ABSTRACT

An evaluation of the 1958 military coup in Pakistan sheds light on how the military gradually established its control over the affairs of the state, demonstrating that the military coups in Pakistan are a predictable response of the military to safeguarding of its institutional interests, rather than manifestations of ethnic, religious or regional dynamics. In this account, we take institutionalisation as ‘the process through which rules or norms are implemented in the sense that they meet with acceptance and that violations towards them are met with sanctions, in one form or another, that are considered legitimate by the group concerned.’1 An understanding of the event is therefore important for excavating salient features of the institutional processes that enabled the military to penetrate the civilian sphere in Pakistan.