An Associate Professor in the Department of Pakistan Studies Allama Iqbal Open University Miss Lubna Saif presented her final Ph D Thesis on the Authoritarianism and Under Development in the Third World, A Neo-Colonial Model: Pakistan- A case study (1947-58). Lubna Saif said she has focused on dialectic between state construction and political process in Pakistan in the first decade of independence.
She presented her doctoral dissertation at a seminar on Tuesday at Sindh University which was largely attended by scholars from various faculties of the University.
Using 'Dependency Paradigm' as evaluation tool, the Thesis examines the international political and economic factors which in alliance with domestic and regional factors shaped the structure of Pakistani State according to the interests of the players of neo-colonial world in the cold war era.
The first decade of Pakistan's history (1947-58) produced developments of great significance for construction of post-colonial state that needed to be examined in the context of cold war era. It was during that period, she said, that the democratic institutions were destroyed and authoritarianism was consolidated which generated underdevelopment, and Pakistan took the shape of a client state of United States. These developments concluded in the first direct military rule in 1958.
An analytical study of formative years of Pakistan in the context of dependency paradigm may provide new insights for understanding of broader issues of military intervention in politics and the authoritarian nature of the state, and its links with underdevelopment in the third world, particularly in South Asia.
The study is an attempt to investigate how civil bureaucracy and military rose to prominence in Pakistan and how their alliance succeeded in twisting institutional balance against political parties and politicians resulting in the centralisation of authority and power of the State.
According to her, in the process institutions essential for construction of nation state namely political parties and legislatures were replaced with elite non-representative groups including civil and military bureaucracies and the feudal classes. These elite groups were the product of British colonialism.
The thrust of inquiry is the analysis of structural composition of these three institutions with the primary aim to understand how those representative institutions of a colonial state continued to dominate the formation of postcolonial state and jeopardised its evolution.
The thesis is divided in to five chapters. The first chapter traces the historical development of colonial capitalism focusing on the province of Punjab, and suggests the underdevelopment founded in Pakistan society owing its origin to the British colonial capitalist system in India. Chapter 2 discusses the construction of postcolonial state in the context of American power system.
The Third chapter examines emergence of institutional imbalance and manipulating powers by international connections, and discusses the development of institutional imbalances that plagued Pakistan's history due to crafty approach of international managers of cold war who, allied with domestic actors, continued the colonial legacy of controlling the democratic institutions through an authoritarian administrative structure.
The Fourth chapter evaluates destruction of democracy and consolidation of an authoritarian state in the context of Patron-Client model. The chapter discusses various forms of authoritarianism and theories of development focusing on divergence in development.
Various scholars also expressed their views on this occasion about the scholar's work. The Vice Chancellor University of Sindh Mazharul Haq Siddiqui, who presided over the seminar, appreciated the efforts of the scholar.
Lubna Saif completed her Ph D dissertation under the supervision of Professor Dr Lutfullah Mangi, Chairman, Department of International Relations, University of Sindh.