ABSTRACT
The two recent, vivid symbols of Pakistan's tortured political history are the execution, by the military, of its only democratically elected leader and the dismemberment of the country after the army's refusal to transfer power to the Bengalis. Each stigma is an epitome of the two primary levels of political conflict in Pakistan. The first consists of the struggle to create a democratic government. The second represents the conflict between ethnic groups, over the distribution of power between the centre and the provinces. Both domains of political struggle are inseparably linked, the connection being provided by the military. There is an overwhelming dominance of Punjabis in the army. Thus military rule not only, by definition, subverts the democratic process, but it is also accompanied by Punjabi hegemony over the other ethnic groups.
