ABSTRACT
In Pakistan, political power has been concentrated on the bureacratic-military elite who were the successors of the British raj. In the 1950s they functioned with a parliamentary facade of politicians and ministers drawn largely from landlord interests, but there was no genuine general election in Pakistan before 1970, and the government has been a military dictatorship since 1958. The main beneficiaries of independence have been (a) the bureaucracy and military themselves who have enjoyed lavish perquisites and have grown considerably in number, (b) the new class of industrial capitalists, (c) professional people whose numbers have grown rapidly, and (d) landlords in West Pakistan. In East Pakistan, per capita income has not increased since independence.
