Just three days before Pakistan gained independence, the founder of the new nation uttered these immortal words:

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.”

Ayesha Jalal traced Jinnah’s role in her 1994 book, The Sole Spokesman. In Jinnah’s mind, there was no room for religious discrimination, even less for military intervention. He had envisaged Pakistan as a secular democracy in the British tradition. Ironically, four years prior, Professor Jalal had authored, The State of Martial Rule which showed how Pakistan had deviated so significantly from Jinnah’s vision.

In October 1958, a decade after Jinnah’s death, General Ayub, the army commander in chief, overturned Jinnah’s vision by declaring martial law. In the decades that followed, it would experience several more coups. Tragically, the Supreme Court would validate each martial law soon after it was imposed and condemn it after it was withdrawn.

The late Stephen Cohen, a luminary among American scholars on South Asian politics, went so far as to say that the army was the largest political party in Pakistan. Since the end of General Pervez Musharraf’s era in 2008, the army has not explicitly ruled the country through martial law. But it has remained the dominant........

© The Friday Times