Democracy in Pakistan

On the lines of Sadat Hasan Manto's facetious letters to Uncle Sam written at the height of the cold war when Pakistan was being wooed by the US as an ally to fight communism, this letter was written in 2002 to the then Prime Minister Vajpayee by historian Ayesha Jalal. Written as a spirited assessment of the standoff between India and Pakistan, the letter is peppered with rare insights that have always been Manto's hallmark.

The dominance of the Punjabi and mohajir communities and the perceived bellicosity of India have played a deterministic role in the shaping of Pakistan. The elevation of national security as a topmost state concern and the growing centralisation of powers by a federal government has however led to a growing subordination of parliamentary procedures and the alienation of the smaller provinces. The latest constitutional reforms and a new government only heighten the inherent conflicts that democracy in Pakistan faces.