Maulana Muhammad Ali - A Strategic Point in Indo-Muslim Politics (Comment)

‘A great man’, says Justice Oliver Wendell, Jr, ‘represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society, or to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in being there’. (italic ours). And Maulana Muhammad Ali was one such nerve-centre in Indo-Muslim society during the second and third decades of the twentieth century. Indeed, he was one such strategic point in the onward march of Indo-Muslim politics that eventually found culmination and crystallization in the emergence of Pakistan. Actually no one else represented the tone, tenor and temper of the romanticist, Khilafatist era (in the 1910s and 1920s) as he did in his hectic life, his revolutionary activities his numerous discomfitures, and in his tragic death. Whether he led a hectic life, whether he took recourse to a revolutionary path, or whether he goaded himself to die a tragic death outside the frontiers of his motherland cataclysmically, in whatever he did, he, consciously or unconsciously, carried forward the campaign of Indo-Muslim history: the redemption of Islam in India and abroad. In other words, he stood, above all, for an honourable existence for Muslims in India and in the rest of the troubled Muslim world in the existential crisis that convulsed Muslim India and that world.

Parliamentary Democracy in Pakistan: 1988-1999

The dissertation entitled “Parliamentary Democracy in Pakistan 1988-1999” presents a comprehensive account of four elected governments during the period 1988 and 1999 - a period of topical significance sand-witched between two long military rules (Zia: 1977- 88 and Musharraf: 1999-2008). The emphasis of the study is on uncovering the factors that created bottlenecks in the democratic process and premature dissolution of the elected governments. The focus is on working relationship between elected and nonelected institutions as well as on functioning of the elected institutions. The elected institutions variables include the Parliament, Provincial Assemblies, Local Bodies and Federal/Provincial Governments. The non-elected institutions variables comprise Media, Caretaker Governments, Military, Bureaucracy and Judiciary. It also takes into account human rights, law and order situation and executive-judiciary relationship. Besides introduction and conclusion, the thesis includes five chapters. The first chapter is a brief review of the political history of Pakistan during the period 1947-1988. It is intended to provide background framework to facilitate discussion and analysis of the theme of the thesis, namely, uncovering the factors that impeded the functioning of the elected governments during 1988-1999. This eleven year period is covered under four chapters; each coinciding with elections, and formulation and dissolution of Assemblies and governments (i.e., 1988-90; 1990-93; 1993-96; and 1996-99).The chapters provide details of political trends; power game; and factors that led to frequent derailment of democratic process. Besides published material, interviews of some important politicians and civilmilitary bureaucrats are used to gain first hand knowledge as also to understand and analyse the issues. This is not only intended to obtain information but also to seek ideas and suggestions for ensuring sustained and effective working of parliamentary democracy in the country.