HYDERABAD, Aug 12: The final session of the PhD seminar on “Authoritarianism and underdevelopment in the third world, a neo-colonial model: Pakistan — A case study (1947-58)” was held at the Sindh University on Tuesday.

Lubna Saif, associate professor of the department of the Pakistan Studies, Allama Iqbal Open University, completed the dissertation under the supervision of Prof (Dr) Lutfullah Mangi, chairman of the department of International Relations, University of Sindh.

Vice-Chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui presided over the seminar.

The study focuses on dialectic between state construction and political process in Pakistan in the first decade of its independence.

Using dependency paradigm as the evaluation tool, the study examines international political and economic factors, which along with domestic and regional factors shaped the structure of the Pakistani state according to interests of players of the neo-colonial world during Cold War.

Ms Saif said the first decade of Pakistan’s history (1947-58) produced developments of great significance for construction of the post-colonial state that needed to be examined in the context of Cold War.

She said it was during this period that democratic institutions were destroyed and authoritarianism was consolidated which generated underdevelopment and Pakistan took the shape of a client-state of the United States.

She said these developments concluded in the first direct military rule in 1958 and since then military interventions in political domain have become a permanent feature of Pakistan’s life at the cost of evolution of civil society and body politic.

She said the study was an attempt to investigate how bureaucracy and military rose to prominence in Pakistan and how their alliance succeed in twisting institutional balance against political parties and politicians, resulting in centralization of authority and power of the state.

She said in the process, institutions essential for nation building, political parties and legislatures were replaced with non-representative groups like civil and military bureaucrats and feudal and tribal lords.

She said the elite groups were the product of British colonialism and mainly belonged to Punjab which not only determined fate of the Pakistan movement but also has been most influencing force in constructing structures of the nation-state.

She said the thrust of inquiry was analysis of structural composition of these institutions with the primary aim to understand how these representative institutions of a colonial state continued to dominate formation of post-colonial state and jeopardized its evolution.

The thesis is divided into five chapters.

The first chapter traces historical development of colonial capitalism focusing on Punjab.

It suggests that the underdevelopment in the Pakistani society owes its origin to the British colonial capitalist system in India.

The second chapter discusses construction of postcolonial state in the context of American power system.

The third chapter examines emergence of institutional imbalance and manipulating powers of international connections.

The fourth chapter evaluates destruction of democracy and consolidation of an authoritarian state in the context of “patron-client model”.

Pakistan’s emergence as a client-state of the United States instead of a nation-state and consolidation of authoritarian structures are interrelated developments.

The fifth chapter discusses various forms of authoritarianism and theories of development focusing on divergence in development.

A large number of faculty members of the Sindh University attended the seminar.