A Glance at Federalism of Pakistan in perspective of Linguistic, Economic, Fiscal and Ethnic Dimensions

Abstract

Federalism is a form of state in which the component provinces and units under a political organization take part by sharing powers and functions through cooperative manners despite of having ethnic pluralism and cultural diversities. Federalism is considered to be wide range of institutional arrangements under the auspice of constitution to mitigate trust deficit and diversities to ensure political and social participation in acquiring national interests by maintaining political identities of distinct groups and units. A number of political scholars stated that the federal system of Pakistan remained under many martial laws imposed by various dictators or military men. They did not pay any attention for giving provincial autonomy to the federating units of the country without taking into account the participation of ethnic minorities. This structure of federalism was run by the military and civil bureaucracy for long since rather than democratic regimes. In addition, many time the constitutions of Pakistan such as 1956, 1962 and 1973 were abrogated and suspended during martial laws. Having hegemonic design of central government, plenty of time provincial governments were dissolved and emergencies were executed by intervening in the jurisdiction of provinces. This article analyzes the issues and conflicts emerged in the federal system of the country in the shape of distinct linguistic, economic, fiscal and ethnic dimensions by the monopoly of center. This article also sheds light on constitutional amendments done in various times till now.