Asian Research Thesis Index

Abstract

Federalism in modern state system has worked fantastically and enabled the states to create welfare state by devolving maximum powers to provincial and local levels. Pakistan, by default, emerged as federal states because of accession of federating units, Punjab, Sindh Balochistan, NWFP (currently known as KPK) to Pakistan in 1947. The centre-province relations since 1947 have passed through many phases as form of government from military dictatorship to parliamentary democracy treated the provinces according to their liking/disliking but the study intends to explore and analyze the CentrePunjab relations from 2008 to 2013, an era of Pakistan history which is unique in various aspects and the most importantly provincial autonomy was further granted by transferring the concurrent list to the provinces in the 18th Amendment.. The hypothesis of the study is that during this period there were ups and downs in the Centre-province relations mainly because of the changing approaches and policies of the main political parties of Pakistan namely, Pakistan People‘s Party and Pakistan Muslim League (N) but the federal structure was refined and can be considered as the best period so far in the history of Pakistan. The Centre-Punjab relations were not as smooth as is stated above because it has ups and downs. The most important component and the biggest province of Federating unit of Pakistan the province of the Punjab at times displayed resentment against the Centre when the Federal Government adopted harsh policy towards the federating units particularly against the Punjab and as a result, the province of the Punjab also reacted accordingly. The result of this tussle between the federal and provincial government was that federal system could not attain the high standard as was expected after the 18thamendments. The research has tried to find out the answer of the basic question: Why Centre-Province relations could not achieve highest standard of federalism despite transferring and devolving more powers to the provinces in the 18th Amendment? However, the evolution of the federal system during this period can also be called remarkable shining episode of history which will influence the future working of federal structure in the country. The period under discussion is of immense importance which have not yet academically analyzed by the historians and this study intends to achieve that end and fill the important gap in the historical literature.

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