The Tricky Proposition and Probability of Regional Autonomy in Pakistan: A Philosophical Insight

Abstract

Nationalism can be defined as a feeling in which the individual senses that everyone owes his supreme secular allegiance to the nation, nevertheless, scholars believe that nationalist movements in colonially subjugated countries can be described as having a negative nature since these were movements more against western colonialism than for seeking a positive, coherent national identity. Furthermore, any political system addressing societal heterogeneity must uphold the terms of the constitution through a genuine dispersal of power among a number of substantially self-sustaining polities established by the federal compact. Also, regional autonomy can be attained within a broader national structure and is short of sovereignty which is the most significant ingredient of an independent state. After 1947, Pakistan has been facing the crucial problems of national solidarity, integration and nation building which could have been averted if the federal solution blended with regional autonomy had been ensured to the various ethnic, racial, linguistic and cultural segments of the populations divided and settled in different geographic regions within the country. To properly diagnose the issue, the current work discusses the theoretical concept of nationalism and federalism along with various allied concepts seeking at the same time their relevancy with the existing ground realities in Pakistan. It finds that the application of federal solution to the integration problems of Pakistan was made difficult by the absence of a minimum consensus over fundamentals among the political elite and the over-centralized seizure of power by the federally controlled civil-military bureaucracy of Pakistan. It argues that a federal design allowing a maximum acceptable amount of autonomy to various subnational groups is desirable to help evolve a mixed political culture and integrate these groups into the framework of a single nation.