Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan: From Zufikar Ali Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto [Hardcover]

Saeed Shafqat (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1997 | ISBN-10: 0813388090 | ISBN-13: 978-0813388090

Taking an explicitly comparative theoretical approach, Saeed Shafqat presents a comprehensive exploration of civil-military relations in Pakistan. He begins by describing the history of military hegemony in this volatile South Asian country and then examines the breakdown of military control, assessing the rise of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the changing configuration of party-military relations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 283 pages
• Publisher: Westview Pr (Short Disc) (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813388090
• ISBN-13: 978-0813388090
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,880,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An insecure democracy, June 14, 2000

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strozzapreti "strozzapreti" (Bradford, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan: From Zufikar Ali Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto (Hardcover)

Pakistan is an obvious case for the analyst of civil-military relations, not least because of the strikingly different post-independence roles played by its own armed forces and those of neighbouring India. Initially, the officer corps of both countries continued as virtual copies of British military traditions on the subcontinent, including a strict adherence to the ideal of an 'officer and gentleman' physically and socioeconomically apart from mainstream society and above the 'dirty' world of politics. In the past half-century of independence, Indian officers have remained resolutely in their barracks as obedient tools of their democratically elected civilian masters. In contrast, their former comrades in Pakistan plotted a coup d'état as early as 1951 before ruling the country at the head of military-bureaucratic regimes from 1958-71 and again from 1977-88. The government continues to suffer undue attention from the military and, as recently as September 1995, over 30 armed forces' officers were arrested on charges of allegedly plotting to eliminate the army's high command and top politicians, declare martial law and impose Islamic law in the country. What factors have contributed to Pakistan's affinity for military rule?

Saeed Shafqat's examination of the volatile nature of civil-military relations in Pakistan begins with an overview of developments from independence to the end of Ayub Khan's regime in 1969, concentrating on the ascendancy of the military-bureaucratic elite and its impact on the politics and economics of Pakistan. When the impressive economic growth of this period ended with the withdrawal of foreign aid following the disastrous 1965 Indo-Pak War, Ayub's administration was doomed. Yet the 'military hegemonic system' (p 49) remained in place to preside over the dismemberment of the country and the creation of Bangladesh until 'mass mobilization, regime confrontation and mass movement' (p 74) led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the head of the Pakistan People's Party resulted in the installation of a civilian regime. Unfortunately, explains Shaqat, personal, ideological and regional centre-state conflicts combined with the government's failure to 'produce conditions conducive to politics of bargaining, compromise and accommodation' (p 157) to preclude the consolidation of the democratic process. Indeed, despite following a classic 'carrot-and-stick' course of attempting to control the armed forces by appeasing their corporate demands while constricting their institutional role and responsibilities, Zulfikar's 'strategies and tactics conveyed the impression that, more than just civilian control of the military, he wanted to establish personal hegemony' (p 185). By 1977, worried officers had replaced his civilian administration with a military regime led by General Zia ul Haq who carefully and very successfully consolidated his personal and the armed forces' institutional power over the next decade via the skillful manipulation of powerful interests and actors on both sides of the civil-military divide. His 1988 death left Pakistan with a 'polarized and divided' (p 219) polity and a seemingly permanent hegemonic role for the military in politics; legacies which the subsequent civilian administrations have been grappling with ever since. For Shafqat, these efforts have not been a success:

'in the past decade or so, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif...had an opportunity to build organizational structure of the party and possibly democratize the process of leadership selection...instead...While in power both used party as an instrument for extending patronage and ventured to establish the dominant party model to strengthen personal rule...Both contributed little in developing any consensual framework for government-opposition relationship; both allowed and encouraged political confrontation, polarization, intolerance and authoritarian style of governance. Resultantly, military hegemony in Pakistan's politics has continued to persist...' (p 251).

Overall, Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan is a straightforward and highly informative account of the country's civil-military machinations over the past 20 years or so. Shafqat's conclusion is damning: despite the repeated (if sporadic) return of elected civilian governments, the very nature, organisation and methods deployed by Pakistan's political elites and parties repeatedly have thwarted the replacement of authoritarian structures with true democratic alternatives. If, warns Shaqat, democratic norms and practices continue to fail to gain legitimacy, the military-bureaucratic regime will continue to be an alternative model of government.

One final note: While this Westview Press edition is handsomely bound and typeset, and offers quality endnotes, it suffers from remarkably poor copy-editing. This includes the repeated lack of definite articles, indeterminate punctuation, the absense of capitalisation at the beginning of some sentences and, incredibly, spelling the name of the prime minister as 'Zufikar' on the cover but as 'Zulfikar' throughout the text! Furthermore, Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan contains no index, surely not the normal practice for a book with academic ambitions.