Choking society
2
SOCIETIES form state structures to optimise their welfare. But strong societal actors soon capture them for their own interests. The trend is highest in autocracies but not fully absent even in democracies. It invariably leads to conflict with excluded groups, more so if dominant groups impose an elitist economy, cut political freedoms and crush dissent.
We have long been a classic case of such perverse trends. But things have reached unusual depths under this hybrid regime in so many ways. The first one is the huge concentration of political power, vertically from local to the federal level; horizontally from other state pillars to the executive; and laterally from civilians to non-civilians. Civilians were never so hapless in a civilian era.
Courts have faced the most fury for just giving a few mild verdicts against top guns in the twin cities. The constitutional court proposed in the 27th amendment is the last straw to break the back of the crawling camel of a free judiciary. In many states earlier, judges lacked the powers to review constitutional issues or enforce basic rights. Our judges already had such powers. So, we will now have a court to actually end this power via clauses that will pack it with docile judges. There has never been an amendment so devoid of public interest and support, so vividly reflecting civilian servility and so severely harming democracy.
The second way is externally courting dangerous liaisons, fatal attractions and indecent proposals that may increase insecurity. This means personalised ties with a historically unreliable US now under an unusually volatile president for controversial economic and security deals; a risky defence pact with the Saudis; needless armed forays westwards; and possible plans to send boots to Gaza, all without public debate. We are encircled on all sides by insecurity as links among our two internal foes in our north (TTP) and south (BLA) regions and two external foes on our east and west borders rise. The possibility of a more radical TLP spreading chaos in the core from underground could make things worse.
We have long been a classic case of perverse trends.
So, we are back with a bang to our decades-old shady business of seeking geo-strategic rents from rich states after a few lean years. This leads to the third perverse, economic trend where even a faint whiff of such rents has made this hybrid set-up eagerly end the quest for strong industrialisation that requires serious skills and pursues easier but controversial activities such as mining, crypto, corporate farming, etc. This has cooled ties with a reliable China that could aid strong industrialisation as its tough taskmaster approach of not giving free money and demanding outcomes and accounting doesn’t suit our kleptocrats used to easy American money. But China is patient and not jealous knowing this is a brief pause and we will be back to it as soon as Trump’s pat on the back turns into a stab in the back.
With their own powers and fortunes ensured, the focus now is on taming mass dissent. Masses suffer doubly from an elitist economy and by the state choking their self-reliant economic pursuits, for example, via curbs on internet work and crackdowns on hawkers and small businesses. The two-headed hybrid beast faces no serious political challenge, but paranoia still runs high as seen by the desire to wrest more power. This partly reflects the grim fate of byzantine set-ups that fear ‘traitors more than foes. Large numbers of dissidents have been jailed or abducted, the media is muffled and protests routinely crushed. Yet, unease persists in the halls of powers as seen in the failed attempt to restore executive magistrates to control the streets better, realising how even such steps have not been able to save autocrats from falling across South Asia.
So, rising political autocracy, economic stagnation, insecurity and external servility are the main bitter fruit of this militarised regime as we oscillate between a dead-end road and a bridge to nowhere under it. Strong economic and political practices are being replaced by vacuous ones and talented persons by docile and incompetent ones. But autarkic societies usually ace autocratic states. We are also a graveyard for cocky regimes that think they are indispensable, invincible and unaccountable. This regime too may fail to beat the trends of history to fall in the dustbin of history soon. But whether even that brings positive change is unclear.
The writer has a PhD degree in political economy from the University of California, Berkeley, and 25 years of grassroots to senior-level experiences across 50 countries.
Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2025
