Innovating Lessons for Pakistan from the Arab Uprising

Abstract

The paper endeavours to study the circumstances that led to the Arab Spring and tries to conclude with relevance to Pakistan to draw relevant lessons. It attempts to identify a possible thrust line to determine the prevalent situation in the Middle East that led to a revolution commonly referred to as the “Arab Spring” while analyzing the socio-economic environment of Pakistan to determine any possibility of a revolution in Pakistan along the lines of the Arab Spring and draw pertinent lessons from the events of the Arab Spring for Pakistan. The paper concludes that Pakistan while having similarities in socio-economic structure with Arab countries, has a diverse set up of power and political arena. The divide in vote bank and followings is deep between the parties which the people select to rule. The multiplicity of political parties in the government having divergent views cannot bring a change in the government or evict from power as the public to be mobilized also has divergent views. Moreover, while keeping in mind the security of Pakistan’s nuclear assets and the mutual collaboration of all the political parties with the securityensuring elements of the country, it seems unlikely that Pakistan will ever be standing at the crossroads of a revolution like the “Arab Spring”.