Civil-military relations & the role of institutions
Pakistan's civil-military balance: martial law, the doctrine of necessity, the judiciary, bureaucracy and the security establishment for CSS Pakistan Affairs.
The Recurring Pattern of Military Intervention
Civil-military relations are the central analytical thread of Pakistan's political history. Since independence on 14 August 1947, the military has governed directly for roughly half of the country's existence and shaped policy from behind the scenes for much of the rest. Four direct interventions define the chronology: General Ayub Khan's coup of 7 October 1958 (abrogating the 1956 Constitution); General Yahya Khan's takeover on 25 March 1969; General Zia-ul-Haq's coup of 5 July 1977 (Operation Fair Play, ousting Zulfikar Ali Bhutto); and General Pervez Musharraf's coup of 12 October 1999 (removing Nawaz Sharif).
Structural Causes of Imbalance
Scholars trace the imbalance to the 'overdeveloped state' inherited from the colonial Raj: a powerful civil bureaucracy and army confronting weak, factionalised political parties. The early death of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (11 September 1948) and the assassination of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan (16 October 1951) removed civilian anchors. The 'one-unit' scheme, repeated dissolutions of assemblies, and the absence of a constitution until 1956 institutionalised executive dominance. Ayub Khan was made Defence Minister within the cabinet in October 1954 — an early fusion of military and civil authority. The security threat from India, three wars (1948, 1965, 1971), and the strategic rents of the Cold War (CENTO, SEATO membership, the 1954 Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement) further entrenched the army's primacy.
The Doctrine of Necessity
The judiciary repeatedly legitimised extra-constitutional rule. In Federation of Pakistan v. Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan (1955), the Federal Court under Chief Justice Muhammad Munir upheld Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad's dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. In State v. Dosso (1958), Munir invoked Hans Kelsen's theory of revolutionary legality to validate Ayub's martial law — the 'doctrine of necessity.' Begum Nusrat Bhutto v. Chief of Army Staff (1977) validated Zia's coup, and Zafar Ali Shah v. Pervez Musharraf (2000) sanctioned Musharraf's takeover while permitting constitutional amendment. The doctrine was only decisively repudiated in Sindh High Court Bar Association v. Federation (2009) and the treason proceedings against Musharraf under Article 6, where a special court convicted him on 17 December 2019.
Hybrid Civil-Military Arrangements
Even under elected governments, the military retains structural leverage through the National Security Council (formalised under Musharraf in 2004), control of foreign and nuclear policy, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and a vast corporate footprint (Fauji Foundation, Army Welfare Trust — analysed in Ayesha Siddiqa's Military Inc., 2007). The post-2008 period is described as a 'hybrid regime' in which civilian facade coexists with establishment control over the security domain. The contested removal of Prime Minister Imran Khan via a no-confidence vote on 10 April 2022 reignited debate over the establishment's role in government formation.