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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

A Fragmented Polity Irfan Husain

The truth is that Pakistan has become a free-for-all where people try and grab what they can. In normal, working democracies, large national political parties represent the interests of their supporters, and when in power, spread economic benefits equitably. Or at least, that is their aim. Of course, there are often imbalances when an unequal distribution of resources causes tensions, but over time, the aim is to distribute income relatively fairly.

Problems arise when the perception develops that one section of the population is consistently getting the biggest slice of the cake. This is what drove East Pakistan into fighting for its independence. Ethnic politics feeds off perceived injustice. Thus, when the MQM was formed by General Ziaul Haq to weaken the PPP in Sindh, it became instantly popular with the lower-middle-class mohajirs. Young men of this community, in particular, had felt increasingly marginalized as growing numbers found it harder to get jobs. Being members of an armed group that could flex its muscles was very attractive.

1 Comments:

Blogger Admin said...

Dear Writer
I guess you should be a little sane while writing anything about any one, just making allegations with out proofs will not lead to anything as the people of Karachi and Sindh are quite well aware of the facts.

You said that Zia make MQM to weaken PPP in sindh, Sorry Sir the truth is Altaf Hussain was sentence for 9 months by Zia Gov for taking out procession for the return of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh.
PPP don't have any vote bank in Mohajir Population due to steps taken by Bhutto and PPP against Mohajirs, the famous is dismissal of more then 3000 Mohajir Civil Servants by Bhutto in 70's and the imposition of Quota System by PPP in sindh.

The results of 1970 and 1977 clearly shows that PPP always lost from Mohajir Population.

February 18, 2009 2:44 AM  

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