“Bazm-e-Taareekh-o-Adab” (Speaker: Dr. Saeed Ahmed Rid)
Pakistan is a fragile democracy because around thirty-five years out of the seventy-five years since her birth in 1947, Pakistan is ruled by the military dictators. Therefore, supremacy of the constitution, democratic institutions and independence of the judiciary which are considered as the pillars of federalism are still a work in progress. The edifice of federal structure in any country rests on constitutional guarantees and the distribution of powers enshrined in the constitution. Therefore, key question for federalism in Pakistan is what happens with federalism when military intervenes in a postcolonial state and not only democracy is derailed but also the martial law is imposed, and the constitution is either abrogated or put into abeyance. In this session, using the case study of Pakistan, it will be discussed that how federalism works in a fragile democracy and what kind of challenges are there during the military rule. In seventy-five years of Pakistan’s existence, whenever democracy has been derailed or curtailed, it has direct negative impact on federalism as well. Tracing the historical evolution of federalism in Pakistan, the impact of fragile democracy on federal structure in Pakistan will be talked.
About the speaker
Saeed Ahmed Rid is an academician from National Institute of Pakistan Studies (NIPS) in Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, where he works as an Assistant Professor of Politics, International Relations and Peace Studies. Dr. Rid did his postdoctoral research working as a Commonwealth Academic Scholar and Visiting Fellow at South Asian Studies, School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, University of Oxford, UK. He has a PhD in Peace Studies department from the University of Bradford, UK. Saeed has been recipient of the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship Award for his PhD in University of Bradford and Rotary World Peace Fellowship (2004-06) for his double masters in Political Science and International and Area Studies (IAS) at the University of California Berkeley, USA. Mr. Rid has read research papers in various international and national conferences and has published five books/monographs and around twenty fifteen research articles in reputed national and international journals on federalism, India-Pakistan relations and other peace and conflict related issues of Pakistan.
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