britain declared war on German on India's behalf.

More than 1.3 million Indian soldiers and laborers were serving in the British Indian Army by
the time of the Armistice. 43,000 Indian and Gurkha soldiers died.

Although most of India rallied to the British flag, Bengal and Punjab were restive. Many
Indians were eager for independence; they were led by a political new-comer called Mohandas
Gandhi.

In April, 1919, more than 5,000 unarmed protestors gathered at Amritsar, in the Punjab.
British troops fired on the crowd, killing an estimated 1,500 men, women and children. The
official death toll was 379.

British India in World War II:

When World War II broke out, once again, India contributed hugely to the British war effort. In
addition to troops, the princely states donated substantial amounts of cash.
By the end of the war, India had an incredible 2.5 million-man volunteer army. 87,000 Indian
soldiers had died in combat.

The Indian independence movement was very strong by this time, though, and British rule
was widely resented. Some 30,000 Indian POWs were recruited by the Germans and Japanese
to fight against the Allies, in exchange for their freedom. Most, however, remained loyal.

Indian troops fought in Burma, North Africa, Italy, and elsewhere.

The Struggle for Indian Independence, and the Aftermath:

Calls for Self-rule

Even as World War II raged, Gandhi and other members of the Indian National Congress (INC)
demonstrated against British rule of India.

The earlier Government of India Act (1935) had provided for the establishment of provincial
legislatures across the colony. The Act also created an umbrella federal government for the
provinces and princely states, and granted the vote to about 10% of India's male population.

These moves toward limited self-governance only made India impatient for true self-rule.

In 1942, Britain sent the Cripps mission to offer future dominion status in return for help
recruiting more soldiers. Cripps may have made a secret agreement with the Muslim League,
allowing Muslims to opt out of a future Indian state.

In any case, Gandhi and the INC did not trust the British envoy, and demanded immediate
independence in return for their cooperation. When the talks broke down, the INC launched
the "Quit India" movement, calling for the immediate withdrawal of Britons from India.

In response, the British arrested the INC's leadership. Mass demonstrations burst out across
the country, but were crushed by the British Army.

The offer of independence had been made, however. Britain may not have realized it, but it
was now just a question of when the British Raj would end.

After the War

The soldiers who had joined Japan and Germany in fighting the British were put on trial at
Delhi's Red Fort early in 1946. A series of ten courts-martial were held, trying 45 prisoners on
charges of treason, murder and torture.

The men were convicted, but huge public protests forced the commutation of their sentences.
Sympathetic mutinies broke out in the Indian Army and Navy during the trial, as well.

Hindu/Muslim Riots and Partition

On August 17, 1946, violent fighting broke out between Hindus and Muslims in Calcutta. The
trouble quickly spread across India.

Meanwhile, cash-strapped Britain announced its decision to withdraw from India by June of
1948.

Sectarian violence flared again as independence approached. In June of 1947, representatives

of the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs agreed to divide India along sectarian lines.

Hindu and Sikh areas stayed in India, while predominantly Muslim areas in the north became
the nation of Pakistan.

Millions of refugees flooded across the border in each direction. Between 250,000 and 500,000
people were killed in sectarian violence during the Partition.

Pakistan became independent on August 14, 1947. India followed the next day.

The Partition of India

"A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the
old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed,
finds utterance." -Jawarhalal Nehru

14 August, 1947, saw the birth of the new Islamic Republic of Pakistan. At midnight the
next day India won its freedom from colonial rule, ending nearly 350 years of British
presence in India. During the struggle for freedom, Gandhi had written an appeal "To
Every Briton" to free their possessions in Asia and Africa, especially India (Philips and
Wainwright, 567). The British left India divided in two. The two countries were founded
on the basis of religion, with Pakistan as an Islamic state and India as a secular one.

Whether the partition of these countries was wise and whether it was done too soon is
still under debate. Even the imposition of an official boundary has not stopped conflict
between them. Boundary issues, left unresolved by the British, have caused two wars and
continuing strife between India and Pakistan.

The partition of India and its freedom from colonial rule set a precedent for nations such
as Israel, which demanded a separate homeland because of the irreconcilable differences
between the Arabs and the Jews. The British left Israel in May 1948, handing the
question of division over to the UN. Un-enforced UN Resolutions to map out boundaries
between Israel and Palestine has led to several Arab-Israeli wars and the conflict still
continues.
Timeline

1600-British East India Company is established.

1857-The Indian Mutiny or The First War of Independence.

1858-The India Act: power transferred to British Government.

1885-Indian National Congress founded by A. O. Hume to unite all Indians and

strengthen bonds with Britain.

1905-First Partition of Bengal for administrative purposes. Gives the Muslims a majority
in that state.

1906-All India Muslim League founded to promote Muslim political interests.

1909-Revocation of Partition of Bengal. Creates anti-British and anti-Hindu sentiments

among Muslims as they lose their majority in East Bengal.

1916-Lucknow Pact. The Congress and the League unite in demand for greater self-
government. It is denied by the British.

1919-Rowlatt Acts, or black acts passed over opposition by Indian members of the
Supreme Legislative Council. These were peacetime extensions of wartime emergency
measures. Their passage causes further disaffection with the British and leads to protests.
Amritsar Massacre. General Dyer opens fire on 20,000 unarmed Indian civilians at a
political demonstration against the Rowlatt Acts. Congress and the League lose faith in
the British.

1919-Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms (implemented in 1921). A step to self-government

in India within the Empire, with greater provincialisation, based on a dyarchic principle
in provincial government as well as administrative responsibility. Communal
representation institutionalised for the first timeas reserved legislative seats are allocated
for significant minorities.

1920-Gandhi launches a non-violent, non-cooperation movement, or Satyagraha, against

the British for a free India.

1922-Twenty-one policemen are killed by Congress supporters at Chauri -Chaura.

Gandhi suspends non-cooperation movement and is imprisoned.

1928-Simon Commission, set up to investigate the Indian political environment for future
policy-making, fails as all parties boycott it.

1929-Congress calls for full independence.

1930-Dr. Allama Iqbal, a poet-politician, calls for a separate homeland for the Muslims at
the Allahabad session of the Muslim League. Gandhi starts Civil Disobedience
Movement against the Salt Laws by which the British had a monopoly over production
and sale of salt.

1930-31-The Round Table conferences, set up to consider Dominion status for India.
They fail because of non-attendance by the Congress and because Gandhi, who does
attend, claims he is the only representative of all of India.

1931-Irwin-Gandhi Pact, which concedes to Gandhi's demands at the Round Table

conferences and further isolates Muslim League from the Congress and the British.

1932-Third Round Table Conference boycotted by Muslim League. Gandhi re-starts civil
disobedience. Congress is outlawed by the British and its leaders.

1935-Government of India Act: proposes a federal India of political provinces with

elected local governments but British control over foreign policy and defence.

1937-Elections. Congress is successful in gaining majority.

1939-Congress ministries resign.

1940-Jinnah calls for establishment of Pakistan in an independent and partitioned India.

1942-Cripps Mission o India, to conduct negotiations between all political parties and to
set up a cabinet government. Congress adopts Quit India Resolution, to rid India of
British rule. Congress leaders arrested for obstructing war effort.

1942-43-Muslim League gains more power: ministries formed in Sind, Bengal and
North-West Frontier Province and greater influence in the Punjab.

1944-Gandhi released from prison. Unsuccessful Gandhi-Jinnah talks, but Muslims see
this as an acknowledgment that Jinnah represents all Indian Muslims.

1945-The new Labour Government in Britain decides India is strategically indefensible

and begins to prepare for Indian independence. Direct Action Day riots convince British
that Partition is inevitable.

1946-Muslim League participates in Interim Government that is set up according to the

Cabinet Mission Plan.

1947-Announcement of Lord Mountbatten's plan for partition of India, 3 June. Partition

of India and Pakistan, 15 August. Radcliffe Award of boundaries of the nations, 16
August.

1971-East Pakistan separates from West Pakistan and Bangladesh is born.

Reasons for Partition

By the end of the 19th century several nationalistic movements had started in India.
Indian nationalism had grown largely since British policies of education and the advances
made by the British in India in the fields of transportation and communication. However,
their complete insensitivity to and distance from the peoples of India and their customs
created such disillusionment with them in their subjects that the end of British rule
became necessary and inevitable.

However, while the Indian National Congress was calling for Britain to Quit India, the
Muslim League, in 1943, passed a resolution for them to Divide and Quit. There were
several reasons for the birth of a separate Muslim homeland in the subcontinent, and all
three parties-the British, the Congress and the Muslim League-were responsible.

The British had followed a divide-and-rule policy in India. Even in the census they
categorised people according to religion and viewed and treated them as separate from
each other. They had based their knowledge of the peoples of India on the basic religious
texts and the intrinsic differences they found in them instead of on the way they coexisted
in the present. The British were also still fearful of the potential threat from the Muslims,
who were the former rulers of the subcontinent, ruling India for over 300 years under the
Mughal Empire. In order to win them over to their side, the British helped establish the
M.A.O. College at Aligarh and supported the All-India Muslim Conference, both of
which were institutions from which leaders of the Muslim League and the ideology of
Pakistan emerged. As soon as the League was formed, they were placed on a separate
electorate. Thus the idea of the separateness of Muslims in India was built into the
electoral process of India.

There was also an ideological divide between the Muslims and the Hindus of India.
While there were strong feelings of nationalism in India, by the late 19th century there
were also communal conflicts and movements in the country that were based on religious
communities rather than class or regional ones. Some people felt that the very nature of
Islam called for a communal Muslim society. Added to this were the memories of power
over the Indian subcontinent that the Muslims held on to, especially those in the old
centers of Mughal rule. These memories might have made it exceptionally diffficult for
Muslims to accept the imposition of colonial power and culture. They refused to learn
English and to associate with the British. This was a severe drawback for them as they
found that the Hindus were now in better positions in government than they were and
thus felt that the British favored Hindus. The social reformer and educator, Sir Syed
Ahmed Khan, who founded M.A.O. College, taught the Muslims that education and
cooperation with the British was vital for their survival in the society. Tied to all the
movements of Muslim revival was the opposition to assimilation and submergence in
Hindu society. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was also the first to conceive of a separate Muslim
homeland.
Hindu revivalists also deepened the chasm betweent he two nations. They resented the
Muslims for their former rule over India. Hindu revivalists rallied for a ban on the
slaughter of cows, a cheap source of meat for the Muslims. They also wanted to change
the official script form the Persian to the Hindu Devanagri script, effectively making
Hindi rather than Urdu the main candidate for the national language.

Congress made several mistakes in their policies which further convinced the League that
it was impossible to live in a undivided India after freedom from colonial rule because
their interests would be completely suppressed. One such policy was the institution of the
"Bande Matram," a national anthem which expressed anti-Muslim sentiments, in the
schools of India where Muslim children were forced to sing it.

The Muslim League gained power also due to the Congress. The Congress banned any
support for the British during the Second World War. However the Muslim League
pledged its full support, which found favour form them from the British, who also needed
the help of the largely Muslim army. The Civil Disobedience Movement and the
consequent withdrawal of the Congress party from politics also helped the league gain
power, as they formed strong ministries in the provinces that had large Muslim
populations. At the same time, the League actively campaigned to gain more support
from the Muslims in India, especially under the guidance of dynamic leaders like Jinnah.

There had been some hope of an undivided India, with a government consisting of three
tiers along basically the same lines as the borders of India and Pakistan at the time of
Partition. However, Congress' rejection of the interim government set up under this
Cabinet Mission Plan in 1942 convinced the leaders of the Muslim League that
compromise was impossible and partition was the only course to take.

Impact and Aftermath of Partition

"Leave India to God. If that is too much, then leave her to anarchy." --Gandhi, May
1942

The partition of India left both India and Pakistan devastated. The process of partition
had claimed many lives in the riots. Many others were raped and looted. Women,
especially, were used as instruments of power by the Hindus and the Muslims; "ghost
trains" full of severed breasts of women would arrive in each of the newly-born countries
from across the borders.

15 million refugees poured across the borders to regions completely foreign to them, for
though they were Hindu or Muslim, their identity had been embedded in the regions
where there ancestors were from. Not only was the country divided, but so were the
provinces of Punjab and Bengal, divisions which caused catastrophic riots and claimed
the lives of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs alike.
Many years after the partition, the two nations are still trying to heal the wounds left
behind by this incision to once-whole body of India. Many are still in search of an
identity and a history left behind beyond an impenetrable boundary. The two countries
started of with ruined economies and lands and without an established, experienced
system of government. They lost many of their most dynamic leaders, such as Gandhi,
Jinnah and Allama Iqbal, soon after the partition. Pakistan had to face the separation of
Bangladesh in 1971. India and Pakistan have been to war twice since the partition and
they are still deadlocked over the issue of possession of Kashmir. The same issues of
boundaries and divisions, Hindu and Muslim majorities and differences, still persist in
Kashmir

Partition - Aftermath
With West and East Pakistan separated by more than 1,000 miles of Indian territory and with the major
portion of the wealth and resources of the British heritage passing to India, Pakistan's survival seemed to
hang in the balance. Of all the well-organized provinces of British India, only the comparatively backward
areas of Sindh, Balochistan, and the North-West Frontier came to Pakistan intact. The Punjab and Bengal
were divided, and Kashmir became disputed territory. Economically, the situation seemed almost hopeless;
the new frontier cut off Pakistani raw materials from the Indian factories, disrupting industry, commerce, and
agriculture.

The most stupendous of Pakistan's problems stemmed from the refugees influx, particularly in the Punjab.
After the partition, a large number of Muslims migrated from various urban centers of India to live in the new
nation of Pakistan. These migrants later identified themselves as mohajirs. Mohajirs are Muslims who settled
in Pakistan after the partition of British India in 1947. Unlike other cultural groups of Pakistan, they do not
have a tribe-based cultural identity. They are the only people in Pakistan for whom Urdu, the official
language, is their native tongue. A large number of Mohajirs settled in the cities of Sind Province, particularly
Karachi and Hyderabad. They were better educated than most indigenous Pakistanis and assumed
positions of leadership in business, finance, and administration. Today they remain mostly urban, and now
constitute about 8 percent of Pakistan's population.

The Irrigation System which existed at the time of partition in 1947 was divided between the two countries
without any regards to the irrigation boundaries which resulted in an international water dispute which was
finally resolved by signing of the Indus Water Treaty in 1960 under the aegis of World Bank. The Treaty
assigned three Eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej) to India and three Western rivers (Indus, Jhelum &
Chenab) to Pakistan. It also provided construction of replacement works called Indus Basin Projects (IBP) to
compensate for perpetual loss of Eastern rivers' water. The works proposed under the Treaty included two
multipurpose dams i.e. Mangla Dam on Jhelum river and Tarbela Dam on Indus river having the provision of
power generation. These were commissioned in 1967 & 1977 respectively. However, their capacities were
subsequently extended in different phases.

Traditionalists are of the opinion that it was due to the efforts of results of British educated Indians, who
started the struggle for independence, hence it can be said that partition was the result of the awareness of
Indians because of British education system. Another opinion says that India was never a single nation,
hence struggle can not be called a nationalist movement. It was a transfer of powers to Indian elites.
Another opinion is that elites of India got their independence in result of negotiations and the common
people did not benefit from this process. Whereas in Pakistan, history has been explained from ‘Two
Nations’ perspective and ‘heroism’ has also appeared as a pivitol element.
CHAPTER II: THE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF PAKISTANI CULTURE

1. It is the story of a nation and a territory that has existed in history for more than
5000 years with short intervals of political occupation by different dynasties. The
discoveries at Mehrgarh in Balochistan are significant in reinforcing the antiquity of
our culture. Normally, people trace their cultural identity from the origins of their
culture evolving since the time of their recorded history.

2. The origins of Pakistani culture are rooted in its rivers, mountain, plains, deserts,
animals and flora and fauna. The areas constituting Pakistan are one of the oldest
seats of human civilization. The Indus River and its tributaries provided food and
protection of the people living in these areas.

3. Contemporary studies show early human settlements in Punjab, Upper Sindh.

Chitral, Swat, Peshawar, Gomal and Bolan regions. These people were engaged in
cultivation of land and practiced belief systems with a clear perception of a supreme
power who the source of all bounties for mankind. The Indus valley culture was
further enriched by Buddhism whose traces are still visible in brotherhood, hospitality
and conventional wisdom of our people.

GANDHARA CULTURE

4. During the post-Buddhist period, a new culture developed which was culminated
in the shape of the Gandhara Culture. In 558 BC, Cyrus conquered the northern
areas of Pakistan and later on Darius added Makran and Sindh valley to Iranian
empire. Since the Iranians were constantly at war with the Greeks, the impact of this
strife was also felt in this area. The Gandhara culture originated from the interaction
of the local people with the Aryan traditions, Iranian influence, Greek impact, the
culture of Mauriyas, Sakas and Parthians. In addition to these regional and ethnic
influences, it had the stamp of religious impact: the Vedas, Aryan religious concepts,
Buddhism, Paganism and Zoroastrianism. Some of the important features of this
culture have been mentioned in various contemporary studies. Herodotus mentions
that cotton dress was most commonly used by the people of Punjab and Sindh. Bow
and arrows were manufactured. We also learn that Taxila was a centre of learning
with Kautilya and Panini as the major scholars, teaching diplomacy, statecraft and
linguistics. During this period we observe Iranian influence on coinage and
international trade. New trade roots were discovered and goods were exchanged
between Pakistan and other countries in the region. So far as the political
implications of the Greek imperial culture were concerned, they were strongly
resisted by the local people. Alexander the Great during his adventures received
perhaps the strongest resistance in Punjab and Sindh. The period of Gandhara
culture was also enriched by the contribution of Mauriyas and Kanishka, whose
capital was Peshawar.
IMPACT OF ISLAM

5. Although Buddhism as a religion was pushed out of Indus Valley by the closed
society of Brahmans, its impact on our culture had been enormous. Therefore when
Islam appeared in this region, it was Buddhist culture which

5
embraced it willingly. It must be pointed out that the areas that constitute Pakistan
today were on the periphery of the Muslim empire in Delhi, yet Islam established
itself in Pakistan with more speed than around the Muslim seat of political power.
This again testifies to the cultural values of this area, which were more open and
liberal than their counterparts in Central India.

6. The impact of Muslim culture was steady. Starting with the Arabs in Balochistan
and Sindh, it culminated through the Muslim impact from Central Asia. Cultural
transformation of this area had taken place much before the Muslim flag was hoisted
on Delhi. It was not a simple case of Muslim political predominance but the presence
of a culture which saw similarities between Islam and the indigenous social patterns.
It is indeed relevant to point out that the subsequent upheavals of Muslim empire in
the rest of the subcontinent felt the impact of this territory both in terms of its strength
and weakness. The most predominant feature of Muslim culture was the
development of cities, trading centres, and bazaars. The mosque occupied a unique
place not only for religious purposes but also for commercial and social gatherings. If
we look at the contribution of different saints in bringing the new religion to the
masses, we will see that it was in many ways emancipation from the different forms
of oppression.

7. Pakistani culture bears a deep imprint of the thought and the life style of Sufis who
used local medium to convey the intellectual content of the message of the Prophet
of Islam. Even those Sufis who had received their education and training in Iran and
Central Asia adopted local practices in order to appeal to a wider public. Shah Latif’s
story of Marvi, Baba Farid’s Dohre and Rahman Baba’s poetry all represent the local
nodes, natural environments and regional symbols revealing the truth of Islam. The
Mughals introduced new innovations in architecture especially mosques, tombs and
gardens. New flowers and plants were introduced. Dress, music, cuisine and
painting achieved new dimensions. The impact of Islam was felt on local religions
and the emergence of Sikh religion and Bhakti movement could not have been
possible without an interaction with Islam.

THE IMPACT OF COLONIAL CULTURE

8. By the end of the first half of the 19th century, this area was occupied by the British
who had come to the subcontinent 150 years ago. In order to control the people of
this region, the British created a new comprador class which represented their
economic and commercial interest and a new feudal class which was assigned to
controlling the local population. Some of the manifestations of this new development
were made possible through the settlement of canal colonies, railways and other
forms of communication designed primarily with defence and commercial
considerations in mind, but which made the population more mobile.

9. The British also introduced a new language and a new educational and
administrative system. It is a truism that each language brings its own culture.

6
The introduction of the English language imported Western cultural paradigms in
Pakistan. Forms of literary works underwent a change and the influence of European
themes became visible. These impressions were further strengthened through the
missionary schools and emergence of a new urban culture. Cricket, which has now
become a part of our culture, was a product of this period.

10. Social stratification also underwent considerable change both in the urban as
well as rural areas.

ROLE OF CULTURE IN THE PAKISTAN MOVEMENT

11. One of the most devastating impacts of the colonial period was the suppression
of our cultural heritage. The movement for independence, therefore, was deep-
rooted in our cultural environment. Whether it was the question of the Urdu-Hindi
controversy, cow slaughter, or violation of the sanctity of mosques, the paramount
issue always had cultural bearings on our political struggle for freedom. Whenever
we felt that our cultural values were being violated by the British or other
movements, a new vigour to save our culture pushed the struggle for Pakistan to
new horizons. If we look at the subsequent developments in the movement towards
Pakistan, we witness that it was essentially the issue of our identity that paved the
way for the political acceptance of the idea of Pakistan.

12. An objective analysis of the cultural overtones of the politics of the Indian
National Congress would show that the congress leadership, contrary to their claims
of pluralism and secularism, had little place for the cultural values of the Muslims.
There was thus a denial of those aspects of Indian culture which were shaped jointly
by all belief systsms.

13. In order to counter these assaults against the historical forces and cultural
heritage of Pakistani people, the Muslim leadership in South Asia undertook a
struggle to focus on the cultural patterns and cultural uniqueness of the future
Pakistan state. It emphasized the achievement of a unique culture that was not only
different from the other cultures in the region but also distinct from the culture of
those immigrants who had settled here from different parts of the Middle East and
the Central Asia. Therefore, even in those initial stages, when the contours of
Pakistani nationalism were being shaped, culture played a very important role.

14. Perhaps the best appreciation of Pakistani culture was offered by Dr.
Mohammed Iqbal who stressed the fundamentals of this culture in two ways: firstly,
by highlighting the spirit of Muslim culture and secondly by emphasizing the culture
of those areas which constitute today’s Pakistan. In both cases Iqbal not only saw
the higher culture of Islam shaping the destiny of these people but also its role in the
future relationship between Pakistan and the Muslim countries of the Middle East
and Central Asia. The idea of Pakistan presented by him was a concrete vision of
the salient features of the Pakistani culture which were felt threatened because of
the onslaught of Western colonialism as well as the politics of some extremist
religious movements.
7
IQBAL’S CONCEPT OF CULTURE

15. While defining the ingredients of Muslim culture, Iqbal emphasized that the spirit
of Muslim culture was not so much as a breaking point from history but as initiating a
process of intellectual revolution which developed into inductive reasoning. He stated
that the abolition of priesthood and hereditary kingship in Islam, the constant appeal
to reason and experience in the Qura’n and the emphasis that is laid on Nature and
History formed the basis of this new intellectual framework.

16. Iqbal’s emphasis on the recognition and development of khudi (self) centres on
the creativity of individuals and their collective transformation into a system of
intellectual power which subjugates various phenomena of nature and to some
extent controls the direction of history. This concept of development of the human
self is based again on the triad of self-knowledge, nature and history. In other words,
it is the highest form of cultural development that is visualized as the ultimate
development of human consciousness. Explaining the various aspects of the spirit of
Muslim culture, Iqbal identifies knowledge of the concrete as the starting point of the
method of observation and experiment in Islam. Knowledge of the concrete is
conceived as “the intellectual capture of and power over the concrete that makes it
possible for the intellect of man to pass beyond the concrete”. This knowledge is
evolutionary in the sense that time is perceived to be an active agent of change. Any
culture that lags behind the intellectual framework of time is doomed to decay and
ultimate extinction. Muslim culture thus provides a dynamic concept of the universe.
This idea of human unity is the hallmark of Iqbal as a social movement to make this
idea a living factor.

Concluding his statement on the spirit of Muslim culture, Iqbal asks Muslims “to
appreciate the cultural value of the idea of the finality of Prophethood in Islam.” This
idea was the foundation for Iqbal to study the cultural transformations taking place in
other Muslim areas. He says, “the teaching of the Qura’n that life is a process of
progressive creation necessitates that each generation guided but unhampered by
the work of its predecessors should be prompted to solve its own problems.” It is
indeed relevant to point out that when he spoke of a future Muslim independent state
in South Asia, he laid a particular emphasis on the areas that constitute the territory
of Pakistan today.

17. Demographically, Muslims were in an overwhelming majority in the areas of

today’s Pakistan. It was both the territorial contiguity of Pakistani territory with the
Middle East and Central Asia as well as its unique cultural identity that made the
existence of independent Pakistan possible.

QUAID-I-AZAM’S VIEWS ON PAKISTANI CULTURE

18. With Pakistan’s independence, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah laid down
the principles of the future cultural contours of Pakistan. The Quaid-i-Azam not only
defended the intellectual heritage of Islam, but also the capacity of Pakistani culture
to absorb modern ideas of nationalism and statehood. His political leadership was
the result of that historical process in which culture and history played an important
role and it is because of this process that he was
8
successful in materializing Iqbal’s thought of independence for the people of
Pakistan so that they could develop their distinct cultural heritage without any
hindrance. In many ways, his speech of 11th August 1947 that was delivered before
the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan forms the basis of not only the Pakistani state,
but also its cultural policies.
19. Highlighting the salient features of Pakistan’s cultural growth, the Quaid told the
nation: “you are free: you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your
mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong
to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the
state.” This message contained the spirit of Pakistani culture which was supposed to
be nurtured under the guidance of the principles of equality and freedom. Dwelling
on the historical experience of Britain, he visualized a culture for Pakistan where
identity of the citizens will not be judged through sectarian, religious and ethnic
appellations, but as members of an independent nation. He not only saw the
disappearance of sectarianism amongst Muslims, but also in wider terms, where
“Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in
the religious sense, but in the political sense as citizens of Pakistan.”
20. During the swearing-in ceremony as the first Governor-General of Pakistan,
when the Quaid was reminded by Mountbatten to follow the ideals of Akbar the
Great, he replied, “The tolerance and goodwill that the great Emperor Akbar showed
to all non-Muslims is not of recent origin. It dates back thirteen centuries ago when
our Prophet not only by words but by deeds treated the Jews and Christians, after he
had conquered them, with the utmost tolerance and regard and respect for their faith
and beliefs.” In addition to the historical developments of Muslim culture, the Quaid
visualized the Charter of Madina (Mithaq-i-Madina) as the foundation stone of
Muslim culture. Lest this notion of Islamic heritage was misinterpreted, he
categorically declared, “…make no mistake. Pakistan is not a theocracy or anything
like it. Islam demands from us the tolerance of other creeds and we welcome in
closest association with us all those who, of whatever creed, are themselves willing
and ready to play their part as true and loyal citizens of Pakistan.”
21. The Quaid was not only conscious of our Islamic heritage, but also emphasized
the contribution of Pakistan’s cultural legacy and historical experience. He stated
“Not only are most of us Muslims but we have our own history, customs and
traditions and those ways of thought, outlook and instinct which go to make a sense
of nationality.” Perhaps no other statement could be as comprehensive as this in
conceptualizing the essence of Pakistani culture. It is here that we see the
contribution of our territory both in history and social formation in shaping the
contours of our culture. The emphasis is clearly laid on our history, customs,
traditions, thinking, outlook and insight, in addition to our identity as Muslims. Aware
of our spiritual and material progress, he declared: “we demanded Pakistan, we
struggled for it, we achieved it so that physically as well as spiritually we are free to
conduct our affairs according to our traditions and genius. Brotherhood, equality and
fraternity of man these are all the basic
9
points of our religion, culture, and civilization”. These ideas indeed clearly lay down
the principles of our cultural policy which seeks to rejuvenate optimism in the
strength of our culture, our traditions and our outlook.
POST-INDEPENDENCE CULTURE

22. The impact of some myopic post-independence policies on our cultural heritage
was almost suicidal. The tragedy of East Pakistan was essentially a product of this
unfortunate legacy. In 1947, what we inherited was a conglomeration of regional
culture which shared common grounds could act as a bond to integrate various
regional cultures.

23. Post-1971 Pakistan represented a turning point in our history which points at two
lessons. Firstly, no system of government could keep Pakistan as a united entity but
democracy. Democracy ensures participation of the people in policy formulation and
provides true legitimacy to rulers and legislators. Pakistan was created because of
democracy and it was the power of the people that had strengthened the hands of
our leaders who foiled every attempt that was aimed at denying our independence.
Secondly, that religion alone could not keep us together, especially when it is not
reflective of the people’s aspirations. Pakistani people identify their religion with the
Holy Prophet of Islam whose treatment of his followers as well as Christians and
Jews provide the ultimate framework of establishing a cosmopolitan society where
religious affiliations, racial and ethnic considerations, and allusion to social and
political status are not allowed to hinder the distribution of social justice, equality, and
brotherhood. These dimensions of Islam form an integral part of our popular culture
which has been strengthened by the messages of love and mutual respect by the
saints of this land.

24. It shows that the state can only succeed in an environment of peace, tolerance,
and freedom where people feel free to practise their religion.

25. Where the state was not able or willing to provide a conducive environment, arts,
theatre and film industry suffered. This facilitated the VCR/DVD/CD culture which
was nourished by uncensored foreign films. Many of the younger generation were
drawn to these films, several of which depicted violence, obscenity and corruption.
The unfortunate impact of this new culture is still visible in our cities and towns, and
has even penetrated some of our countryside.
Identity Crisis After Independence:

Muslims as a whole really were quite different from Hindus but within Muslims, the
society was divided into many sub groups. As already has been mentioned that society of
sub-continent has been a product of firstly the struggle between local Dravidians and
Indo-Arians, secondly the struggle between Indo-Arians and Persian as well as Greek
invaders, fourthly the political dominance of Muslims which effectively lasted up till
eighteenth century and lastly the British rule and its downfall. Due to such a nature of
historical events, the present day Pakistan’s society is ethnically diverse. Pakistanis trace
their ethnic lineages to many different origins, largely because the country lies in an area
that was invaded repeatedly during its long history. Migrations of Muslims from India
since 1947 and refugees from Afghanistan since the 1980s have significantly changed the
demographics of certain areas of the country. The people of Pakistan come from ethnic
stocks such as Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Greek, Scythian, Hun, Arab, Mongol, Persian, and
Afghan. The people follow many different cultural traditions and speak many different
languages and dialects. At the time of independence, Pakistani territory was divided into
two wings i.e. East and West Pakistan, which were separated by a distance of 1000 miles.
West Pakistan corresponds to present day Pakistan whereas East Pakistan became
independent country of Bangladesh in 1971, mainly because of the identity crisis of
Pakistan. Originally, West Pakistan consisted of four provinces i.e. Punjab, Sindh,
N.W.F.P and Balochistan. East Pakistan was a single province, which had its population
greater than all the four provinces of West Pakistan combined. Pakistan faced its first
identity crisis when government adopted Urdu as national language. Although Urdu was
not just a regional language and was widely understood among the people of different
provinces and so could better serve the purpose of inter-provincial communication but
this language had not any deep roots in the East Pakistan, the largest province of the
country. People of East Pakistan protested against the decision of making Urdu as
national language and they raised the demand of making Bengali as a national language
as this was the language of majority population of East and West Pakistan combined. But
this demand could not be acceptable to the people of any of the provinces of the West
Pakistan because Bengali language had no roots at all in any of the provinces of West
Pakistan. Urdu language, finally became the official national language but without happy
consent of the largest province of the country. Obviously, country was divided into many
sub-cultures who had their own languages and they did have emotional attachment with
their own regional languages also. Our early leaders however were trying to identify the
country as a uni-lingual one but this was not the on ground reality of course.

Secondly, our early leaders also tried not only to conceive, but also to practically make
the whole country a cultural unity. They abolished the provinces of West Pakistan with
the view to make it one cultural unit. This was an attempt to eliminate the regional
cultures of different provinces in order to promote the idea of a one single culture. The
underlying purpose however was political in nature whose aim was to bring West
Pakistan at the level of political parity with the otherwise more populous East Pakistan.
Political benefit was going in the favour of West Pakistan but still then people of
different provinces of West Pakistan protested against this new scheme and insisted on
the separate distinct identities of regional cultures of the provinces. It means that people
of country had strong emotional ties with their regional sub-cultures but our leaders were
not ready to accept this fact. This thing created a grave unrest among the people of East
Pakistan as the new scheme had put them on politically disadvantageous position. Since
our leaders failed to apprehend the plural nature of the culture of country and since they
did not identify the true national identity, so the consequent identity crisis at last resulted
in the Separation of East Pakistan in 1971.

How a country identifies its National Identity is important because it is actually the
comprehension of a country about the composition and structure of its own society and
culture. This National Identity not only determines objectives and goals for the people
and leadership of the country, it also determines the type of relationships with other
sovereign countries of the world. Secondly, National Identity of a country is not any rigid
or fixed entity, as its various aspects always remain in the process of change and
developments as a result of the changes that occur in the political and cultural
environment of the whole world. Pakistan’s National Identity also has gone through
many such changes. Before the separation of East Pakistan, the main outstanding issues
were those, which mainly related to the interrelationships of different provinces. Loss of
East Pakistan resulted in somewhat reduced burden of this type of issues and so rest of
the Pakistan successfully resolved the matters relating to interrelationships of the
remaining provinces, in the form of unanimous constitution of 1973. With the passage of
time however, those issues are again getting significance and so there is need to re-
identify the current composition, structure and kind of country’s society. Country has also
got the experience of both civil democratic political set-ups as well as various Martial
Law regimes. But we still are in need to identify which form of government best suits to
the taste and needs of our society. On the international environment, due to many factors,
image of Muslim societies is being negatively projected. Mass international media is
projecting this wrong information that Muslim societies are the supporters of terrorist
activities on the global scale. Muslim societies are being labeled as ‘extremist societies’.
Pakistan is also one of the victims of this wrong media projection. Under these current
crisis, we are in need to evaluate our true identity i.e. whether we, as a nation, are
extremist people or are enlightened, moderate, balanced, peace loving, and at the same
time, brave people. By the Grace of Almighty God, now we are a nuclear power nation
and so we should identify ourselves as more balanced and more responsible nation than
before.
History of Pakistan After Independence

After Independence

Jinnah became Pakistan’s first governor-general. The newly established country

ended up with few natural resources, little manufacturing capability and relatively little
of the Raj’s old administrative-commercial infrastructure. But its most serious problem
was simply that there were two Pakistan, separated by 1600 km of hostile India.

West Pakistan consisted of Baluchistan, Sind West Punjab (including what’ s now
the NWPF) and – pending a Kashmir settlement – so – called Azad (Free) Kashmir
and the Northern Areas, while Bengal and part of Sylhet district made up east
Pakistan. Though the west was militarily dominant, Bengalis made up slightly more
than half the population, and their tea and jute supplied most of the country’s export
earnings. The tone was set early and there was fierce eastern objections to Urdu as the
official language. The only real connection between the two halves was that they were
Muslim.

In September 1948, barely a year into independence and in the midst of the war with
India, Jinnah died of tuberculosis. His death was body blow for the struggling
country, which had no other politicians equal to Jinnah – known posthumously as
Quaid-i-Azam (pronounced ‘kye-dee-AH-zum’) or Great Leader.

His deputy and friend Liaquat Ali Khan became Prime Minister. A Mohajir, he
believed like Jinnah that Pakistan should be a secular state. Many Muslim religious
leaders felt otherwise, and the argument still rages today. When Liaquat Ali was
assassinated three years later in Rawalpindi, Pakistan headed towards chaos.

A muddle of squabbling governors –general and Prime Ministers and severe

economic slump followed, but in March 1956-8 ½ years after its founding –
Pakistan finally produced a constitution, becoming the Islamic republic of Pakistan,
with a parliamentary form of government. West Pakistan’s Provinces were
amalgamated into a single mega-province in symmetry with East Pakistan.

But President Iskander Mirza, a retired major general with no patience for the
factionalism, bickering and opportunism that was (and still is) typical of Pakistan
politics, nor with the growing autonomy movement in the east, in October 1958
abrogated the constitution, abolished political parties and declared martial law – a state
Pakistan has been in, in one from or another, for most of its life since then. Mirza
promised it would be brief, until he could ‘clean up the mess’ and write a new
constitution.

Karachi had been the temporary capital but in 1959 it was decided to build a brand new
one near the Grand Trunk Road, the foothills and the army’s headquarters at
Rawalpindi. Construction began on the city of Islamabad in 1961.

China, following its invasion of Tibet in 1950, occupied parts of Ladakh, Baltistan
and the upper Shimshal Valley in the mid-1950s.

Ayub Khan

Mirza’s Prime –minister was the army commander-in-chief, General Muhammad

Ayub Khan, and three other ministers were lieutenant –generals . Within hours of their
swearing in, they told Mirza to resign and Ayub Khan assumed the presidency too.

Martial law lasted over 3 ½ year. In March 1962 Ayub presented a new constitution
proving for a powerful president, a National Assembly and east and west provincial
assemblies, chosen by a bizarre system of easily manipulated village-level elections. He,
of course, was confirmed as president.

Despite limited political freedoms, many Pakistanis look back fondly on the early
Ayub years. Economic growth was vigorous. As part of a water – rights settlement with
India, the world Bank gave enormous sums to build Mangla dam on the Jhelum
River and Tarbela Dam, the world’s biggest earthen Dam, on the Indus. From the
USA Came military aid. Somehow the East Pakistanis never seemed to get their share
of the pie.

When China and India clashed in 1962 over their border in Ladakh (still disputed
today), Pakistan saw a new ally. In a 1964 thaw, China and Pakistan sorted out their
own Karakoram border and proposed a ‘Friendship Highway’ over the mountains
(a story claims that Ayub declined a similar offer by Soviet Premier Bulganin to build a
road through Ishkoman).

Pakistan already had a Swat-to-Gilgit jeep road underway. A 1966 pact expanded this
to a two-lane highway from Havelian to the border, the so-called Karakoram
Highway, with Pakistanis working north from the Indus and Chinese working south
from the Khunjerab Pass, as well as on their own side. In the end the work went on in
Pakistan until 1980.

Ayub was re-elected in 1965. in the same year Pakistan and India again went to war
over Kashmir, a 2 ½-week exercise in which Pakistan took a beating. After that Ayub
became remote and dictatorial, sacking his foreign minister (a Sind landowner named
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto) and arresting Sheikh Mujibur Raman (Sheikh Mujib),
leader of the Awami Party which advocated autonomy was made on Ayub’s life.

Yahya Khan & Civil War

in March 1969 a ill Ayub handed responsibility over to his own commander-in-chief,
general Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, and resigned. Yahya imposed martial law
again and named himself president. Among his early acts was to end the autonomy of the
old princely states of the north – Chitral, Swat, Dir, Hunza, Nagar and various
Baltistan fiefdoms.

Political activity was legally resumed in January 1970, the old separate western
Province were resurrected and general elections for a civilian government were
scheduled for December. In the meantime, a cyclone wreaked havoc in East Pakistan
and West Pakistan’s shamefully indifferent response was the last straw for the
Bengalis.

The elections turned Pakistan on its head. The charismatic Z A Bhutto and his
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won a majority of West Pakistan seats in the National
Assembly, but Sheikh Mujib’s Awami League won nearly all of East Pakistan’s
seats, giving it an overall majority. Even Bhutto refused to allow the easterners to from
the government. After some futile attempts at compromise, Yahya suspended the
assembly and East Pakistan went on general strike. In March 1971 the army clamped
down, Sheikh Mujib was arrested and civil war broke out.

Army cruelty was met by an equally cruel resistance, and hundreds of thousands died.
The Bengalis declared themselves the independent state of Bangladesh. In
November, India, flooded with more than nine million refugees, declared war on
Pakistan; hostilities also broke out on the western border. Again Pakistan took a
drubbing, and surrendered within weeks.

Bangladesh went its way in January 1972, and Z A Bhutto replaced Yahya Khan
as president of a truncated Pakistan. When Bangladesh was admitted to the British
Commonwealth in the same year, Pakistan withdrew from that organization.

Bhutto & Zia

Faced with demoralization and imminent economic collapse, Bhutto undertook major
judicial, agrarian, health and educational reforms aimed at greater social equity. He
nationalized bank and industries and restructured the military, and there was talk of
land reform. A 1973 constitution revived the post of prime minister, which he
assumed.

In February 1973 Bhutto sacked the Baluchistan government, whom he suspected

of wanting to secede. The resulting Baluch tribal uprising, in which some 10,000 people
died, was only put down with some the help of the air force. Despite his populist
beginnings, Bhutto began allying himself with industrialists and zamindars (rural
landowners), and set up a powerful ‘palace guard’, the Federal Security Service.

Bhutto met Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at Simla (India) in June
1972, where they agreed to ‘respect’ the so-called line of control –ie the 1971 cease-fire
line, little different from the 1949 one – and to resolve future differences peacefully. (in
trying to justify its continued hold on Kashmir, India has since suggested that the
wording of the Simla Agreement endorses the line of control as a genuine border.)
Pakistan recognized Bangladesh in 1974.
The (PPP) did very well in 1977 elections, but they were accused of fraud and people
took to the streets in protest across the country. Bhutto declared martial law in
Karachi, Hyderabad and Lahore and had opposition leaders arrested. With anti-
government violence on the rise his army chief of staff, general Muhammad Zia ul-
Haq, on 5 July 1977 staged a bloodless coup and it was back to martial law. Bhutto
was arrested on trumped-up murder charges, tried and convicted, and despite an
international outcry he was hanged in April 1979.

Zia had promised elections within 90 days but ended up ruling by decree for 7 ½
years, banning political parties, introduction Islamic penal laws and moving the country
toward strict rule. His big windfall was the December 1979 Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan, after which the USA began funneling huge amounts of military assistance
to Pakistan, and Zia went from pariah to hero of the fee world. Afghan Mujahideen
set up bases in Pakistan, and almost four million refugees eventually crossed into the
NWFP and Baluchistan. With them came a flood of guns and drugs.

In 1982, Zia visited China, the KKH was inaugurated, the Northern Areas were
opened to tourism and the Khunjerab pass was opened to official traffic and trade (and
to tourists in 1986).

Meanwhile the PPP and other parties began re-forming, under the Movement for the
Restoration of Democracy. Bhutto’s widow Nusrat and his Western-educated
daughter Benazir were elected to chair the PPP. A programme of civil disobedience in
1983 failed to dislodge Zia, and many activists, including Bhutto, went into exile.
Thousands died in anti-government riots across Sind.

Under domestic and International pressure Zia permitted a non-party national Assembly
election in February 1985. The following December he legalized political parties
under strict conditions , and lifted martial law.

Benazir Bhutto

Bhutto returned from England April1986 and traveled round the country drawing
rapturous, record-size crowds and calling for Zia’s resignation and free elections. But
when she and other were briefly jailed in August, the momentum was lost. She surprised
some supporters by agreeing to an arranged marriage, In December 1987, to Sindhi
businessman Asif Lai Zardari.

In May 1988 Zia unexpectedly dismissed his hand –picked prime minister,
Mohammad Khan Junejo, dissolved the assemblies and scheduled elections for 16
November. But on 17 August Zia, five of his generals and the US ambassador died in
the crash of a military plane at Bahawalpur, the cause of which has never been
determined (or at any rate never made public).

Surprisingly, things at that point moved strictly in accordance with the constitution.
Acting president Ghulam ishaq Khan insisted the election would go ahead and the
Supreme Court upheld a PPP petition for political parties to participate. Despite
strenuous efforts by the military to discredit them, the PPP did just well enough to from
a coalition government. In 1 December 1988, in an atmosphere of national euphoria,
Bhutto was sworn in as prime minister, the first ever elected woman leader of a
Muslim country.

The job was formidable for a 36-year-old with no political experience, particularly with
the military looking over her shoulder. She declared war on the burgeoning heroin trade,
and received death threats for her trouble. Provincial party politics scuttled social and
economic programmes, and prices soared.

In foreign policy Bhutto seemed to be a hostage of the army. The last Soviet troops left
Afghanistan in February 1989 but the war continued by proxy, the Soviets aiding
Kabul and the USA arming the guerrillas with the help of Pakistan military gence. In
an encouraging move. Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Islamabad in
July 1989, but by the end of the year India n troops had burst into Kashmir to begin a
programme of repression that turned things sour. On a positive note, Pakistan in 1990
rejoined the Commonwealth.

Pakistan politics being more about power than principals, Bhutto’s opponents
hammered away at her. The biggest thorn in her side was Zia Protégé Mian Nawaz
Sharif, then chief Minister of Punjab. Bhutto did’t help matters with her arrogant
style. PPP government coalitions in Sind and the NWFP collapsed. Her husband’s
legal threats against at least 10 Pakistani newspapers antagonised the press. In
October 1989, a vote of no confidence was only narrowly averted in the national
Assembly.
In 1989 and 1990, hundreds died in mob violence and political terrorism among
Sindhis, Pashtuns and Mohajirs in Karachi and Hyderabad. Rural banditry and
kidnapping became a growth industry in Sind. Bhutto (herself a Sindhi) demanded army
help for the Sind government but the army essentially wanted martial law.

President Ishaq Khan finally bowed to pressure and on 6 August 1990 dismissed the 20-
month-old government, citing corruption, nepotism and abuse of power. In a series of
special tribunals, Bhutto faced corruption charges (still unresolved), and her husband
was arrested on charges of kidnapping and extortion.

In elections two months later, a PPP-dominated alliance was crushed, Nawaz Sharif
became Prime minister and his Islamic Democratic Alliance formed ruling coalitions in
every province. The Bhutto name had been exorcised from Pakistani politics, and a
brilliant chance to put Pakistan on its feet had been squandered.

Nawaz Sharif

Fears of a return to martial law have not materialized but Nawaz Sharif is Having a
rough ride, and the army is still clearly in the back ground.

In 1990, the USA suspended US$564 million in economic and military aid over
Pakistan’s alleged nuclear bomb programme. The 1990-91 Kuwait War brought an
end to huge remittances by Pakistani workers in Kuwait. The aid cut-off and the war
generated bitter anti-American feelings, and most foreign tourists , aid workers and
missionaries either left the country or moved around very carefully.

The government was rocked in 1991by a savings bank scandal in the wake of the BCCI
collapse, and Sharif’s own family came out of it with dirty hands. While the
zamindars and others with connections prospered, great Swaths of people at the
bottom end simply gave up on finding work.

Worst of all lawlessness was spreading all over the country –violence in Karachi,
routine looting and kidnappings in rural Sind and southern Punjab, guns in the
NWFP, Sunni-Shea tension in the Northern Areas and a general rise in crime. Few
were betting on Nawaz Sharif.
The USA and USSR agreed in 1991 to end aid to the Afghanistan government and
guerrillas. With the Afghan government and guerrillas. With the collapse of the USSR
(later CIS)at the end of that year, Pakistan began to lose its image as a valued strategic
ally. The Afghan conflict moved into endgame. In April 1992, Afghan President
Najibullah was ejected in a palace coup and, one by one, Afghanistan’s Major cities
fell to the Mujahideen. Since installation of a Mujahideen central government in
Afghanistan, some refugees have begun returning to their ravaged homeland.

In September 1992, two weeks of heavy monsoon rains unleashed Pakistan’s worst
floods in a century. Mountain villages were buried under rock and mudslides. Nearly all
the bridges in Azad Jammu & Kashmir were washed away. Flood waves surged
down the Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers, growing as they
converged, overflowing their banks and submerging thousands of villages and towns.

Thousand of People are thought to Have died (including some 400 on an island below
Mangla Dam who drowned when the dam’s floodgates were opened abruptly) and
more than a million made homeless. To save threatened downstream dams, barrages and
towns, many embankments were blasted open, flooding further cropland in the plains.
The resulting massive crop losses –especially of cotton and rice, Pakistan’s main export
earners –dealt a heavy blow to the country’s economy.

Nawaz Sharif (who in the midst of the disaster went off on a pilgrimage to Mecca) took
a bettering for his government’s slow and inadequate relief efforts. Opposition leader
Benazir Bhutto capitalized on popular anger with a campaign of rallies and mass
march aimed at his resignation. She was briefly put under house arrest and banned from
the capital area when she attempted to lead a march from Rawalpindi to Islamabad.
History of Pakistan after Independence

History of Pakistan after Independence

Early Governments and the Constitution of 1956

The first government of Pakistan was headed by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and
it chose the seaport of Karāchi as its capital. Jinnah, considered the founder of
Pakistan and hailed as the Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader), became head of state as
governor-general. The government faced many challenges in setting up new
economic, judicial, and political structures. It endeavored to organize the
bureaucracy and the armed forces, resettle the Mohajirs (Muslim refugees from
India), and establish the distribution and balance of power in the provincial and
central governments. Undermining these efforts were provincial politicians who often
defied the authority of the central government, and frequent communal riots. Before
the government could surmount these difficulties, Jinnah died in September 1948.

In foreign policy, Liaquat established friendly relations with the United States when
he visited President Harry S. Truman in 1950. Pakistan’s early foreign policy was one
of nonalignment, with no formal commitment to either the United States or the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the two major adversaries in the Cold
War. In 1953, however, Pakistan aligned itself with the United States and accepted
military and economic assistance.

Liaquat was assassinated in 1951. Khwaja Nazimuddin, an East Pakistani who had
succeeded Jinnah as governor-general, became prime minister. Ghulam Muhammad
became governor-general. Nazimuddin attempted to limit the powers of the
governor-general through amendments to the Government of India Act of 1935,
under which Pakistan was governed pending the adoption of a constitution. Ghulam
Muhammad dismissed Nazimuddin and replaced him with Muhammad Ali Bogra,
Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, who subsequently was elected president
of the Muslim League.

In the 1954 provincial elections in East Pakistan, the Muslim League was routed by
the United Front coalition, which supported provincial autonomy. The coalition was
dominated by the Awami League. However, Ghulam Muhammad imposed governor’s
rule in the province, preventing the United Front from taking power in the provincial
legislature. After the constituent assembly attempted to curb the governor-general’s
power, Ghulam Muhammad declared a state of emergency and dissolved the
assembly. A new constituent assembly was indirectly elected in mid-1955 by the
various provincial legislatures. The Muslim League, although still the largest party,
was no longer dominant as more parties, including those of the United Front
coalition, gained representation. Bogra, who had little support in the new assembly,
was replaced by Chaudhri Muhammad Ali, a former civil servant in West Pakistan and
a member of the Muslim League. At the same time, General Iskander Mirza became
governor-general.
The new constituent assembly enacted a bill, which became effective in October
1955, integrating the four West Pakistani provinces into one political and
administrative unit, known as the One Unit. This change was designed to give West
Pakistan parity with the more populous East Pakistan in the national legislature. The
assembly also produced Pakistan’s first constitution, which was adopted on March 2,
1956. It provided for a unicameral (single-chamber) National Assembly with 300
seats, evenly divided between East and West Pakistan. It also officially designated
Pakistan an Islamic republic. According to its provisions, Mirza’s title changed from
governor-general to president.
Unstable Parliamentary Democracy

The new charter notwithstanding, political instability continued because no stable

majority party emerged in the National Assembly. Prime Minister Ali remained in
office only until September 1956, when he was unable to retain his majority in the
National Assembly and was succeeded by Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, founder of
the Awami League of East Pakistan. He formed a coalition cabinet that included the
Awami League and the Republican Party of the West Wing, a new party that was
formed by dissident members of the Muslim League. However, President Mirza forced
Suhrawardy to resign after he discovered that the prime minister was planning to
support Firoz Khan Noon, leader of the Republican Party, for the presidency in the
country’s first general elections, scheduled for January 1959. The succeeding
coalition government, headed by Ismail Ibrahim Chundrigar of the Muslim League,
lasted only two months before it was replaced by a Republican Party cabinet under
Noon.

President Mirza, realizing he had no chance of being reelected president and openly
dissatisfied with parliamentary democracy, proclaimed martial law on October 7,
1958. He dismissed Noon’s government, dissolved the National Assembly, and
canceled the scheduled general elections. Mirza was supported by General
Muhammad Ayub Khan, commander in chief of the army, who was named chief
martial-law administrator. Twenty days later Ayub forced the president to resign and
assumed the presidency himself.

The Ayub Years

President Ayub ruled Pakistan almost absolutely for a little more than ten years.
Although his regime made some notable achievements, it did not eliminate the basic
problems of Pakistani society. Ayub’s regime increased developmental funds to East
Pakistan more than threefold. This had a noticeable effect on the economy of the
province, but the disparity between the two wings of Pakistan was not eliminated.
His regime also initiated land reforms designed to reduce the political power of the
landed aristocracy. Ayub also promulgated a progressive Islamic law, the Muslim
Family Laws Ordinance of 1961, imposing restrictions on polygamy and divorce and
reinforcing the inheritance rights of women and minors.

In 1959, soon after taking office, Ayub ordered the planning and construction of a
new national capital, to replace Karachi. The chosen location of the new capital in the
province of Punjab was close to the military headquarters of Rawalpindi which served
as an interim capital. Islamabad officially became the new capital in 1967, although
construction continued into the 1970s.

Perhaps the most pervasive of Ayub’s changes was his introduction of a new political
system, known as the Basic Democracies, in 1959. It created a four-tiered system of
mostly indirect representation in government, from the local to the national level,
allowing communication between local communities and the highly centralized
national government. Each tier was assigned certain responsibilities in local
administration of agricultural and community development, such as maintenance of
elementary schools, public roads, and bridges. All the councils at the tehsil (sub
district), zilla (district), and division levels were indirectly elected. The lowest tier, on
the village level, consisted of union councils. Members of the union councils were
known as Basic Democrats and were the only members of any tier who were directly
elected.

A new constitution promulgated by Ayub in 1962 ended the period of martial law.
The new, 156-member National Assembly was elected that year by an electoral
college of 120,000 Basic Democrats from the union councils. After the legislative
elections political parties were again legalized. Ayub created the Pakistan Muslim
League (PML) as the official government party. The presidential election of January
1965, also determined by electoral college rather than direct vote, resulted in a
victory for Ayub, although opposition parties were allowed to participate.

Ayub was skillful in maintaining cordial relations with the United States, stimulating
substantial economic and military aid to Pakistan. This relationship deteriorated in
1965, when another war with India broke out over Kashmīr. The United States then
suspended military and economic aid to both countries. The USSR intervened to
mediate the conflict, inviting Ayub and Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri of India to
meet in Toshkent (Tashkent). By the terms of the so-called Toshkent Agreement of
January 1966, the two countries withdrew their forces to prewar positions and
restored diplomatic, economic, and trade relations. Exchange programs were
initiated, and the flow of capital goods to Pakistan increased greatly.

The Toshkent Agreement and the Kashmīr war, however, generated frustration
among the people and resentment against President Ayub. Foreign Minister Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto, who opposed Pakistan’s capitulation, resigned his position and founded
the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in opposition to the Ayub regime. Ayub tried
unsuccessfully to make amends, and amid mounting public protests he declared
martial law and resigned in March 1969. Instead of transferring power to the speaker
of the National Assembly, as the constitution dictated, he handed it over to the
commander in chief of the army, General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, who was
the designated martial-law administrator. Yahya then assumed the presidency.

Yahya Regime

In an attempt to make his martial-law regime more acceptable, Yahya dismissed

almost 300 senior civil servants and identified 32 families that were said to control
about half of Pakistan’s gross national product. To curb their power Yahya issued an
ordinance against monopolies and restrictive trade practices in 1970. He also
committed to the return of constitutional government and announced the country
would hold its first general election on the basis of universal adult franchise in late
1970.

Yahya determined that representation in the National Assembly would be based on

population. In July 1970 he abolished the One Unit, thereby restoring the original
four provinces in West Pakistan. As a result, East Pakistan emerged as the largest
province of the country, while in West Pakistan the province of Punjab emerged as
the dominant province. East Pakistan was allocated 162 seats in the 300-seat
National Assembly, and the provinces of West Pakistan were allocated a total of 138.

G Civil War

The election campaign intensified divisions between East and West Pakistan. A
challenge to Pakistan’s unity emerged in East Pakistan when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
(“Mujib”), leader of the Awami League, insisted on a federation under which East
Pakistan would be virtually independent. He envisaged a federal government that
would deal with defense and foreign affairs only; even the currencies would be
different, although freely convertible.

Mujib’s program had great appeal for many East Pakistanis, and in the December
1970 election called by Yahya, he won by a landslide in East Pakistan, capturing 160
seats in the National Assembly. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) emerged as
the largest party in West Pakistan, capturing 81 seats (predominantly in Punjab and
Sind). This gave the Awami League an absolute majority in the National Assembly, a
turn of events that was considered unacceptable by political interests in West
Pakistan because of the divided political climate of the country. The Awami League
adopted an uncompromising stance, however, and negotiations between the various
sides became deadlocked.

Suspecting Mujib of secessionist politics, Yahya in March 1971 postponed indefinitely

the convening of the National Assembly. Mujib in return accused Yahya of collusion
with Bhutto and established a virtually independent government in East Pakistan.
Yahya opened negotiations with Mujib in Dhaka in mid-March, but the effort soon
failed. Meanwhile Pakistan’s army went into action against Mujib’s civilian followers,
who demanded that East Pakistan become independent as the nation of Bangladesh.

There were many casualties during the ensuing military operations in East Pakistan,
as the Pakistani army attacked the poorly armed population. India claimed that
nearly 10 million Bengali refugees crossed its borders, and stories of West Pakistani
atrocities abounded. The Awami League leaders took refuge in Calcutta (now
Kolkata) and established a government in exile. India finally intervened on December
3, 1971, and the Pakistani army surrendered 13 days later. East Pakistan declared
its independence as Bangladesh.

Yahya resigned, and on December 20 Bhutto was inaugurated as president and chief
martial law administrator of a truncated Pakistan. Mujib became the first prime
minister of Bangladesh in January 1972. When the Commonwealth of Nations
admitted Bangladesh later that year, Pakistan withdrew its membership, not to
return until 1989. However, the Bhutto government gave diplomatic recognition to
Bangladesh in 1974.

The Bhutto Government

Under Bhutto’s leadership Pakistan began to rearrange its national life. Bhutto
nationalized the basic industries, insurance companies, domestically owned banks,
and schools and colleges. He also instituted land reforms that benefited tenants and
middle-class farmers. He removed the armed forces from the process of decision
making, but to placate the generals he allocated about 6 percent of the gross
national product to defense. In July 1972 Bhutto negotiated the Simla Agreement,
which confirmed a line of control dividing Kashmīr and prompted the withdrawal of
Indian troops from Pakistani territory.

In April 1972 Bhutto lifted martial law and convened the National Assembly, which
consisted of members elected from West Pakistan in 1970. After much political
debate, the legislature drafted the country’s third constitution, which was
promulgated on August 14, 1973. It changed the National Assembly into a two-
chamber legislature, with a Senate as the upper house and a National Assembly as
the lower house. It designated the prime minister as the most powerful government
official, but it also set up a formal parliamentary system in which the executive was
responsible to the legislature. Bhutto became prime minister, and Fazal Elahi
Chaudry replaced him as president.

Although discontented, the military grudgingly accepted the supremacy of the civilian
leadership. Bhutto embarked on ambitious nationalization programs and land
reforms, which he called “Islamic socialism.” His reforms achieved some success but
earned him the enmity of the entrepreneurial and capitalist class. In addition,
religious leaders considered them to be un-Islamic. Unable to deal constructively
with the opposition, he became heavy-handed in his rule. In the general elections of
1977, nine opposition parties united in the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) to run
against Bhutto’s PPP. Losing in three of the four provinces, the PNA alleged that
Bhutto had rigged the vote. The PNA boycotted the provincial elections a few days
later and organized demonstrations throughout the country that lasted for six weeks.

Zia Regime

The PPP and PNA leadership proved incapable of resolving the deadlock, and the
army chief of staff, General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, staged a coup on July 5, 1977,
and imposed another martial-law regime. Bhutto was tried for authorizing the
murder of a political opponent and found guilty; he was hanged on April 4, 1979. The
PPP was reorganized under the leadership of his daughter, Benazir Bhutto.

Zia formally assumed the presidency in 1978 and embarked on an Islamization

program. Through various ordinances between 1978 and 1985, he instituted the
Islamization of Pakistan’s legal and economic systems and social order. In 1979 a
federal Sharia (Islamic law) court was established to exercise Islamic judicial review.
Other ordinances established interest-free banking and provided maximum penalties
for adultery, defamation, theft, and consumption of alcohol.

On March 24, 1981, Zia issued a Provisional Constitutional Order that served as a
substitute for the suspended 1973 constitution. The order provided for the formation
of a Federal Advisory Council (Majlis-e-Shoora) to take the place of the National
Assembly. In early 1982 Zia appointed the 228 members of the new council. This
effectively restricted the political parties, which already had been constrained by the
banning of political activity, from organizing resistance to the Zia regime through the
election process.

The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979 heightened Pakistan’s

insecurity and changed the fortunes of General Zia’s military regime. Afghan
refugees began to pour into Pakistan. After about a year, the United States
responded to the crisis. In September 1981 Zia accepted a six-year economic and
military aid package worth $3.2 billion from the United States. (The United States
approved a second aid package worth $4.0 billion in 1986 but then suspended its
disbursement in 1989 due to Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons program.) After a
referendum in December 1984 endorsed Zia’s Islamization policies and the extension
of his presidency until 1990, Zia permitted elections for parliament in February 1985.
A civilian cabinet took office in April, and martial law ended in December. Zia was
dissatisfied, however, and in May 1988 he dissolved the government and ordered
new elections. Three months later he was killed in an airplane crash possibly caused
by sabotage, and a caretaker regime took power until elections could be held.
Shifting Civilian Governments

Benazir Bhutto became prime minister after her PPP won the general elections in
November 1988. She was the first woman to head a modern Islamic state. A civil
servant, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, was appointed president. In August 1990 he dismissed
Bhutto’s government, charging misconduct, and declared a state of emergency.
Bhutto and the PPP lost the October elections after she was arrested for corruption
and abuse of power.

The new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, head of the Islamic Democratic Alliance (a
coalition of Islamic parties including the Pakistan Muslim League), introduced a
program of privatizing state enterprises and encouraging foreign investment.
Fulfilling Sharif’s election promise to make Sharia (Islamic law) the supreme law of
Pakistan, the national legislature passed an amended Shariat Bill in 1991. Sharif also
promised to ease continuing tensions with India over Kashmīr. The charges against
Bhutto were resolved, and she returned to lead the opposition. In early 1993 Sharif
was appointed the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League.

In April 1993 Ishaq Khan once again used his presidential power, this time to dismiss
Sharif and to dissolve parliament. However, Sharif appealed to the Supreme Court of
Pakistan, and in May the court stated that Khan’s actions were unconstitutional, and
the court reinstated Sharif as prime minister. Sharif and Khan subsequently became
embroiled in a power struggle that paralyzed the Pakistani government. In an
agreement designed to end the stalemate, Sharif and Khan resigned together in July
1993, and elections were held in October of that year. Bhutto’s PPP won a plurality in
the parliamentary elections, and Bhutto was again named prime minister.

In 1996 Bhutto’s government was dismissed by President Farooq Leghari amid

allegations of corruption. New elections in February 1997 brought Nawaz Sharif back
to power in a clear victory for the Pakistan Muslim League. One of Sharif’s first
actions as prime minister was to lead the National Assembly in passing a
constitutional amendment stripping the president of the authority to dismiss
parliament. The action triggered a power struggle between Sharif, Leghari, and
Supreme Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah. When the military threw its support
behind Sharif, Leghari resigned and Shah was removed. Sharif’s nominee, Rafiq
Tarar, was then elected president.

Pakistan was beset by domestic unrest beginning in the mid-1990s. Violence

between rival political, religious, and ethnic groups erupted frequently in Sind
Province, particularly in Karāchi. Federal rule was imposed on the province in late
1998 due to increasing violence.

Relations with India

Relations between India and Pakistan became more tense beginning in the early
1990s. Diplomatic talks between the two countries broke down in January 1994 over
the disputed Kashmīr region. In February Bhutto organized a nationwide strike to
show support for the militant Muslim rebels in Indian Kashmīr involved in sporadic
fighting against the Indian army. She also announced that Pakistan would continue
with its nuclear weapons development program, raising concerns that a nuclear arms
race could start between Pakistan and India, which has had nuclear weapons since
the 1970s. In January 1996, despite some controversy, the United States lifted
economic and some military sanctions imposed against Pakistan since 1990. The
sanctions, imposed to protest Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, were lifted to
allow U.S. companies to fulfill contracts with Pakistan and to help foster diplomatic
relations between the two countries.

In early 1997 Sharif resumed talks with India over the Kashmīr region; however,
negotiations quickly broke down when armed hostilities erupted again. Tensions
escalated further in 1998, when India conducted several nuclear tests. Pakistan
responded with its own tests, detonating nuclear weapons for the first time in its
history. The Pakistani government then declared a state of emergency, invoking
constitutional provisions that operate when Pakistan’s security comes under “threat
of external aggression.” Many foreign countries, including the United States, imposed
economic sanctions against both India and Pakistan for exploding nuclear devices. In
the months following the explosions, the leaders of Pakistan and India placed a
moratorium on further nuclear testing, and the United States initiated negotiations
between the two countries aimed at reducing tensions and circumventing an arms
race in the region.

In early 1999 Sharif and Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee signed the
Lahore Declaration, which articulated a commitment to work toward improved
relations. However, in April fears of a nuclear arms race revived when both countries
tested medium-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Furthermore, in
May 1999 Kashmīri separatists, widely believed to be backed by Pakistan, seized
Indian-controlled territory near Kargil in the disputed Kashmīr region. Fighting
between Indian forces and the separatists raged until July, when Sharif agreed to
secure the withdrawal of the separatists and India suspended its military campaign.

The Pakistani military accused Sharif of giving in too easily to pressure from India
and for pinning the blame for the Kargil attack on army chief Pervez Musharraf. In
October 1999 Sharif tried to dismiss General Musharraf from his position. He
attempted to prevent Musharraf’s return to Pakistan from abroad by refusing to let
his airplane land. The commercial airplane was forced to circle the Karāchi airport
until army forces loyal to Musharraf took over the airport. Army forces also seized
control of the government in a bloodless coup that lasted less than three hours.

Pakistan Under Musharraf

Musharraf declared himself the chief executive of Pakistan, suspended the

constitution, and dissolved the legislature. He appointed an eight-member National
Security Council to function as the country’s supreme governing body. Many
Pakistanis, already chafing under Sharif’s increasingly autocratic rule and suffering
from a sagging Pakistani economy after ten years of government excesses and
corruption, welcomed the coup. Sharif was arrested, and in April 2000 he was
convicted of abuse of power and other charges and sentenced to life imprisonment;
his sentence was subsequently commuted and he was allowed to live in exile in
Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Pakistan set a deadline of October
2002 for holding national elections to restore civilian rule. The Commonwealth of
Nations, however, formally suspended Pakistan’s membership because the coup
ousted a civilian government.

After assuming power, Musharraf’s military government adopted a reformist posture.

It identified economic reform as the most urgent measure needed to restore the
confidence of foreign and local investors. As part of this strategy, Musharraf initiated
an ambitious program based on accountability, improved governance, and widening
of the tax net. However, in the wake of the coup new international sanctions were
imposed to oppose the military regime. Donor agencies such as the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) were unwilling to provide new loans or reschedule Pakistan’s
foreign debt.

Pakistan - STRUCTURE OF THE ECONOMY

Pakistan

Pakistan attained nationhood under difficult circumstances. At the partition of British India in 1947
resulting in the creation of the independent nations of India and Pakistan, Pakistan was an
agrarian economy in which a small number of powerful landowners with large holdings dominated
the countryside. The majority of the population consisted of tenant farmers who cultivated small
plots for a meager existence. Scant rainfall in West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan) forced
farmers to rely on the extensive irrigation system developed by the British. The headwaters of the
Indus River and its main tributaries, however, were under Indian control. Disputes arose between
the two nations and were not settled until the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 was signed.

Pakistan had almost no industry in 1947. Under British rule, the area that became Pakistan
supplied agricultural products for processing to the territory that became the independent India.
Energy sources were rudimentary, with wood and animal dung furnishing the bulk of the energy
consumed. Ports, transportation, and other services, such as banking and government, were
underdeveloped. More than 1,600 kilometers of Indian territory separated the East Wing and
West Wing of Pakistan until the former became independent Bangladesh in 1971. In 1949 a
dispute over exchange rates halted the flow of goods between Pakistan and India, disrupting the
complementary nature of their economies that had developed under British colonial rule.

Despite formidable problems, Pakistan achieved rapid economic expansion. From FY 1951 to FY
1986, the GDP growth rate measured at a constant FY 1960 factor averaged 5.2 percent. Rates
of growth averaged 3.1 percent in the 1950s--when agriculture stagnated--but rose to 6.8 percent
in the 1960s. They fell to 3.8 percent between FY 1971 and FY 1977 but rebounded to 6.8
percent between FY 1978 and FY 1986. From FY 1987 to FY 1991, growth averaged 5.8 percent,
and a rate of 7.8 percent was achieved in FY 1992. Provisional data indicate that GDP grew only
2.6 percent in FY 1993. This decline is mainly a result of the floods in September 1992, which
reduced agricultural output.

Rapid growth substantially altered the structure of the economy. Agriculture's share (including
forestry and fishing) declined from 53 percent of GDP in FY 1950 to 25 percent in FY 1993. A
substantial industrial base was added as industry (including mining, manufacturing, and utilities)
became the fastest growing sector of the economy. Industry's share of GDP rose from 8 percent
in FY 1950 to 21.7 percent in FY 1993. Various services (including construction, trade,
transportation and communications, and other services) accounted for the rest of GDP.

Pakistan has an important "parallel," or "alternative," economic sector, but it is not well
documented in official reports or most academic studies. This sector includes a thriving black
market, a large illicit drug industry, and illegal payments to politicians and government officials to
ensure state contracts. Corruption rose in the 1980s, partly as a result of the massive infusion of
United States aid, some of which went to the Pakistani government to pay the cost of supporting
Afghan refugees fleeing after the 1979 Soviet invasion and to enhance Pakistani military
capability, and some of which was funneled directly to Afghan resistance movements based in
Pakistan. Much of this money reportedly was diverted illegally and invested in arms and drug
enterprises.

General allegations of corruption are routinely made in the Pakistani press, and politicians often
accuse their opponents of corrupt practices. Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto, was accused of corruption after the fall of Benazir's first government in 1990, and
former President Ghulam Ishaq Khan accused the government of former Prime Minister Mian
Nawaz Sharif and especially its privatization program of corruption when dismissing his
government in April 1993. In 1994 allegations of corruption were routinely traded between
Benazir's government and the opposition headed by Nawaz Sharif. Political maneuvering aside,
corruption has an altogether real and pervasive effect on Pakistani society. Industrialists consider
bribery and other handouts a routine cost of production, and contractors and businessmen
interviewed on television openly state that a significant percentage of their revenue is paid to
government officers who allocate their contracts. Corruption is alleged to be prevalent in almost
all official institutions, including the police, the judiciary, the revenue department, the passport
office, customs and excise offices, telecommunication organizations, and electricity and gas
boards. In each of these departments, the personnel involved range from low-level employees to
top management. Some scholars believe that the low salaries of civil servants, compared with
earnings from jobs of similar status in business and industry, explain the magnitude of corruption.
In the mid-1980s, Mahbubul Haq, a former minister of finance, estimated that illegal payments to
government officials were equivalent to about 60 percent of the total taxes collected by the
government.

Pakistan

Pakistan - ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN THE ECONOMY

Pakistan

Policy Developments since Independence

Since 1947 Pakistani officials have sought a high rate of economic growth in an effort to lift the
population out of poverty. Rapid industrialization was viewed as a basic necessity and as a
vehicle for economic growth. For more than two decades, economic expansion was substantial,
and growth of industrial output was striking. In the 1960s, the country was considered a model for
other developing countries. Rapid expansion of the economy, however, did not alleviate
widespread poverty. In the 1970s and 1980s, although a high rate of growth was sought, greater
attention was given to income distribution. In the early 1990s, a more equitable distribution of
income remained an important but elusive goal of government policy.

At partition in 1947, the new government lacked the personnel, institutions, and resources to play
a large role in developing the economy. Exclusive public ownership was reserved only for military
armaments, generation of hydroelectric power, and manufacture and operation of railroad,
telephone, telegraph, and wireless equipment--fields that were unattractive, at least in the early
years of independence, to private investors. The rest of the economy was open to private-sector
development, although the government used many direct and indirect measures to stimulate,
guide, or retard private-sector activities.
The disruptions caused by partition, the cessation of trade with India, the strict control of imports,
and the overvalued exchange rate necessitated the stimulation of private industry. Government
policies afforded liberal incentives to industrialization, while public development of the
infrastructure complemented private investment. Some public manufacturing plants were
established by government holding companies. Manufacturing proved highly profitable, attracting
increasing private investments and reinvestment of profits. Except for large government
investments in the Indus irrigation system, agriculture was left largely alone, and output stagnated
in the 1950s. The broad outline of government policy in the 1950s and early 1960s involved
squeezing the peasants and workers to finance industrial development.

Much of the economy, and particularly industry, was eventually dominated by a small group of
people, the muhajirs, who were largely traders who migrated to Pakistan's cities, especially
Karachi, at partition. These refugees brought modest capital, which they initially used to start
trading firms. Many of these firms moved into industry in the 1950s as a response to government
policies. Largely using their own resources, they accounted for the major part of investment and
ownership in manufacturing during the first two decades after independence.

By the late 1960s, there was growing popular dissatisfaction with economic conditions and
considerable debate about the inequitable distribution of income, wealth, and economic power--
problems that had always plagued the country. Studies by economists in the 1960s indicated that
the forty big industrial groups owned around 42 percent of the nation's industrial assets and more
than 50 percent of private domestic assets. Eight of the nine major commercial banks were also
controlled by these same industrial groups. Concern over the concentration of wealth was
dramatically articulated in a 1968 speech by Mahbubul Haq, then chief economist of the Planning
Commission. Haq claimed that Pakistan's economic growth had done little to improve the
standard of living of the common person and that the "trickle- down approach to development"
had only concentrated wealth in the hands of "twenty-two industrial families." He argued that the
government needed to intervene in the economy to correct the natural tendency of free markets
to concentrate wealth in the hands of those who already possessed substantial assets.

Although Haq exaggerated the extent of the concentration of wealth, his speech struck a chord
with public opinion. In response, the government enacted piecemeal measures between 1968
and 1971 to set minimum wages, promote collective bargaining for labor, reform the tax structure
toward greater equity, and rationalize salary structures. However, implementation was weak or
nonexistent, and it was only when the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (father of Benazir) came
to power in 1971 that there was a major shift in government policy.

Bhutto promised a new development strategy more equitable than previous policies. Yet he
downplayed economic analysis and planning and relied instead on ad hoc decisions that created
many inconsistencies. In May 1972, he promulgated a major act that devalued the rupee by 57
percent and abolished the multiple-exchange-rate system. This act greatly stimulated exports and
indicated that the removal of price distortions could spur the economy. But devaluation also
completely altered the cost and price structure for industry and affected the level and composition
of industrial investment and the terms of trade between the industrial and agricultural sectors.
Devaluation helped agriculture, particularly larger farms that had marketable surpluses.
Mechanization increased but had the adverse side effect of displacing farm laborers and tenants,
many of whom migrated to cities seeking industrial jobs.

In 1972 Bhutto's government nationalized thirty-two large manufacturing plants in eight major
industries. The industries affected included iron and steel, basic metals, heavy engineering, motor
vehicle and tractor assembly and manufacture, chemicals, petrochemicals, cement, and public
utilities. Subsequently, domestically owned life insurance companies, privately owned banks,
domestic shipping companies, and firms engaged in oil distribution, vegetable oil processing,
grain milling, and cotton ginning were nationalized. The result was a drop of nearly 50 percent in
private investment in large-scale manufacturing between FY 1970 and FY 1973. By FY 1978
such investments were little more than one-third (in constant prices) of those in FY 1970. Private
capital fled the country or went into small-scale manufacturing and real estate. Between 1970 and
1977, industrial output slowed considerably.

The public sector expanded greatly under the Bhutto government. In addition to the
nationalization of companies, plants were built by the government and additional public
companies were created for various functions, such as the export of cotton and rice. Able
managers and technicians were scarce, a situation that became worse after 1974, when many
persons left to seek higher salaries in Middle East oil-producing states. Labor legislation set high
minimum wages and fringe benefits, which boosted payroll costs for both public and private firms.
Efficiency and profits in public-sector enterprises fell. Public industrial investment rose,
surpassing private industrial investment in FY 1976.

Many of the other economic measures undertaken by the Bhutto government were largely
ineffective because of the power of vested interests and the inefficiency of the civil administration.
Ceilings on the size of landholdings were lowered, tenants were given greater security of tenure,
and measures were enacted to tax farm income. Bhutto also supported large, but inadequately
planned, long-term projects that tied up the country's development resources for long periods.
The largest projects were an integrated iron and steel plant, a major highway on the west bank of
the Indus River, and a highway tunnel in the mountainous north.

After 1977 the government of Mohammad Zia ul-Haq (1977-88) began a policy of greater reliance
on private enterprise to achieve economic goals, and successive governments continued this
policy throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. Soon after Zia came to power, the government
instituted constitutional measures to assure private investors that nationalization would occur only
under limited and exceptional circumstances and with fair compensation. A demarcation of
exclusive public ownership was made that excluded the private sector from only a few activities.
Yet government continued to play a large economic role in the 1980s. Public-sector enterprises
accounted for a significant portion of large-scale manufacturing. In FY 1991, it was estimated that
these enterprises produced about 40 percent of industrial output.

Islamization of the economy was another policy innovation of the Zia government. In 1977 Zia
asked a group of Islamic scholars to recommend measures for an Islamic economic system. In
June 1980, the Zakat and Ushr Ordinance was promulgated. Zakat is a traditional annual levy,
usually 2.5 percent, on wealth to help the needy. Ushr is a 5 percent tax on the produce of land,
allowing some deductions for the costs of production, to be paid in cash by the landowner or
leaseholder. Ushr replaced the former land tax levied by the provinces. Self-assessment by
farmers is checked by local groups if a farmer fails to file or makes a very low estimate. Proceeds
of ushr go to zakat committees to help local needy people.

The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (1990-93) introduced a program of privatization,
deregulation, and economic reform aimed at reducing structural impediments to sound economic
development. Top priority was given to denationalizing some 115 public industrial enterprises,
abolishing the government's monopoly in the financial sector, and selling utilities to private
interests. Despite resistance from officials and labor unions and criticism that the government was
moving too quickly, by March 1992 control of twenty industrial units and two banks had been sold
to private investors, and plans were under way to begin denationalizing several utilities. As of
early 1994, proposals to end state monopolies in insurance, telecommunications, shipping, port
operations, airlines, power generation, and road construction were also in various stages of
implementation. Private investment no longer requires government authorization, except in
sensitive industries. Investment reforms eliminated government sanction requirements, eased
restrictions on repatriable direct and portfolio investment from abroad, enabled foreign firms to
issue shares in enterprises in Pakistan, and authorized foreign banks to underwrite securities on
the same basis as Pakistani banks.
Although the Nawaz Sharif government made considerable progress in liberalizing the economy,
it failed to address the problem of a growing budget deficit, which in turn led to a loss of
confidence in the government on the part of foreign aid donors. The caretaker government of
July-October 1993 led by Moeen Qureshi, a former World Bank vice president, asserted that the
nation was near insolvency and would require a number of measures to impose fiscal discipline.
The government thus included sharp increases in utility prices, new taxes, stiffer enforcement of
existing taxes, and reductions in government spending. In early 1994, the government of Benazir
Bhutto, elected in October 1993, announced its intention to continue the policies of both
deregulation and liberalization carried out by Nawaz Sharif and the tighter fiscal policies put in
place by Qureshi. The government also said it intended to devote a greater proportion of the
nation's resources to health and education, especially for women.

Development Planning
Pakistan's economic development planning began in 1948. By 1950 a six-year plan had been
drafted to guide government investment in developing the infrastructure. But the initial effort was
unsystematic, partly because of inadequate staffing. More formal planning--incorporating overall
targets, assessing resource availability, and assigning priorities--started in 1953 with the drafting
of the First Five-Year Plan (1955-60). In practice, this plan was not implemented, however, mainly
because political instability led to a neglect of economic policy, but in 1958 the government
renewed its commitment to planning by establishing the Planning Commission.

The Second Five-Year Plan (1960-65) surpassed its major goals when all sectors showed
substantial growth. The plan encouraged private entrepreneurs to participate in those activities in
which a great deal of profit could be made, while the government acted in those sectors of the
economy where private business was reluctant to operate. This mix of private enterprise and
social responsibility was hailed as a model that other developing countries could follow.
Pakistan's success, however, partially depended on generous infusions of foreign aid, particularly
from the United States. After the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War over Kashmir, the level of foreign
assistance declined. More resources than had been intended also were diverted to defense. As a
result, the Third Five-Year Plan (1965-70), designed along the lines of its immediate predecessor,
produced only modest growth.

When the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto came to power in 1971, planning was virtually
bypassed. The Fourth Five-Year Plan (1970-75) was abandoned as East Pakistan became
independent Bangladesh. Under Bhutto, only annual plans were prepared, and they were largely
ignored.

The Zia government accorded more importance to planning. The Fifth Five-Year Plan (1978-83)
was an attempt to stabilize the economy and improve the standard of living of the poorest
segment of the population. Increased defense expenditures and a flood of refugees to Pakistan
after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979, as well as the sharp increase in
international oil prices in 1979-80, drew resources away from planned investments. Nevertheless,
some of the plan's goals were attained. Many of the controls on industry were liberalized or
abolished, the balance of payments deficit was kept under control, and Pakistan became self-
sufficient in all basic foodstuffs with the exception of edible oils. Yet the plan failed to stimulate
substantial private industrial investment and to raise significantly the expenditure on rural
infrastructure development.

The Sixth Five-Year Plan (1983-88) represented a significant shift toward the private sector. It
was designed to tackle some of the major problems of the economy: low investment and savings
ratios; low agricultural productivity; heavy reliance on imported energy; and low spending on
health and education. The economy grew at the targeted average of 6.5 percent during the plan
period and would have exceeded the target if it had not been for severe droughts in 1986 and
1987.

The Seventh Five-Year Plan (1988-93) provided for total public-sector spending of Rs350 billion.
Of this total, 38 percent was designated for energy, 18 percent for transportation and
communications, 9 percent for water, 8 percent for physical infrastructure and housing, 7 percent
for education, 5 percent for industry and minerals, 4 percent for health, and 11 percent for other
sectors. The plan gave much greater emphasis than before to private investment in all sectors of
the economy. Total planned private investment was Rs292 billion, and the private-to- public ratio
of investment was expected to rise from 42:58 in FY 1988 to 48:52 in FY 1993. It was also
intended that public-sector corporations finance most of their own investment programs through
profits and borrowing.

In August 1991, the government established a working group on private investment for the Eighth
Five-Year Plan (1993-98). This group, which included leading industrialists, presidents of
chambers of commerce, and senior civil servants, submitted its report in late 1992. However, in
early 1994, the eighth plan had not yet been announced, mainly because the successive changes
of government in 1993 forced ministers to focus on short-term issues. Instead, economic policy
for FY 1994 was being guided by an annual plan.

Pakistan

Foreign Policy Of Pakistan

Foreign Policy Of Pakistan

The Foreign Policy of Pakistan strives for the promotion of peace and security at the
regional and global levels. It also aims at accelerating the country's socio-economic
progress.

In keeping with its international obligations and in conformity with the United
Nations Charter, Pakistan consistently seeks friendship and cooperation in its foreign
relations on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect and benefit, non-
interference and peaceful settlement of disputes.

Pakistan 's foreign policy is guided by its history, geographical location and the
aspiration of its people. It is also responsive to regional and international
imperatives. Given the persistent challenges, Pakistan has opted for a proactive
foreign policy. While there are elements of continuity in the foreign policy, as they
should be, there is also a change of emphasis and nuance.

Based on these principles and considerations, the key objectives of Pakistan 's
Foreign Policy are to:

(a) Develop friendly relations with all countries particularly the Muslim world, major
powers and immediate neighbours;

(b) Safeguard vital security and geo-strategic interests of Pakistan ;

(c) Resolve the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the resolutions
of the UN Security Council and wishes of the Kashmiri people;

(d) Promote the image of Pakistan as a strong, dynamic, progressive, moderate and
democratic Islamic country;

(e) Augment economic and commercial interests abroad; and

(f) Protect the interests of Pakistan 's expatriate community abroad

Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Issues and Challenges.

A- Economic Issues and Challenges.

• Strengthening the Domestic Economic Infrastructure.

Policies for setting grounds and encouraging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI),
Industrialization and Specialization in accordance with ISO standards.

• Global Economic thinking

Economic Co-operation, Deregulation of economics, privatization, lowering of tariff

walls, free trade and New Global Economic Agenda

• Pakistan’s Changing Foreign Policy.

A shift from defense to economic benefits, causes of the change and future precepts.

• Globalization and its effects

Impact of Globalization on Common man (baffled and perplexed) Non

transparency of the process.

• External and Internal Borrowings.

Removing the fiscal indiscipline.

B- Political Issues and Challenges.

• Stability in Home Political System

Removal of Corruption, Participation of people in National Politics, from all walks of
life, Democracy.

• Relations with Super Powers

• Relations with Muslim World

• Pakistan’s policy towards third world and nations struggling for independence.

• Present status of Pakistan in International Politics.

• Diplomacy.

C- Logistic Issues and Challenges.

• Present Defense Status of Pakistan

Artillery, communication systems, nuclear weapons and the requirement of new
systems. ( Army, Air Force, Navy)

• Kashmir Issue.

Pak- India negotiations in this regard and future scenario.

• Peace Keeping

Peace keeping and anti-terrorism policies.

• Nuclear program
Development in Nuclear capability, Nuclear proliferation aspect of international
politics and Pakistan’s strategy in this regard.

D- Pakistan and Human Rights