Dilemma of Political Culture, National Integration and Constitutionalism

Abstract

Pakistan’s enduring intra-regional cultural attributes and fragile civic institutions have too often been jolted by major demographic developments, a politico-economic system lacking legitimacy, and authoritarian or quasidemocratic regimes bolstering themselves through centrist state structures. Despite shared historical and cultural traditions, economic interdependence and ecological integration, the problem of Pakistan’s governability remains undiminished. In a symbiotic relationship, civil society which even in its embryonic form was weak and fragmented, has simply remained an appendage to the powerful state structure. Accountability, a decent educational system, egalitarian economic policies to help the havenots and minorities, a non-partisan judiciary, a vigilant press, participation by women — all those necessary requirements of a vibrant civil society — have suffered from constant erosion. Such a dichotomous relationship has negatively affected the moral and cross-ethnic coherence in the country, otherwise embodied in the humane and folk traditions of the society. The process of national integration was ill-planned, officious and injudicious, with centripetal and centrifugal forces battling within the very corpus of the state which, true to its proto-colonial character, either chose to adopt the role of an indifferent observer or turned partisan.