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Pakistan
National Security
THE ARMED FORCES OF PAKISTAN have traditionally played a distinctive
role in the life of the nation. As in many other developing countries,
they are an important modernizing force in society and a key tool
of national integration. As defenders of the nation's interests
in Pakistan's troubled and volatile geopolitical neighborhood,
the armed forces are accorded a particularly high status in public
opinion. Less welcome, however, has been the repeated interference
of the armed forces in the internal affairs and politics of the
country. The military has frequently been called in to gain control
of unrest that has gone beyond the ability of the police to cope;
some of these intrusions have had a major impact and have been
of fairly long duration. The military has assumed political as
well as security control of the entire country three times under
proclamations of martial law. Indeed, since it became an independent
state in 1947, Pakistan has been under military control for much
of its existence.
At the same time, however, democracy has always been seen as
the "natural" state of the Pakistani polity, and the military
has ultimately returned power to civilian hands. Thus, although
the armed forces dominated the country to a certain extent, they
have not perpetuated a military dictatorship. The military has
been a permanent factor in the life of the country, but in a role
that has ranged from complete control to vigilant observer. As
political scientist Leonard Binder has observed, "Even [Pakistan's]
dependence upon the military does not necessarily make of it a
praetorian state, because there is little evidence that the state
works in the sole interest of the military. Rather, it was the
military which intervened in order to prevent the breakdown of
the patrimonial system." Much of the political history of Pakistan
has been set in this drama of contending influences, and the military
in early 1994 was still searching for a role that would reconcile
its interests and the broader needs of a country whose politicians
were struggling to establish a credible authority of their own.
Data as of April 1994
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