Pakistan is regarded widely today as a country continuing turmoil, in which multiple centres of political and armed power compete with each other, using violence as much as due democratic processes to settle their differences. And yet, as this dissertation seeks to show, there is also a tradition of democracy that has been fought for and won in ongoing nonviolent movements For almost half its life since its creation in 1947, military dictators, of whom there have been four in all, have ruled Pakistan. Amongst these, General Zia-ul-Haq ruled the longest at more than eleven years from July 1977 to August 1988. He not only executed Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan former Prime Minister but he was also able to bring about fundamental changes in the legal, political, religious, social and cultural affairs of the country. His rule is often considered a ‘dark age’ in the history of Pakistan. Two movements – the campaign to save Bhutto 1977-1979 and the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) 1981-1988 – were launched and led by political parties, of which the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was leading member, against Zia’s rule. Historians have generally considered both these movements to have been a failure. In this dissertation, it is argued that although MRD took much longer than the originally-envisaged three months to achieve its aim, it did not in the end fail. It should, rather, be seen as a gradualist democratic movement, which eventually brought the country back to democracy in 1988. The process took longer than expected for several reasons, the most important of which were a lack of unity amongst the leaders of its constituent political parties, particularly the PPP, the absence of an operational corps, and Zia-ul-Haq’s ruthless response to the nonviolent resistance to his rule. Additionally, Zia’s regime was supported for many years by international powers of the Western bloc, due to the war against Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:682851 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Ahmad, Malik Hammad |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/77074/ |
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