ABSTRACT
Ayub Khan had sought legitimacy for the military-hegemonic system through economic development, the Basic Democracies and the 1962 constitution, but the politically active segments of the society remained hostile to the exclusionary nature of the political process. The military constituted a critical element of the hegemonic system. The succession issue has confounded political leaders and military-bureaucratic elites in Pakistan. The document proposed a socialist pattern of development for Pakistan and called for the nationalization of banking, insurance and heavy industries. Urban professionals, the most politically aware segment of Pakistani society, had been especially and adversely affected by the regime’s authoritarianism. Mrs. Nusrat Bhutto entered public life after Bhutto’s arrest, thereby setting a new trend in Pakistani politics. The paradox of the Pakistani military hegemonic system is that its breakdown and the subsequent changes of regimes occurred through the politics of mass mobilization, regime confrontation and mass movement.
