Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan: A Case Study of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf from General Elections (2018) to Senate Election (2021)

Abstract

Civil-military relations in a democratic state should be conducted smoothly within the framework of civilian supremacy. There is plethora of writing on the civil-military relations in Pakistan blaming the military for all the wrong doings and evils in the state. It holds the military responsible for civil regime change in the country while ignoring all political instability created by politicians. Little literature is available on the current period starting from 2018 onwards presenting a contrary picture of civil_x0002_military relationship; therefore this study attempts to assess the dynamics of current civil-military relationship in Pakistan. Uneasy and tense civil-military relations in past derailed the democracy in the country many times but the state was also unable to attain the fruits of its independence. Though during the era of Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, democracy found opportunities to flourish and for the first time in the history of the state two democratically elected governments completed their consecutive tenure and the third elected government came into power peacefully. During this era Pakistan was able to cope with the grave internal and external security challenges because civil and military leadership mostly remained on the same page. Due to better understanding of the both elite; Pakistan won the war on terror. A new chapter of civil-military relations started with a great pace in 2018 when Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf came into power. The current study will investigate, explore and analyze the civil military relations from 2018 onwards. The hypothesis of this study is that during the above stated period under discussion, civil-military relations improved and brought about positive results in Pakistan. Therefore, it is significant to explain how the civil-military relationship has improved and why both civil and military top brass leadership took all the major political parties on board regarding discussion on all important internal and external issues. Civil military relationship in Pakistan has been in writing by many historians but there is dearth of work on the period under discussion and therefore the current study has analyzed the nature of civil-military relationship in Pakistan during the era of current government. Hopefully it will provide a clear picture of well coordinated civil-military relations in Pakistan.