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The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of military and bureaucracy on Pakistan's politics by using politics of memory and colonialism as theoretical frameworks to interpret both historical as well as contemporary trajectories. This research seeks to discover how colonial legacies continue to influence contemporary practices of democracy by examining the effects of electoral rigging and military interventions on political stability. Pakistan, despite having some features of democracy, can best be declared a hybrid state where the core institutions like armed forces and bureaucracy predominantly shape and reshape the political and democratic discourse of both the state and the society. On the problems and challenges of hybrid democracy in Pakistan, this research is of the view that the Pakistani political system and democracy have not been decolonized since its inception in 1947. It is therefore strongly recommended that Pakistan should decolonize its political system to establish effective democratic infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the dispute over Kashmir broke out in 1947, a plebiscite of the people of the state offered a mutually acceptable and ostensibly fair path out of the imbroglio. Critics have often laid the blame on Nehru, and the territory’s salience to India, for why a plebiscite was never held. Based on primary documentation, this article makes the case that it was not a lack of commitment to the formula, but rather Nehru’s deeply held strategic and reputational fears that motivated, first, the setting of what Delhi saw as firm but fair pre-conditions, and after the conclusion of the US-Pakistan military pact in 1954, the complete rejection of the plebiscite option. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While Pakistani politics regularly employs the rhetoric of provincial autonomy, there are powerful structural and empirical tendencies that have contributed to the centralisation of power. This paper examines the relationship between this concentration of power and the quality of the provincial administration. It argues that unless the provincial administration is rehabilitated and a real measure of fiscal autonomy is granted to the provincial units, Pakistan will continue to suffer a state apparatus and political process that is centralised, arbitrary and ineffective. The effectiveness of the Pakistani state apparatus has become a matter of international concern due to the US-led war on terror and the spill-over of the Taliban/Al-Qaeda insurgency into Pakistan. It is contended that fixing the problems inherent in Pakistan's administration require not only material inputs, but a change in attitude and orientation towards the provincial administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relation between the notion of a primordial homeland and that of 'diaspora' has long been noted, and is considered by some to be indelible. It may well be the case, however, that when one distinguishes between the definitional and the operative levels, this association turns out to be tenuous. In the case of Hindu Sindhis, a diasporic business community dispersed in over 100 countries, Partition in 1947 brought about the wholesale migration, particularly to Bombay, out of the newly-created Pakistan. Today, the primordial homeland (Sind) survives as little more than a nostalgic memory; instead, Bombay functions as a node that connects and organizes translocality - it is the 'cultural heart' of the cosmopolitan Sindhis. Regular visits to the city to take part in family occasions, to arrange marriages, to engage in conspicuous consumption, to invest in real estate, and to establish new business connections, serve periodically to bring together people from around the world and to foster a sense of Sindhayat , 'Sindhiness'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the issue of political cohesion in Pakistan. Motives and causes of ideological underpinning; Differentiation of strategy and ideology; Conclusion.