The civil-military relationship in Pakistan is a much debated and much speculated upon topic. Every single indication is analyzed for some kind of conclusion or pointer that may yield a clue to the state of affairs. Think tanks and analysts at home and abroad thrive on such analyses. The fact that the military is one of the state institutions and subservient to the government is often overlooked especially when the military gets a role that puts it centre stage in decision making and policy formulation within its broader mandate of protecting and furthering national interests under the elected government. This happens when the government cedes space to the military either because it lacks the capacity to resolve issues or because it decides that the internal and external security threats warrant a dominant status for the military to create the environment for economic and political stability or if the military, or as some foreign analysts are fond of pointing out, deliberately weakens and undermines the elected government to be the ruling power under the façade of democracy. An important consideration should be that within the federal structure there are tiers available to the elected government to govern and rule and control—-if it chooses to use those.
Thursday 19 May 2016
Civil-Military Relations: An Appraisal
The civil-military relationship in Pakistan is a much debated and much speculated upon topic. Every single indication is analyzed for some kind of conclusion or pointer that may yield a clue to the state of affairs. Think tanks and analysts at home and abroad thrive on such analyses. The fact that the military is one of the state institutions and subservient to the government is often overlooked especially when the military gets a role that puts it centre stage in decision making and policy formulation within its broader mandate of protecting and furthering national interests under the elected government. This happens when the government cedes space to the military either because it lacks the capacity to resolve issues or because it decides that the internal and external security threats warrant a dominant status for the military to create the environment for economic and political stability or if the military, or as some foreign analysts are fond of pointing out, deliberately weakens and undermines the elected government to be the ruling power under the façade of democracy. An important consideration should be that within the federal structure there are tiers available to the elected government to govern and rule and control—-if it chooses to use those.
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