The Civil Society Movement in Pakistan: Scope and Limitation

Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed

In the transition from an increasingly authoritarian regime headed by President Pervez Musharraf to an elected coalition government headed by Mr Yousaf Raza Gilani of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the civil society in Pakistan has been acclaimed as the spearhead that wrought such transformation.

Popular movements against dictatorship naturally gain momentum when large sections of the society join them, but normally oppositional political parties and their leaders lead them. In Pakistan, however, the anti-Musharraf movement developed spontaneously among the lawyers in early March 2007 and, gradually, human rights and women rights non-government organisations (NGOs) joined it, while the main political parties remained aloof till sometimes in late October 2007.

In this brief review, we shall try to solve the puzzle of why civil society actors, and not the political parties, assumed the role of the democratic movement in Pakistan. In this regard, we shall address the following questions: What is a civil society? What is its connection to democracy? What did the Pakistan civil society do to bring about the change from authoritarianism to democracy? What is the scope and limitations of the civil society movement that has evolved in Pakistan?