Power is an undeniable reality which can be used and misused. Unending power ambitions are rooted in human nature, which tends to cause destruction. Pakistan’s dilemma of unending power ambitions is as old as the history of the country. Since the early 1950s until today, power has been central to consolidating a nexus involving feudal, political, bureaucratic, military and clergy elites.

The failure of Pakistan to emerge as a democratic welfare state with political pluralism, good governance and the rule of law has much to do with the misuse of power by the elites governing the country. The dismemberment of Pakistan in December 1971 was also the result of denying power to the majority party, the Awami League, which had won the National Assembly elections. The demonstration of power by the West Pakistan-centric military through the launch of military action on 25 March 1971 reflected the arrogance of power, leading to the outbreak of civil war and the emergence of Bangladesh.

What is power, and how is it misused or used for the welfare and benefit of the people? Why, since the inception of Pakistan until today, have the ruling elites failed to understand the dynamics of power?

Hans J. Morgenthau, a renowned political scientist and author of the pioneering book Politics Among Nations, defined power as: “When we speak of power, we have in mind not man’s power over nature, or over an artistic medium, such as language, speech, sound, or colour, or over the means of production or consumption, or over himself in the sense of self-control. When we speak of power, we mean man’s control over the minds and actions of other men. By political power, we refer to the mutual relations of control among the holders of public authority and between the latter and the people at large.”

He further elaborates on the dynamics of power by arguing that “Domestic and international politics are but two different manifestations of the same phenomenon: the power struggle. Its manifestations differ in the two different spheres because different moral, political and social conditions prevail in each. All politics, domestic and international, reveal three basic patterns; that is, all political phenomena can be reduced to one of three........

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