Civil Military Relations in Pakistan--Quest for an Ideal Balance

This paper is an attempt to explain the impact of factors like sociopolitical environment, governance, quality of democracy and military's institutional dynamics on the civil-military relations in Pakistan's context. The objective is to help identify the necessary measures to bring about the best possible balance in the relations. Samuel Phillips Huntington, an American political scientist, adviser and academician, and an ardent supporter of civilian control over military has suggested objective and subjective control approaches to render the military subservient and politically sterile role viz-a-viz the civilians. Another approach is of Morris Janowitz, who suggests greater value convergence and interaction between the civil and military components of the state through change in the military's role from traditional armies towards a more democratically inclined constabulary model. There are other theorists like Feaver and Desch also who suggest military's subordination to the civilians as an internally accepted canon regardless of the environmental considerations. Similarly, Theorists like Finer and Lasswell warn of a domination of politics by the military on account of its organisational strength and the ideological fervour viz-a-viz weak civilian political institutions and leadership. Rebecca Schiff also proposes a concordance of values and interests between the people, the armed forces and the political leadership based on certain well-defined