Ethnic Fragmentation and Dynamics of Politics in Pakistan

Abstract

The state is a resource in itself and does needful to distribute the resources. In a multi-ethnic state, it is most important to analyze how resources and state power are shared among different ethnic groups. It is also most important to assess how state power is used to facilitate one or more ethnic groups at the cost of others and to enlist the repercussions what the state faces. Pakistan is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural state emerged over the map of the world in the name of Islam. After twenty-three years, the electoral outcome of the first general election sharpened the ethno-regional differences between the two wings and Bangladesh emerged on the map of the world as an independent state. The complex nature of socio-economic and political factors re-shaped the interaction between lingual cum regional ethnicity and electro- political dynamics in Pakistan. The prevailing ethnic landscape requires a wholesome review to accommodate all the ethnic groups and identities in state power and resources. This paper will explain how different ethnic groups in Pakistan had been politicized, institutionalized and promoted for particular gains by the ruling elites during democratic and military regimes. The study will also examine either the prevailing electoral and political system is useful to diffuse the prevailing polarization among different lingo-regional ethnic groups or not. The paper is an attempt to explore the causes of deepening ethnic fragmentation in Pakistan and suggest a viable framework to marginalize these differences through an electoral and political mechanism.