'Pakistan still a paradox with democratic facade'

Pakistan, whose democratic facade conceals a strong military impulse, is still a paradox but its next elections will show what course it takes, says French South Asian expert Christophe Jaffrelot.

"Pakistan is still the same paradox... But it is reaching its limit. There are civilians in the government, there is a facade of democracy, but military is still in the driving seat," Jaffrelot, author of 'The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience' (2015), told IANS at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2018 on Friday.

This state of affairs was made evident now when we know it was the army that was responsible for ousting Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister, he added.

On the way ahead for Pakistan, Jaffrelot, a professor at the Centre for Studies in International Relations at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and author of several books on India and Pakistan, says the next general elections, due in July this year, will be telling.

"How far as Pakistan's paradox.. its democratic facade will be plausible or convincing will depend on the next elections....How fair they are," he said.

In 'The Pakistan Paradox', he contends the basic trend, or "paradox" of Pakistani politics - as military rule interspersed with civilian, till the time the latter sought to break the army's sway - changed in the 21st century. This, he says, evolved into another unstable dynamic where the politicians acquiesced in not being fully in control and the military continued to undermine them but left them in place.

Jaffrelot was participating at a session on the legacy of Dr B.R. Ambedkar at the Jaipur Litfest on Friday.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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