Political Violence Essay Example

order to defend their country from outside invasion or other threats of force.

Political violence is used by citizens, groups or governments in different contexts. Another context of political violence occurs when the military or some other organized group seize control of the government in their country. Coups d'etat happen frequently in some countries, and they may involve much bloodshed but sometimes occur without serious injuries or loss of life. For example, the military staged a coup in Pakistan in October 1999 without significant injuries occurring. Pakistanis have lived under military rule for about half of the 64 years since it gained independence.

Political violence in Pakistan:

1 Causes:

2.Following are the causes of violence

3.in Pakistan.

4. Inequality.

5. Illiteracy.

6. Social Injustice.

7. Poverty.

8. Intolerance.

9. Media.

Figure 1 1 Inequality: Inequality is a basic cause of Political violence. In Pakistan people don’t get their rights due to social injustice and many other reasons like corruption. People belonging to strong political background deprive poor people of their rights. Not only their rights but also of their basic needs. This inequality is in the roots of Pakistani system. Unequal distribution of resources between different departments, for example, a lot is spent on defense department.

Inequality in Pakistan has been widened since the year 2008. The present government has failed to do justice with all the departments thus the inequality has been broadened to a larger extend. Many sectors are suffering from it. 2 Illiteracy: Literacy rate in Pakistan is 54% out of which 66. 25 percent male and 41. 75 percent female are literate according to the latest survey. This was stated by Minister for Education, Mrs. Zubaida Jalal in her written reply to a query raised

by Senator Sardar Latif Khosa in the Senate. Giving the province-wise and gender-wise detail, the Minister informed that an estimated 60. % population is literate in Punjab province. The literacy rate for male and female are 70% and 51% respectively, she added. In KPK, 47. 4% population of the province is literate, out of which 63% are male and 30. 8% female. The Minister said that the literacy rate of Sindh province is about 5. 15% out of which 60. 5% are male and 42. 5% female. The 34% population of Balochistan are literate and the literacy rate of male and female is about 45% and 23% respectively, she added. This is so because a large number of people belong to the rural areas and don’t pay heed to education as they are involved in agricultural sector.

Another reason for illiteracy is Expensive Education. It is the duty of Government to introduce cheaper means of education. Illiteracy is a big reason for violence. Violence can’t be stopped if people are unaware of what they are doing. 3 Social Injustice: Foundation of state lies on the social justice. In a state like Pakistan social injustice is very common because the system has failed to do justice with people and different departments. Poor people are being punished but feudal and landlords are not. Punishments are given according to the status, rich are being saved contrary to the poor.

A country can’t develop without social justice and Islam puts great stress on it. Our Holy Prophet (P. B. U. H. ) always did justice. Once a woman belonging to an influential tribe committed theft and it was ordered to cut

her hands off. Plea of leniency was made by Hazrat Zaid (R. A) but Hazrat Muhammad (S. A. W. W) refused and said,” By God if my own daughter Fatima had committed theft, I would have cut her hands off. ” [pic] Figure 2 4 Poverty: At the time of partition and independence in 1947, Pakistan inherited the most backward parts of South Asia with only one university, one Textile Mill and one Jute Factory.

The country has made tremendous progress and its per Capita GNP remains very high in South Asia. But due to political drawbacks and wrong decisions made by politicians and policy makers the rate of Inflation in Pakistan is increasing day by day. As a result the country is running out of sources and its economy is going down. When a nation runs out of sources it faces famine which eventually leads to poverty. Poverty causes discontentment in people which in the end leads to violence. Unemployment is another cause of poverty.

Because of increase in population the rate of unemployment has also increased which thus causes poverty. 5 Intolerance: Intolerance is another major issue of political violence in Pakistan. Government and opposition are pinpointing on each other badly as their patience barriers have been broken. This eventually leads to political restlessness in the state. Intolerance among organizations and different sectors is also creating political violence in the country. Thousands of cases are submitted each day on honor killing, typical rivalries and family rivalries.

People are getting impatient and this is creating serious violence in the state. Political intolerance has become rampant in Pakistan today. Despite of back to back suomoto notices of Supreme

Court, and in spite of the protests raised by all quarters of society, police is still terrorizing the political workers of opposition. Religious intolerance is also a big reason for political violence in Pakistan. Pakistan is an Islamic republic; it was created on the name of Islam. There were many people who were against the idea of an Independent country for Muslims of sub-continent.

A majority in this category was the religious fanatic class, who at first opposed Pakistan movement but later after the creation of Pakistan they became part of it, but that was not all, the newly born state of Pakistan seemed like a good opportunity to these religious opportunists class to propagate and bolster their own agenda under the umbrella of religion because bulk of the masses of this country were unaware of the consequences of blind following these clerics, and these people of Pakistan were a bull’s-eye of religious blackmailing. This category is responsible for causing religious intolerance in the country over and over again.

Due to religious intolerance Pakistan has faced many problems and political violence is one of them. 6 Media: Media has always played a vital role in the prosperity of a country by many ways but when it crosses the limits, it leads to violence. The media where on one hand update the whole nation with the current events, happenings and exploiting of corrupts and bringing some issues of the natives to the kind attention of authorities. On the other hand it can mislead the nation through wrong information broadcasted and extra exploitations of sectors thus creating violence.

Today television channels and newspapers are making fast money by cashing on

the news in wrong sense and wrong way. In the race to become more popular and to make money they have broken all the limits media must follow while serving to build a healthy and progressive society. They have no respect for the sentiments and ethics of the people and land whom they serve to, with their immense power to influence the masses they just make judgment like a true dictator rather than a good advice of a true friend as they previously used to do. If it will be going in the future then we people have to think about the role of media in our life. Facts: Two hundred and sixteen incidents of political violence were reported across Pakistan during the second quarter of 2011, affecting 1,740 people of whom 595 were killed, 1,094 injured and 51 kidnapped, according to statistics compiled by the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), a think-tank and advocacy group. Link:- http://tribune. com. pk/story/203433/political-violence-216-incidents-reported-in-three-months/ Political Violence in Pakistan—Understanding Sub-national Patterns (Governance, accountability and political economy program) Link:- http://www. theigc. rg/article/political-violence-pakistan—understanding-subnational-patterns-governance-accountability-and [pic] Figure 3 3 Trends of rising political violence in Pakistan: Afghanistan’s was a warrior culture in which the tribal balance of power, the individual’s social mobility, power shifts, and even the political economy were defined by groups’ and individuals’ mastery of violence. The 'Saur revolution', the religious uprisings against it, and super power involvement in the Afghan conflict transformed Afghanistan’s arms environment. The instincts and styles of a warrior culture remained and became linked to modern technology.

The outcome is the literal destruction of a country which had survived many violent challenges including three colonial wars, and countless

local conflicts. A similar process was at work in Lebanon and later in Somalia and Rwanda. There are links between culture and violence in our society. In particular, between feudal culture and violence. Barring a few Pirs, the feudal order is rarely based on ideology or ascription. Nor, unlike capitalism, does it derive its strengths from a process of constant growth in productivity. What defines the feudal order above all is its mastery of violence.

Its members practice it constantly, occasionally with some regard for local customs, and always with scant respect for the law. Any Hari knows, as the Hari Commission so accurately described some six decades ago, that violence defines the relationship between lords and peasants. Any experienced district officer will tell you that among the powerful lords of rural Sindh, Punjab, Sarhad, and Baluchistan it is the will and integrity of the government that makes the difference between law and lawlessness, civility and violence. The law abiding feudal is an oxymoron. pic] Figure 4 In economic terms, feudalism is now only one of many forces in our society, and certainly not the ascendant one. But, the culture it bred over the century remains. Culture almost always persists after the hegemon is weakened and gone. The tenacity with which the colonial culture has, after decolonization, held out and tightened its grip on Pakistan and India is a case in point. The persistence of feudal and colonial cultures is defined by the failure of the post-colonial elite to spawn alternative values and styles as foundations of a new culture.

This challenge, Pakistan’s small and excessively consumption driven, therefore cautious and west-obsessed, intelligentsia has largely ignored. In

fact, while feudalism serves as the whipping boy of Pakistan’s intelligentsia, to my knowledge not one serious study exists on the nature and extent of feudal power in Pakistan, and none to my knowledge on the hegemony which feudal culture enjoys in this country. Hence, the two cultures, feudal and colonial, continue to enjoy absolute hegemony, that is to say, their norms of behavior and values are largely those of society.

An extra-ordinary example of the persistence of feudal culture is that in the last decade of the twentieth century the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has forced open private jails; entire families have been liberated from bondage -- tortured and chained, women used, children misused. And, a remarkable detail: these liberations have been affected not by the state but by a private organization. It is failures of this magnitude on the part of the state, and the elite that controls it, that help sustain feudal values in our society.

At the expense of stating the obvious, I should note that these values are the contemporary inheritance not only of a class but of society as a whole. Until such time as the state intervenes to enforce laws, and the intelligentsia actively promotes non-violent values, the culture of violence shall continue to prevail. Rather, as social change continues at a rapid pace, traditional systems of social control become progressively dysfunctional, and the state’s administrative machinery continues to erode, violence shall increase in its varied forms.

Violence has traditionally occupied a central and elevated place in our cultures. There are numerous manifestations of it in our social life. I shall mention only three: (i) the value we put on

revenge, (ii) the violence against women which persists and has possibly increased and, (iii) our abuse of children. Revenge is viewed by perhaps an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis as a natural sentiment. It is not merely accepted as normal in many areas of our social, political, and family life; rather, it is linked to the identity and honor of the individual, family, biraderi and tribe.

Friends and relatives express solidarity when a man takes revenge while his adversaries proceed, more often than not, to avenge the avenger. To my knowledge, no annual statistics are compiled of revenge killings in Pakistan. Were it available the figure would run into the thousands. Terrorists have entered through Pak-Afghan border and they have created great violence in the country. [pic] Figure 5 An example of the political violence is movement Lawyers of Pakistan against the government for the reappointment of Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Choudary.

Government tried to stop this movement by force but couldn’t do so. Many Lawyers got injured during the movement, due to violence. Roads were small battle fields between police and lawyers. [pic] Figure 6 [pic] Figure 7 3 Effects: Following are the effects of political violence. 1. Polarization. 2. Political Violence causes disorder in the country which if not controlled becomes Chaos. 3. Economy of the country is affected badly. Foreign Investments are reduced and the business is also badly affected. GDP is affected. Table showing GDP from 1980 to 2010 Year |Gross domestic product, constant prices | | 1993 |2. 097 | |1994 |4. 369 | |1995 |5. 062 | |1996 |6. 599 | |1997 |1. 703 | |1998 |3. 494 | |1999 |4.

84 | |2000 |3. 906 | |2001 |1. 967 | |2002 |3. 112 | |2003 |4. 726 | |2004 |7. 483 | |2005 |8. 958 | |2006 |5. 18 | |2007 |6. 815 | |2008 |3. 685 | |2009 |1. 722 | |2010 |3. 759 | Table 1 [pic] Figure 8 4. Insecurity in Public. [pic] Figure 9 4 Remedies: Violence in politics can be controlled and reduced by taking following steps. . Children should be given proper guidance in their educational institutes. Great responsibility comes on Schools, Colleges and Universities. Government should take steps to increase the literacy rate. 2. Role of Ullamas is very important to control religious intolerance. 3. Media has a big role in this aspect. Media should create awareness about the ill effects of violence. Media should follow specific limits. 4. Government should control the easy availability of weapons. 5. There’s a big role of political leadership in this regard.

Political leaders should control the violence created by their parties. Take active measures from within party and workers. Conclusion: Violence in politics is a major barrier towards the development of a country. If political system isn’t strong than a country can’t progress. In Pakistan, violence is in the political system. Media is also one of the reasons of political violence. Education is necessary to control violence. Political leadership should realize its responsibilities.

References:

• Google

• answers. com

• Pakistan Observer

• Express News

• Chasing 37

• Guardian News