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Democracy and Governance in Pakistan
216 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2008
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About the author
Tahir Kamran
12 books6 followersTahir Kamran, (Urdu: طاھر کامران), is a notable Pakistani historian and former Iqbal fellow at the University of Cambridge,[1] as professor in the Centre of South Asian Studies. He has authored four books and has written several articles specifically on the history of the Punjab, sectarianism, democracy, and governance. He is the former head of the department of history at the Government College University in Lahore, Pakistan where he founded the biannual journal 'The Historian' [2]
He has been influential in the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and implemented methods to improve educational standards in Pakistan.
Kamran has been a visiting fellow at Southampton University, the SOAS and at the University of Cambridge .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahir_K...
He has been influential in the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and implemented methods to improve educational standards in Pakistan.
Kamran has been a visiting fellow at Southampton University, the SOAS and at the University of Cambridge .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahir_K...
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June 8, 2020
A highly recommended and academically written book that goes after the deeply rooted malaises in Pakistan. The book is written by Dr. Tahir Kamran who is a well-known academician and historian. He pursued in this book the institutional and administrative flaws that have been weakening the country. And to my astonishment, it became known to me first time that how much dictatorial attitude Pakistan's founding father had. He did feel amused to be dubbed a descendant of Mughal Rulers in Pakistan.
After his demise, a race to approach the corridors of power began. An infamous nexus between the civil bureaucracy and military generals got strengthened. And then subsequently, after the constitution of 1962, a new faction of feudal lords endorsed by Ayub Khan's Basic Democracies emerged and so Elitism upheld its stronghold in this country.
However, the end was not there, the persecution of Press through the martial law ordinance, the trial of politicians through Elective Body Disqualification Order EBDO and humiliation and persecution of the dissent voices e.g., Habib Jalib and Josh Malih Abadi were also the significant events of that ignominious era.
Another fact that left me surprised while reading the book was that to know the man who precluded the men of literature from raising their voices against the autocrats was Qudrut ullah Shahab, the author of Shahab Naama, on the behest of the government of a dictator.
Anyway, to cut the long story short, the writer has beautifully described how Pakistan's present fragile condition gets shaped through decades under the auspices of Dictators, Populists, Autocrats, and Kleptocrats. In a nutshell, this book simply tells us how Pakistan became a country of the elite, by the elite, and for the elite. And that how they are eating it like termites.
After his demise, a race to approach the corridors of power began. An infamous nexus between the civil bureaucracy and military generals got strengthened. And then subsequently, after the constitution of 1962, a new faction of feudal lords endorsed by Ayub Khan's Basic Democracies emerged and so Elitism upheld its stronghold in this country.
However, the end was not there, the persecution of Press through the martial law ordinance, the trial of politicians through Elective Body Disqualification Order EBDO and humiliation and persecution of the dissent voices e.g., Habib Jalib and Josh Malih Abadi were also the significant events of that ignominious era.
Another fact that left me surprised while reading the book was that to know the man who precluded the men of literature from raising their voices against the autocrats was Qudrut ullah Shahab, the author of Shahab Naama, on the behest of the government of a dictator.
Anyway, to cut the long story short, the writer has beautifully described how Pakistan's present fragile condition gets shaped through decades under the auspices of Dictators, Populists, Autocrats, and Kleptocrats. In a nutshell, this book simply tells us how Pakistan became a country of the elite, by the elite, and for the elite. And that how they are eating it like termites.
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