March 5, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 1, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 4: Politicians as well as political parties have not been able to exhibit true democratic norms in the country, thus providing opportunity to the ever ready army to grab power in the name of restoring politico-economic conditions.

This was said by the speakers at the second day of the conference on “Communal Violence and the Political Culture in South Asia”, organized by the Area Study Centre, Quaid-i-Azam University, here on Tuesday.

Dr Rasul Bakhsh Rais, the political analyst, in his paper —- “Political Culture and Authoritarianism in Pakistan” —- said the lack of popular trust in the political class had given considerable legitimacy to the military rule in the country over the years.

“Every military ruler denounced the elected governments, promised to reform the political system and establish a true and genuine democracy at grass roots level, he said.

He was of the view that at present political motives and mobilisation power rested with the military government, while the political forces remain fragmented, demoralised and leaderless, unable to pose any challenge to the military regime’s restructuring of the political system.

Dr Omparakash Mishra, the associate professor at the department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, India presented his paper on,”Politics of Identity of Punjab, Lahore”.

He said small states within India though had their own confrontations, however were intermingling in the mainstream politics of the country by contributing towards it efficiently.

Dr Tariq Rehman, the chairman of the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-I-Azam University, in his paper on,”Potential for Communal Violence” said it was the state policies, which in the past had given birth to extremism in the country and which were being continued till now.

He said the state used the innocent students of different religious schools to get their ulterior motives, which had also contributed to the increase in communal violence. He maintained that this exploitation had given rise to violent culture in the country, which was causing a havoc with the social fabric of the society.

Dr Shamsul Maktadir, the department of International Relations, Karachi University, delivered his presentation on “Ethnicity Problem in Bangladesh.” He discussed the geographic composition of Bangladesh and details relating to the population of the country.

He urged the need for bridging the gap between the people of Pakistan and Bangladesh and said due to the absence of books and research journals along with other informative stuff, the students and researchers of both the countries were not able to study in detail about their problems due to which the communication gap was on the rise.

He suggested that Bangladesh needed to expand decentralisation of its administration and further empowerment of the local government to prevent future ethnic disparities and clashes.