Pakistan at 75: grappling with praetorianism and populism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pakistan’s survival, despite all the formidable odds, allows us to locate challenges to the polity since its inception where imbalances among pressure groups such as military leadership, clerical clusters and political sections have disallowed an overdue breakthrough for its inhabitants. Confronted with street politics led by Imran Khan, Pakistani society is immensely polarised across its width and breadth with constitutional politics put on hold and some people even predicting another spell of authoritarianism. This article argues that a growing middle-class society with youthful demographics has the potential to reassess its priorities and pathways to establish good governance through decentralisation, judicial reforms and regional cooperation, especially at a time when the climatic nightmare lurks in the shadow.