The Nature and Direction of Political Change in Pakistan

Abstract

Politics in Pakistan: The Nature and Direction of Change by Khalid Bin Sayeed, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1980, pp. 194, price US. $21.95. In many respects, this is a significant work-and a controversial one. In terms of the data presented, analyses attempted, insights provided and conclusions drawn, it represents long years of research and reflection. And, it is not an easy book to review. In this reviewer’s view, any discussion on this work must necessarily begin with a flashback to the author’s background and his earlier works since it would help put the present work in perspective. Khalid bin Sayeed is not only the most widely known Pakistani writer on Pakistan politics, but also the foremost Pakistani political scientist, having authored numerous papers in journals and compilations, and two major works-Pakistan: The Formative Phase (1960) and The Political System of Pakistan (1967). Being original and analytical, they achieved instant fame, acquiring, in the process, the distinction of being the most frequently cited works on Pakistan’s historical and political development. In the first work, a political history of Indian Muslims since 1858 and of Pakistan till 1958, Sayeed interpreted Pakistan in terms of Muslim nationalism and Jinnah’s charismatic leadership, and the interplay of political forces and the course of politics in Pakistan’s early years were explained in terms of the “viceregal system” of undivided India. Set in the tradition of the developmental theorists, his second worknqxploited dextrously the idiom and formulations of the behavioralists. Now, in this third major work, Sayeed turns his back on all this and settles for a (modified?) Marxian approach. Page two alone features four quotes from Marx and one from the Marxist Geoffrey Kay; in particular, ...