Problems Of Nation-Building In Pakistan
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In 1971 the official “Two-Nation-Theory” was disclosed as wishful thinking. The former East-Pakistan became independent as the new state of Bangladesh, after a civil war cum external war, in which the Muslim Bengalis of East Pakistan joint Bengali nationalism triumphed over the secular “Muslim nationalist” ideology. forces with the “Hindu enemy”, India, against Muslim West Pakistan. Secular Among the reasons for the split of Pakistan were, a) the exclusion of Bengalis from Pakistan lost
became a relatively homogenous country, was dealt with in Pakistan. While officially the strengthened it. While political power geographically lay in the Punjab former Western wing) was hardly less heterogeneous than it had been before: it lost with some 98 percent of the citizens being Bengali. What remained of Pakistan (the The case of East Pakistan/Bangladesh is illustrative of how the problem of political center strongly de-emphasized ethnic identity as a political factor, in reality ethnicity and provincial autonomy (and some degree, in Karachi) and politically in the bureaucracy and the army, hardly represented in the army and the bureaucracy. Therefore, when the powerful the majority of citizens happened to live far off in Bengal. And Bengalis where elites tried to protect their interests by monopolizing power and excluding others, they automatically frustrated the Bengali desire for equality and self-rule. A key provinces in Western Pakistan, integrating, them into one political unit. The key experience was the “One-Unit” rule in West Pakistan. “One-Unit” dissolved all confronting it with a Western wing, which was united and nearly equally populated. reason for this was to balance the demographic strength of East Pakistan by all non-Bengalis against Bengal. Two, it also abolished all notions of provincial Expressed in ethnic terms, this policy had two results: it tried to form a coalition of minorities of West Pakistan even more firmly under the dominance of Punjabi autonomy or of federalism in the West. It placed the smaller provinces and ethnic politicians, bureaucrats and military officers. While formally Pakistan became more marginalized and excluded, and the fabric of Pakistan weakened. In this phase of integrated and united, the Bengalis, Belutschis, Pushtos and Sindhis felt connected: democratic and regional/ethnic movements went hand in hand. After the Pakistani history the goals of democracy and provincial autonomy were closely democratic and ethnic movements in the former Western wing were deprived one of split of Pakistan in 1971 the political environment changed drastically. The their main sources of political strength: the cooperation with the Bengalis of Eastern thegal. With the independence of Bangladesh what was now left of Pakistan was forced the army back to the barracks — at least for a few years.
