To make matters worse for Pakistan, whereas, India did inherit an almost intact Treasury, Judiciary, Armed Forces etc, Pakistan did not. Hence, Pakistan, both East & West, had to start from scratch. It is to the credit of Pakistan and Pakistanis that they did manage pretty quickly to put these together with dogged perseverance and timely foreign aid. It took the Pakistani Armed Forces a longer time to become what is today because of the untimely (1948) armed hostilities with the Indian Armed Forces in Kashmir but again it is to the credit of Pakistanis that by the time the 1965 Indo-Pak War came in 1965, their Armed Forces had become a formidable fighting force. This would, in later years, facilitate the Armed Forces' intrusions into national politics during periods of what they saw or presumed as being national political crises during which elected civilian governments were seen as being unable to run the affairs of state. For the sake of fairness, except for one military dictator, Yahya Khan, the others did a good job of running the country, better than the civilian governments they had replaced, at least in the first few years after each coup. They were less corrupt and did manage to increase the GDP, fight corruption and provide internal security, thereby attracting foreign investments.
During the past 60 years Pakistan has had failed experiences with constitutions, parliamentary democracy and party politics. What has emerged over the years in Pakistan is a unique political structure comprising the following building or political blocs.
--Armed Forces of Pakistan
--Feudal Landlords
--Tribes in the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan
--Business Class (banking/insurance/industry/commerce)
--Labor Class (agricultural/industrial/commercial)
--Public & Private Sector employed Middle Class (members of civil, police and other
Employments, plus bankers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs,
Media-men and women)
(Since the nineteen eighties the Islamists have been trying to get on to the above list without success)
In parallel to and intertwined with the above blocs are the traditional corner stones and pillars, those of Ethnicity and Vernacular, which mostly go together. The largest such stone and pillar are Punjab and Punjabi, the land and the vernacular.
Punjab is the agricultural heart-land of Pakistan crisscrossed by four major rivers and Punjabis are the largest ethnic group. They are laborers, agriculturists, traders and industrialists. They are also better educated. Because of this and their sheer numbers, up to two thirds of the service men in Pakistan's Armed Forces, other government services, commerce and industry, doctors, engineers, professors etc are all Punjabis. This is as should be but is not conducive to nation building especially when accompanied by nepotism and narrow provincialism.
The 'mohajirs, are similar to the Punjabis in education, business and industry but are fewer in number and are mostly centered in Karachi where they were 'settled' upon their arrival from India. Unfortunately, they have not mixed with or amongst the Sindhis, much to their detriment. There was nothing which prevented them from doing what their likes did upon being settled in Punjab. A few of them like General Zia-ul-Haque and General Musharraf made it to the top, the very top, by losing their 'mohajir' IDs. Those who still carry 'mohajir' IDs by choice are mainly Urdu speaking. Despite the fact that their vernacular, Urdu, happens to be the official language of Pakistan it has not proven to be of exceptional consequence in Pakistan's national politics. Simply for the sake of record, in all the provinces of pre-partition India which became Pakistan, their vernaculars were not Urdu. Urdu with its twin language, Hindi in India, were the vernaculars in the biggest and most heavily populated Indian provinces; the United Province (now Uttar Pradesh), Bihar and Central Province which is part of today's Madhya Pradesh. Urdu was the language used by Pakistan's National Poet, Mohammed Iqbal whose works sowed the seeds of the creeper which entwined the Muslims of British India, clutched their hearts and mesmerized their minds in favor of a separate homeland for the Muslims. The word Pakistan itself was coined by Mohammed Iqbal. However, when the crunch came and provincial interests mixed with ethnic vernaculars, Urdu could not stand up to Bengali, the language of the ex-East Pakistanis, now Bangladeshis. The Bengali rejection of Urdu as the sole national language of Pakistan (East and West), as ordered by the Founding Father of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, as early as 1947, sowed the first seed of secession in East Pakistan. Common faith (Islam) and common enemy (India) could not keep the union intact.
Of course, there were other reasons for the secession, some more important and serious than Language but Language was something no Bengali would disagree on, as being something to fight for. In Punjab, Sindh and to a lesser extent in Balochistan, their separate vernaculars did not prevent them from accepting Urdu as the national language of Pakistan, primarily because Punjabis had no problems with it. Their vernacular, Punjabi, is almost Urdu and the latter had been in use in Punjab ever since Urdu started evolving in the plains of Punjab and North India as a result of the intermingling of Turkic, Mongol and Persian invaders with 'locals' during the seven Centuries which followed the tenth AD. By the 18th Century, Urdu had become the Court Language in Delhi, the capital of Muslim Empires in India. (The word Urdu is a Turkic word meaning Army Cantonment, which is where it evolved). Sindhi, Pushto and Balochi are ethnic vernaculars but not as developed as Urdu and Punjabi, which have rich literature to their credit. Sindhi draws heavily from Hindi whereas Pushtu is based on Persian. Balochi is peppered with Persian and Sindhi. There are many other dialects which are off shoots of Sindhi and Punjabi, like the Seraiki but all are dialects of one or the other. All the ethnic vernaculars and dialects use the Urdu script.
Reverting to the 6 'political blocs' in Pakistan's political matrix listed above, they have all developed after Pakistan came into being. They are now matters of fact and are not totally dependent on ethnicity or vernacular divides. There is plenty of over lapping. For example, whereas the bulk of the servicemen and officers in the Armed Forces hail from Punjab and the North West Frontier Province, the top brass does include Balochis, Sindhis and 'Mohajirs'. In the Feudal Landlords bloc, the biggest and the most powerful ones are in Punjab and Sindh. They carry with them massive electorate banks; their 'serfs' (for want of a better word) because of the universal suffrage guaranteed to them by the State. It is these 'serfs' along with the commercial and industrial workers/labor which constitute the fifth bloc, the Labor Bloc.
During the past 60 years Pakistan has had failed experiences with constitutions, parliamentary democracy and party politics. What has emerged over the years in Pakistan is a unique political structure comprising the following building or political blocs.
--Armed Forces of Pakistan
--Feudal Landlords
--Business Class (banking/insurance/industry/commerce)
--Labor Class (agricultural/industrial/commercial)
--Public & Private Sector employed Middle Class (members of civil, police and other
Employments, plus bankers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs,
Media-men and women)
(Since the nineteen eighties the Islamists have been trying to get on to the above list without success)
In parallel to and intertwined with the above blocs are the traditional corner stones and pillars, those of Ethnicity and Vernacular, which mostly go together. The largest such stone and pillar are Punjab and Punjabi, the land and the vernacular.
Punjab is the agricultural heart-land of Pakistan crisscrossed by four major rivers and Punjabis are the largest ethnic group. They are laborers, agriculturists, traders and industrialists. They are also better educated. Because of this and their sheer numbers, up to two thirds of the service men in Pakistan's Armed Forces, other government services, commerce and industry, doctors, engineers, professors etc are all Punjabis. This is as should be but is not conducive to nation building especially when accompanied by nepotism and narrow provincialism.
The 'mohajirs, are similar to the Punjabis in education, business and industry but are fewer in number and are mostly centered in Karachi where they were 'settled' upon their arrival from India. Unfortunately, they have not mixed with or amongst the Sindhis, much to their detriment. There was nothing which prevented them from doing what their likes did upon being settled in Punjab. A few of them like General Zia-ul-Haque and General Musharraf made it to the top, the very top, by losing their 'mohajir' IDs. Those who still carry 'mohajir' IDs by choice are mainly Urdu speaking. Despite the fact that their vernacular, Urdu, happens to be the official language of Pakistan it has not proven to be of exceptional consequence in Pakistan's national politics. Simply for the sake of record, in all the provinces of pre-partition India which became Pakistan, their vernaculars were not Urdu. Urdu with its twin language, Hindi in India, were the vernaculars in the biggest and most heavily populated Indian provinces; the United Province (now Uttar Pradesh), Bihar and Central Province which is part of today's Madhya Pradesh. Urdu was the language used by Pakistan's National Poet, Mohammed Iqbal whose works sowed the seeds of the creeper which entwined the Muslims of British India, clutched their hearts and mesmerized their minds in favor of a separate homeland for the Muslims. The word Pakistan itself was coined by Mohammed Iqbal. However, when the crunch came and provincial interests mixed with ethnic vernaculars, Urdu could not stand up to Bengali, the language of the ex-East Pakistanis, now Bangladeshis. The Bengali rejection of Urdu as the sole national language of Pakistan (East and West), as ordered by the Founding Father of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, as early as 1947, sowed the first seed of secession in East Pakistan. Common faith (Islam) and common enemy (India) could not keep the union intact.
Of course, there were other reasons for the secession, some more important and serious than Language but Language was something no Bengali would disagree on, as being something to fight for. In Punjab, Sindh and to a lesser extent in Balochistan, their separate vernaculars did not prevent them from accepting Urdu as the national language of Pakistan, primarily because Punjabis had no problems with it. Their vernacular, Punjabi, is almost Urdu and the latter had been in use in Punjab ever since Urdu started evolving in the plains of Punjab and North India as a result of the intermingling of Turkic, Mongol and Persian invaders with 'locals' during the seven Centuries which followed the tenth AD. By the 18th Century, Urdu had become the Court Language in Delhi, the capital of Muslim Empires in India. (The word Urdu is a Turkic word meaning Army Cantonment, which is where it evolved). Sindhi, Pushto and Balochi are ethnic vernaculars but not as developed as Urdu and Punjabi, which have rich literature to their credit. Sindhi draws heavily from Hindi whereas Pushtu is based on Persian. Balochi is peppered with Persian and Sindhi. There are many other dialects which are off shoots of Sindhi and Punjabi, like the Seraiki but all are dialects of one or the other. All the ethnic vernaculars and dialects use the Urdu script.
Reverting to the 6 'political blocs' in Pakistan's political matrix listed above, they have all developed after Pakistan came into being. They are now matters of fact and are not totally dependent on ethnicity or vernacular divides. There is plenty of over lapping. For example, whereas the bulk of the servicemen and officers in the Armed Forces hail from Punjab and the North West Frontier Province, the top brass does include Balochis, Sindhis and 'Mohajirs'. In the Feudal Landlords bloc, the biggest and the most powerful ones are in Punjab and Sindh. They carry with them massive electorate banks; their 'serfs' (for want of a better word) because of the universal suffrage guaranteed to them by the State. It is these 'serfs' along with the commercial and industrial workers/labor which constitute the fifth bloc, the Labor Bloc.
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