Analyses
of Pakistan's collective
woes follow predictable
avenues, matched only
by the recurrent display
of actual crises that
have plagued the country's
history. The elements
of explanation remain
stable: fragile political
institutions; an intolerant
political environment
unwilling to accommodate
dissent; dominance of
the military in politics;
corruption; ethnic and
sectarian conflicts; provincial
rivalries; an unresolved
crisis of national identity
- just to rehearse the
more familiar items in
the inventory.
It is usually against
the promises of modernisation,
though, that Pakistan's
apparent deficiencies
acquire definition. With
readily imported terminology
of the occasion, the diagnoses
may get slightly modified,
but the claims of modernisation
do not weaken their hold
on the imagination or
policy. Hence, absence
of transparency and a
weak civil society are
cited as the source of
problems of governance.1
A diminishing state capacity,
in the face of new domestic,
regional, and global challenges,
is seen as driving the
country into a deep abyss.2
A traditional culture
evidently continues to
place limits on accumulation
and the pursuit of happiness.3
The unexplained eagerness
of state managers to embrace
this imaginary and to
consistently find their
own efforts lacking is
a psychological riddle
fraught with interesting
angles.
The latest arrival to
the analytical shores
is the uncharitable epithet
of failed or failing state.4
Unable to fulfil the dream
of a modernising entity,
on this account, the nation-state
drifts between bare survival
and doom. Does Pakistan
qualify for this recently
manufactured label as
many other candidates
allegedly do? A mock battle
wages amongst experts
to answer this query,
specialists who are well
versed in the recently
perfected art of global
surveillance, monitoring
all facets of the polity
and economy with equipment
supplied by disciplinary
multilateral institutions.5
Nothing escapes the panoptical
range of these bodies.
Paradoxically, as is often
the case with vision,
the surveyor is left out
of the picture. The involvement
of agencies of multilateral
governance in Pakistan's
political economy escapes
the visual field. To be
concrete, the nature,
character, and long-term
effects of the IMF-World
Bank medicine for the
ailing patient is often
erased from the picture.
Failed growth and poverty-alleviation
strategies, for instance,
appear as entirely domesticated
processes, outside the
operational field of the
global enforcement regime.
In short, domestic ailments
are strictly domestic,
a familiar theme in the
modernisation theory.6
Assaults on labour and
public employees and the
socialisation of private
debt under structural
adjustment, for instance,
are simply collateral
economic damage of societies
taking a bold leap into
a modernised world.
Expanding
Market Fundamentalism
The hint that the assumed
relative autonomy of
the Pakistani state
vis-à-vis global
political economy may
be vastly exaggerated
draws the familiar charge
of ideological hubris.7
According to this hegemonic
logic, political economy
bears a local, not global,
stamp. The temptation
to read global designs
into the domestic fabric
must be resisted. Like
original sin, the pathologies
of the post-colonial
world reside in the
character failings of
the sinner. As with
previous modernisation
claims, this familiar
sentiment appears to
capture the verdict
of post-socialist analysis
and regimes of truth
instantiated by neo-liberal
globalisation.
To be sure, neo-liberalism
promises its believers
a nirvana of boundless
riches, individual freedom,
and personal self-fulfilment.
On its watch, the limitless
world of consumption,
secured by laissez faire,
would guarantee earthly
salvation, a world in
which societal gain
would accumulate as
the unintended effect
of unrestrained private
interest. This fantastic
world imagined by Adam
Smith's steadfast heirs
has materialised on
a global scale: in corridors
of capitalist power,
multilateral institutions,
and the international
development industry,
but it has especially
been embraced by state
managers in the global
south. No longer does
the unbelievable fable,
that unregulated (not
regulated) markets produce
wealth, read simply
as a bedtime story -
repeatedly told to soothe
fears that often accompany
the usual chaos and
uncertainty of self-expanding
capital, or to merely
serve as an ideological
guise adorned by capital
to conceal structural
inequalities and the
swelling ranks of the
dispossessed. Instead,
neo-liberalism has acquired
the status of a natural
law. Collapsing normative
and positive claims
on the viability or
desirability of a disembedded
market in one sweeping
stroke, neo-liberalism
now entertains few distracters.8
With the collapse of
the Second World, and
the ascendancy of hyper
power (the United States),
hellfire awaits the
apostates. In the worldly
kingdom imagined by
market fundamentalism,
only the true believers
can aspire to live and
thrive.
Extended as globalisation,
the neo-liberal project
enjoys powerful adherents
located in the privileged
zones of the global
political economy,9
sanctioned by the industrial
might of the western
powers, particularly
the U.S. (United States),
Europe, and Japan; the
disciplinary structure
of global governance,
notably the WTO (World
Trade Organisation),
the World Bank, and
the IMF (International
Monetary Fund); and
the structure of the
global political economy
itself, with marked
imbalances of power,
wealth, and privilege,
of material and symbolic
production and circulation,
and particularly the
discursive fields of
imagination and policy.
The coterminous and
inseparable linkage
among power, discipline,
and discourse presents
impossible challenges
to the ex-colonial world
- vast zones of determinate
structural obstacles
to either reverse the
deepening of the neo-liberal
project in their midst
or to mitigate its deadly
effects.
Yet, nothing is as linear
as it seems. Recent
events demonstrate that
the once impregnable
fortress of neo-liberal
globalisation has also
attracted worldwide
resistance, including
opposition from forces
within the citadels
of capitalist power,
elites who harbour an
unease about the savage
form capitalism has
taken and the perils
of an ever-widening
gulf between greed and
compassion, between
the promise of prosperity
and its denial to most.10
However, the comforting
tale of resistance,
a staple of liberals,
NGOs (Non-Governmental
Organisations), and
ex-socialists should
be equally resisted.
Any allusion to the
scale and substance
of unequal global power,
between the organised
and centralised worlds
of transnational capital
and the mostly disorganised
and administered worlds
of the dispossessed,
underscores the innocence
of heightened expectations
of a collapsing juggernaut.
Rather, as historical
memory would show, many
previous post-mortems
of capitalism's impending
fall have been rudely
undone.
The ideological power
of neo-liberal globalisation
is far-reaching and
compelling, structuring
vast social worlds,
but also preventing
other possible worlds
to emerge. No less potent
than the mass utopias
that once gripped the
Cold War protagonists
and their acquiescent
allies,11 market fundamentalism
works not only as a
natural law, but as
the universal civic
religion of the time.
But utopias have their
inner dark secrets,
the potential to unravel
precisely in their instantiation
as totalising discourses.
The neo-liberal project
quickly begins to reveal
serious fault lines
once it abandons the
safer world of fantasy
to visit the cruel terrain
of the ex-colonial world.
However, the gulf separating
the potential for humane
alternatives for the
many and the existing
savagery of unbridled
accumulation for the
few remains large.
A lesser known element
that explains the global
reach of the neo-liberal
project is its inherent
malleability to work
with radically different
structures of political
authority. The notion
that economic liberalisation
invariably produces
political openness has
materialised infrequently
in the postcolonial
world. Often the sources
of democratic governance
in certain zones predate
the arrival of neo-liberal
marauders. Democracy
in these zones often
serves the aim of resisting,
or least aiming to humanise
neo-liberalism (as the
2004 election results
in India might suggest),
not march to its drumbeat.
In the mostly depoliticising
climate of the global
political economy, the
domestic structures
of authority that can
better ensure the advance
of neo-liberalism can
hope to enjoy special
global perks. Yet, those
privileges are for the
ruling power bloc within
state structures - not
the nation.
To realise its mission,
the neo-liberal project
violates its own theoretical
precepts. In unabashed
reversals of the idea
of primacy of the market,
for instance, it is
the state, not the market,
which is invited to
prosecute the war on
Keynesian economics,
reduce the size and
scope of what constitutes
the public sector. This
is an unheralded irony
inherent to the social
process, the discomforting
story of the use of
the instruments originally
seen as fetters to the
onward march. Hence
the design to deregulate,
privatise, and, liberalise,
is assigned to the state.
A solemn entreaty is
made to the state in
the name of progress
to commit suicide and
guarantee the arrival
of a better world free
of want and squalor,
depravity and subsistence.
Ensconced in the modernist
imaginary of progress,
the neo-liberal project
spares no means to attain
its lofty aims.
The changed global political
context of the neo-liberal
project makes a hard
choice even harder.
Although the structures
of global political
economy have remained
fairly stable with the
consolidation of the
neo-liberal project
since the 1980s, this
is not true of the structure
of power on a global
scale. The disappearance
of the Second World
and its steady - if
uneven - incorporation
into a unified spatial
zone of transnational
capital has all but
removed areas of reluctance,
opposition, and resistance.
For the Third World,
especially, the principle
of sovereignty often
served as a surrogate
for resistance. Although,
the life and times of
Third World sovereignty
are dotted with fractures,
mostly caused by invisible
process of unequal global
development, and in
many cases blatant displays
of brute northern force,
the spaces of relative
autonomy for domestic
policy making were never
so completely circumscribed.
In the post-9/11 world,
it remains uncertain
how effective resistance
can be mounted to the
Washington Consensus,
in the face of pre-emption
and extra-territoriality.
This is particularly
true of states that
pushed national security
to its extremities without
the necessary economic
autonomy secured by
self-sustaining growth,
regionalism, or reliance
on popular sovereignty.
Ironically, it is their
presumed one-dimensional
strength, not weakness,
which makes them attractive
targets under the unbridled
gendarme framework.
Have we entered a new
imperial phase? Or did
we ever leave one?
Intimations of empire
often provoke fervent
disclaimers. The suggestion
that the lineaments
of yet another postcolonial
empire could be already
in place, with stark
consequences for collective
and individual being
in the ex-Third World,
seems reckless and fantastic.
A stronger version of
this suggestion obliterates
“national”
action in areas as diverse
as the security, economy,
politics or culture,
reducing the local to
the global, subordinating
agency to structure.
A weaker variant of
the idea presents the
image of restrictive
pathways, but leaves
the scope and content
of imperial effects
contingent and local,
effects conditioned
by social agents, notably
the actions of state
managers, their cognitive
maps, societal base
and political will.
Cognitive maps are never
static, yet reveal discernible
patterns acquired over
time. The societal base
of state managers is
clearly a relevant factor.
Convergence between
state managers and social
forces in whose name
action is performed,
on the other hand, is
equally significant.
Political will is never
autonomous, nor reducible
to the structure. There
is considerable variation
in the relative distribution
of these attributes
among ex-colonial states.
Given the post-socialist
mood, the language of
empire betrays primordial
attachments obsolete
ideologies, a misdirected,
if nostalgic, quest
for explaining the distemper
of our times. The universal
embrace of markets and
materiality, granting
respectability to globalising
Social Darwinism, underscores
the necessity and desirability
of neo-liberalism and
by extension the necessity
and desirability of
compliance to its political
and military structures.
Caveat emptor! Only
those who demonstrate
a ready willingness
to adjust to the new
social laws can thrive.
The reticent and the
indolent have their
fate sealed, a dénouement
foretold, drawing few
tears, except post-mortems
as imploding 'failed
states' incapable of
aligning domestic social
forces to the welcoming
new world of globalisation.
Against this hegemonic
logic, it is neither
helpful nor practical
to invoke the vocabulary
of 'empire' in order
to examine common maladies
and pathologies of the
indigenous kind. After
all, the pains of the
feeble and the naïve
are strictly self-inflicted,
troubles strapped to
local greed, the fragility
of hapless institutions,
or unbounded ambition
without restraints of
shame, guilt or exteriorised
deterrence in the shape
of accountable government,
transparency or rationalised
law.
The
New Elixir
Pakistan, like its siblings
in the ex-colonial world,
is no stranger to impressive
entreaties and compulsions
of neo-liberal globalisation.
The pretence that it
can safely negotiate
disciplinary neo-liberalism,
however, is readily
contradicted by the
design and capacity
of the state. It is
not merely a question
of pouring new wines
in old bottles, globalisation
being the next elixir
for a decaying state.
Rather, it is the actually
existing character of
the corporate garrison
and its potential to
make strategic adjustments
in the face of unprecedented
challenges that would
dictate the future trajectory.
The official story of
Pakistan's speedy reversal
of its northern policy
disguises the scope
of troubles that lie
ahead. There are historical
legacies to be overcome
and the need for structural
transformation, not
structural adjustment.
But structures are resilient
entities, impervious
to real change. Even
pious steps designed
to reverse the past
have an uncanny capacity
to reinforce its stubborn
pathways. Alternatively,
short-term cures produce
chronic disease.
Despite the injection
of populism by the elder
Bhutto in the body politic
(a social mentality
subsequent regimes have
been unable to dislodge),
his model of political
economy, for instance,
deepened the accumulation
crisis domestically,
while exposing Pakistan
to new dependence consummated
by labour supplies to
the Gulf states. Although
the long-term societal
effects of migration
flows are too complex
to enumerate here,12
the weakening of the
labour movement is clearly
a significant by-product,
also inadvertently undermining
productive accumulation.
With the deepening security
crisis in the Gulf,
notably Saudi Arabia,
the entire labour migration
strategy as a source
of income generation
may now be getting totally
unstuck.
Ironically, the parasitic
character of captains
of industry is linked
to the undermining of
labour, but also the
relative ease of administering
neo-liberal medicine
under successor regimes,
notably during General
Zia-ul-Haq's geo-strategic
U.S.-sponsored frontline
status. Thus, welfare
retrenchment, either
by design or default,
is based on these inter-linked
factors: the decline
in the efficacy of organised
labour and Pakistan's
second strategic embrace
of the U.S., the first
alliance consummated
in the Pact frenzy of
the First Cold War.
Again, these were short-term
strategies, inviting
deep future troubles.
In substance, it is
hard to imagine General
Zia's draconian repression
of political, and especially
labour, dissent, without
alluding to his strategic,
status in the bloodiest
zone of the Second Cold
War. The growing militarisation
of Pakistan's economy
reads like a parallel
hypertext to the main
text of General Zia's
11-year strategic embrace,
a feature of political
economy no subsequent
civilian government
has either tried or
succeeded to reverse.
Against the historical
backdrop, it is not
too complicated to imagine
whose principal short-term
and long-terms interests
are likely to be served
under the new global
dispensation.
Despite pledges of radical
societal reform, the
state shows little inclination
for self-reflexivity
in arenas which matter
the most, notably, the
distribution of power
and resources. But to
lament these infirmities
is to rehearse moralism,
not recognise the necessary,
effects of history,
locality and, above
all, the instantiation
of the political at
multiple levels. Alternatives
emerge from the resolution
of contradictory trends.
Yet, there are strict
curbs on what is possible.
Perhaps an appreciation
of these curbs can help
escape the prison-house
built by the modernist
imaginary.
First, the social rigidity
of the power bloc places
imposing limits. The
rentier fraction in
the power bloc remains
dominant, as a claimant
both on politics and
economic resources.
Even by the logic of
neo-liberal economics,
this situation cannot
sustain viable growth.
When the pie is sliced
into pieces, the larger
share invariably goes
to the non-accumulating
classes. The historical
possibility of self-transformation
is negated by the expanding
role of more parasitic
layers on top of others.
This is not the usual
case of an emerging
military-industrial
complex found in the
advanced sectors of
the global political
economy. Rather, it
is a case of identifying
which social force drives
the state, and especially
in the economic domain,
society. The less autonomous
the accumulating classes,
the greater their political
frailty. Productive
classes in Pakistan
have been unable to
offer direction either
to the state or civil
society. The much-heralded
recent celebration of
NGOs as engines of social
transformation has to
be placed in this larger
context. They cannot
be substitutes for collectivities
drawn from the productive
arenas of civil society.
Second, the social rigidity
of the power bloc becomes
more visible against
the backdrop of a chronic
structural crisis of
the economy.13 A low
savings and investment
rate, a culture of tax
evasion, a looming irrigation
crisis, over-dependence
on a poorly diversified
export sector (mostly
at mercy of international
quotas as in the case
of textiles and regimes
of labour enforcement,
as in the case of sporting
goods) and an underdeveloped
infrastructure accentuate
the lingering effects
of illiteracy and a
bifurcated educational
system. Although, military
regimes have recorded
better economic performance
than their civilian
counterparts, development
of the physical infrastructure
(including communication)
has not fared better
under their presumably
watchful eye.
Third, poor expenditures
in secondary and post-secondary
education over several
decades have finally
caught up with the state.
The yawning gap between
elite education, on
the one hand, and the
restrictive worlds of
so-called vernacular
education and madrassah
instruction, on the
other, has left more
than a literacy problem
for one of South Asia's
fastest growing populations.
It is the increasing
consolidation of bifurcated
cultural world that
spells danger. The world
of privilege and access
to global culture (with
all its mixed blessings)
is diverging too rapidly
from the introverted
world of rising frustrations
amongst a population
with few prospects to
procure dignified existence.
In no small measure,
the appeal of bigotry
often resides in the
disenchanted spaces
of a divided world.
Fourth, the heightened
dependence on the decision-making
institutions of global
multilateral institutions
and growing alignment
as a pliant vassal in
the newly constituted
empire, drastically
circumscribe the arena
of autonomy and independence.
Seduced by jingoist
lullabies seemingly
produced by deterrent
capacity, state managers,
with able and willing
assistance from fungible
opinion-makers (the
organic intellectuals
in the service of the
state), send contradictory
messages. For the nation
and the region, there
is the recurring assurance
of invulnerability.
Beyond the neighbourhood,
there is the ever-ready
aspiration to serve.
Often, the latter is
justified in the name
of securing the nation
and the state. In the
post-9/11 environment
of binary and incommensurate
worlds, the first casualty
is historical memory;
the second, the contradictory
push and pull of neo-liberal
globalisation and the
doctrine of pre-emption.
Swiftly forgotten are
the bad old days of
disillusionment with
unreliable sponsors.
The urgency to first
secure the nation and
the state overrides
the living legacy of
the past. Expediency
subordinates strategic
thinking.
Fifth, despite the illusion
of consensus, the political
classes (within and
outside the state apparatus)
do not form a cohesive
group. Rent-seeking
states can be quite
fractious. The struggle
over the spoils of service
and servitude are not
in question here. Instead,
the strategic location
within the power bloc,
particularly secured
by global attachments
can often become the
rationale for some to
extend their claims
over the 'national'
surplus and social spaces
for reproduction as
an autonomous political
class, usually at the
expense of contenders.
Rising defence expenditures
do not tell the complete
story, a common mistake
of critics of the military
establishment, nor do
controversies over the
uniform. State power
is the focal point.
The principal question,
then, is whether a particular
fraction within the
state apparatus has
produced self-sustaining
mechanisms to both reproduce
and expand as a political
class? An answer in
the affirmative could
possibly reveal the
character of civil-military
relations, with a more
sanguine understanding
of democratic consolidation.
Clearly, this alternate
passage to understanding
would radically diminish
the formulaic analyses
of political scientists
lured by structural-functionalism
or systems analysis.
Yet, there are enormous
difficulties of ascertaining
the mechanisms that
help reproduce non-accumulating
elements within the
power bloc, particularly
the size, durability,
and salience of external
support. Only in the
conspiratorial world
certainty is possible,
the assignment of mysterious
and ubiquitous powers
to alien forces. More
modest attempts to determine
the nature of strategic
alliances confront the
humility speculation
often produces. Yet,
given time, the patterns
can become more apparent.
To begin with the obvious,
military intervention
in politics has been
the norm, not the exception,
either directly or indirectly.
The bifurcated arrangement
between the political
forces and the military-civilian
establishment has also
been an abiding feature
of the state. The military
is the senior partner
in the state structure
with the capacity to
condition the scope
and content of democratic
activity. The recent
institution of the National
Security Council merely
reflects the de facto
scheme of things. As
mentioned, there is
the preponderant claim
on the national budget,
second only to debt
servicing in recent
years. The military,
not the civilian wings
of the state, has been
the architect and custodian
of national security
and foreign policy,
especially in dealing
with India and Afghanistan.
But there is also notable
expansion, well reflected
in the new constellation
at the sociological,
ideological, and structural
levels.
The military is now
also an integral part
of the economy in areas
of employment in the
private and public sectors.14
From positions in the
civilian bureaucracy
to ambassadorial appointments
to positions in national
universities, the presence
of serving and retired
military officers is
vast. Industrial, landed,
and commercial interests
show a similar presence
in areas as diverse
as oil and gas, power
generation, sugar, cement,
and rich production,
pharmaceuticals, shoe
factories, commercial
banks, insurance companies,
and above all, the growing
zone of private security.
The frontiers of opportunity
are not restricted to
the domestic scene.
Overseas service in
the Gulf and United
Nations (UN) peace-keeping
may be small, but not
insignificant in reinforcing
the structure of the
military's reproduction
as an independent entity.
The military's presence
on land, especially
urban property for ex-servicemen,
continues to dot the
economic landscape.
Though the size and
scale of these activities
is not totally clear,
the symbiotic relationship
between the corporate
military interests and
the economy has disproportionately
grown since the beginning
of General Zia's tenure.
The cumulative effect
of these developments
can inevitably produce
de-professionalisation
and re-professionalisation,
a consequence of the
inherent tension between
the defence of the realm
and the exchange principle.
The former would suggest
the possible shift in
expected standards,
while the latter refers
to the growing re-skilling
of former military officials
as intellectuals, opinion-makers,
entrepreneurs, private
security personnel,
and other specialised
fields of a diversifying
political economy. Apparently,
this is just another
case of revolving doors.
In the context of Pakistan's
political economy, however,
the field can get easily
crowded, stifling the
aspirations of civil
society.
On face value, the consolidation
of the military component
in the power bloc has
brought rich economic
dividends. One instance
is the linkage between
a concessionary lending
regime and geo-strategic
service, mostly noticeable
under military-led governments.
Often, though, the security
and defence apparatuses
of the state can fatten
on a greasy diet; the
fate of millions hangs
in the balance without
an expanding producing
structure. Without seeking
to remove the structure
of debt in the first
place, its capable management
simply postpones the
problem to the next
generation.
As the General Zia's
regime successfully
managed to exploit its
newly acquired status
with massive infusions
of aid and assistance,
the present national
constellation has received
pledges and assurances
to rescue Pakistan's
debt-ridden economy.
The short-term prospects
of an economic recovery
seem promising. But
is economic recovery
durable, and more significantly,
capable of producing
self-sustaining expansion?
The long-term economic
prospects are not simply
confined to economic
indicators, except in
textbooks or fairy tales,
but the political environment.
Uncertainty in that
area, enhanced by regional
and global entanglements,
continues to cast its
shadow.
Looking beyond a narrow
economic lens, the linkage
between authoritarianism
and societal involution
has been quite direct.
The credit given for
current efforts to stem
the tide of obscurantism,
bigotry, and violence
conveniently erases
past footprints. In
this regard, the inextricable
nexus between authoritarianism
and fundamentalism deserves
special mention.
During General Zia's
tenure, the nexus between
authoritarianism and
fundamentalism was unmediated.
Borrowing a leaf out
of the Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto's ostensibly
secular book, he manipulated
religion as symbol,
text, and sentiment
by adopting an imported
brand of Wahabbism directly
into the state. The
triangular strategic
alliance among the U.S.,
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
ensured the fertilisation
of bigotry as national
and regional ideology,
serving the twin purpose
of waging the holy war
in Afghanistan and deepening
the strategic hold of
fundamentalists in both
state and civil society.
The
making of Pakistan as
a jihad export processing
zone, a process in which
civilian and military
regimes equally share
the burden, underscores
both the self-sustaining
character of entanglements
within the ruling power
bloc, but especially
between weak clients
and powerful patrons.
Recent analyses of blowback
highlight the disastrous
international effects
of marriages of convenience.15
Less noticeable is the
polarisation within
Pakistan's civil society,
assuming the generally
insulated nature of
the country's professional
forces from societal
divisions. Unlike General
Zia, President Musharraf
faces the awkward task
of undoing the legacy
of the Afghan campaign,
a task complicated by
three specific factors.
First, the social structure
is bifurcated not simply
on class lines, but
on the basis of cultural
sentiment drawn by variants
of the faith. The more
politicised protagonists
of religion are also
the more illiberal,
extracting support from
the lumpen sectors.
Second, Musharraf's
secular-modernist war
against fundamentalism
appears as an extension
of the U.S.-led war
in the Afghanistan and
Iraq. The truncated
edifice of representative
democracy furthers the
cause of fundamentalism,
preventing other social
forces to capture the
political imagination.
Though the official
word repeatedly stresses
the limited appeal of
fundamentalism, sectarian
violence and gruesome
acts of bigotry against
religious minorities
deepen the social divide.
Third,
the consolidation of
the power bloc without
basic social reform
within the ruling elites
themselves dissolves
the possibility of addressing
the sources of alienation
and disenchantment.
In this regard, one-dimensional
attacks on the madrassah
system, recognising
neither the social underpinnings
for its sustenance nor
its historical location
within the cultural
economy of colonial/postcolonial,
offer the wrong pill
for a mis-diagnosed
ailment. Without widening
the compass of reform,
which must also encompass
the state apparatus
itself, social polarisation
as cultural polarisation
is only likely to exacerbate.
The new global constellation,
however, makes the prospects
of internal state reform
more difficult, if not
altogether, impossible.
Conclusion
To offer yet another
commentary on the enormous
and unprecedented challenges
to the nation and state
of Pakistan is to rehearse
the banal. The hurdles
are tall and sturdy.
Yet, social processes
are also full of surprises.
These surprises rarely
emanate as miraculous
rewards for temperance
and forbearance, but
as effects of everyday
struggles outside the
complacent chambers
of power. The democratic
task is primarily a
political one, to consolidate
these efforts, give
them definition. Part
of a new definition
is, perhaps, to rethink
the spatial frontiers
of struggles.16

(Mustapha Kamal
Pasha is Professor of
International Relations
at American University
in Washington, D.C.
He is currently based
as a Fellow of the Japan
Society for the Promotion
of Science (JSPS) in
Tokyo, Japan)
References
1. Institute
for International Cooperation,
Japan International
Cooperation Agency,
Country Study for Japan's
Official Development
Assistance to the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan.
Development Toward a
Sustainable Society-Medium-and
Long-Term Perspectives,
November 2003. Tokyo.
2. International Crisis
Group, Pakistan: Transition
to Democracy? 3 October
2002. ICG Asia Report
No. 40. Islamabad/Brussels.
http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/showreport.cfm?reportid=788.
Accessed on 10/29/02.
3. The invocation of
traditional culture
acquired official blessings
with President Aye's
ghostwritten autobiography
and more recently, in
public speeches of President
Musharraf on the need
to reform society. The
State's own rigidity
rarely enters the pronouncements.
4. Notable in this vein
is Daniel Kux and recent
articles by Stephen
Cohen., op. cit.
5. The work of Transparency
International is relevant
here. Unencumbered by
monitoring itself, its
index on corruption
provides global certification
of mostly Third World
governments as worthy/unworthy
members of the civilised
world.
6. For a provocative
critique of modernisation
theory, see Arturo Escobar,
Encountering Development:
The Making and Unmaking
of the Third World.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1995.
7. This charge escapes
the reflexive move of
recognising neoliberalism
primarily as an ideology.
See Manfred Bieinfeld,
“The Significance
of the Newly Industrialising
Countries for the Development
Debate,” Studies
in Political Economy,
Vol. 25: 7-39. I have
examined these issues
in more detail in “Globalisation
and Poverty in South
Asia, Millennium: Journal
of International Studies,
Vol. 25, No. 3 (1996):
635-656; and “Liberalisation,
State Patronage and
the `New Inequality'
in South Asia,”
Journal of Development
Studies, Vol. 16, No.
1 (2000): 71-85.
8. Karl Polanyi's classic
book, The Great Transformation.
Boston: Beacon Press,
1944, offers a scathing
critique of an unregulated,
disembedded market.
9. One familiar example
is Thomas L. Friedman.
See his unqualified
defence of globalisation
in The Lexus and the
Olive Tree. New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2000. Revised edition.