1 / 8

Pakistan after Benazir: Promise and Peril towards an Islamic Democracy Dr. Saleem H. Ali

Pakistan after Benazir: Promise and Peril towards an Islamic Democracy Dr. Saleem H. Ali. Saleem.Ali@uvm.edu http://www.uvm.edu/~shali. Map of Pakistan. Historical context. One of only two modern countries formed solely on the basis of religion

flora
Télécharger la présentation

Pakistan after Benazir: Promise and Peril towards an Islamic Democracy Dr. Saleem H. Ali

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Pakistan after Benazir:Promise and Peril towards an Islamic DemocracyDr. Saleem H. Ali Saleem.Ali@uvm.edu http://www.uvm.edu/~shali

  2. Map of Pakistan

  3. Historical context • One of only two modern countries formed solely on the basis of religion • Former British India was divided into India and Pakistan in 1947 (including what is now Bangladesh) • Civil war in 1971 led to the formation of the independent state of Bangladesh • The essential tension between a theocratic versus secular state has existed since inception

  4. Three Limitations to Pakistan’s democratization • The army’s dominance in every aspect of political and economic life • Refer to new book By A. Siddiqua Military Inc. • A lack of education leads to asymmetric and inefficient outcomes • People are much more easily taken in by propaganda and conspiracy theories • Feudal elite still control the political scene • Benazir was part of this establishment

  5. Islam and Democracy • Considerable debate about the prospect of democracy in Islam given a history of non-electoral politics • Clearly not dynastic in its early history but tensions existed on this too – Shia versus Sunni split on dynastic succession • Meritocracy and consensus (shuraa) were the main deliberative mechanism rather than pure voting output

  6. Islam and Pluralism • Diversity is accommodated within a fairly regimented system in traditional doctrines • However, Islamic societies have shown the ability to adapt much more than they are given credit for these days (as far back as Moorish times or Emperor Akbar’s reign in India: Maria Rosa Menocal’s work) • In contemporary societies Malaysia, the UAE and the gulf states are often presented as examples of pluralism (without democracy)

  7. Can Pakistan follow a path in this regard after Benazir? • Benazir initially had placated a lot of the traditional Islamist elements: she recognized the Taliban government and was willing to meet Mullah Umar in the early nineties • More recently her views had moved towards confrontation with the Islamists • The moderate majority in Pakistan is increasingly afraid of the armed militants • External intervention is still anathema to most Pakistanis regardless of political persuasion

  8. Suggestions for U.S Policy • Focus on populist appeal rather than personality-driven politics: there’s more to Pakistan than Musharraf and Bhutto • Support a major arms buy-back / exchange for development effort that leads to more robust economies in NWFP and Southern Punjab • Public diplomacy efforts should continue as they have been started since 9/11 – example the 200+ Fulbright program and the work of World Affairs Councils

More Related