Title: How Pakistan Transformed as a Deep State
Subtitle: Power, National Interest and National Security
Subject Classification:  Politics and Government, War and Conflict, History  
BIC Classification: JPS, JPF, HBJF
BISAC Classification: POL054000, POL012000, POL011000
Binding: Hardback, eBook
Planned publication date: Oct 2026
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-83711-892-2
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-83711-893-9

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Description

This study provides an analysis of Pakistan’s transformation into a 'deep state,' a phenomenon where unelected state and non-state actors covertly shape national policy. The author investigates the complex interplay within a 'triad of power'—the military, bureaucracy, and feudal elites—that has systematically engineered Pakistan's national interest and security narratives since the 1950s. Drawing on a comprehensive historical framework, the book traces the political and constitutional engineering that has entrenched the deep state’s influence through successive decades, culminating in the post-2000 era. It examines the erosion of constitutional democracy, the fragility of civil society, and the persistent power ambitions of the military establishment. By placing Pakistan in a global context with comparative insights from Turkey, Russia, and the United States, the work offers a nuanced understanding of the ideologies and dynamics at play. *How Pakistan Transformed as a Deep State* is an important reference for scholars of South Asian studies, international relations, and security studies, offering critical insights into the future of Pakistani politics and its profound implications for regional stability.

Biography

Author(s):  Dr. Moonis Ahmar is Meritorious Professor of International Relations and former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Karachi, Pakistan. With over three and a half decades of distinguished academic and research experience, he has contributed extensively to universities and policy-oriented think tanks in Pakistan and abroad.

Reviews

"From an all-encompassing nationhood to becoming a security state, Pakistan’s testing journey spread over the seven decades evidences an unbridled primacy of khaki institutions that eventually turns it into a proverbial deep state. As persuasively penned by the country’s eminent scholar, these transformative processes, in their wake, nefariously sidelined Jinnah’s cherished vision of a pluralist, law abiding and unfettered democratic polity. Instead, driven both by inborn timidity and partisan interests, several politicians, judges, journalists and academics kept legitimizing unilateralist hold by the generals and intelligence agencies. Anchored on pertinent conceptual frameworks and corroborated by vital historical data, this volume sees Pakistan’s predicament as a growingly familiar pattern across several other post-colonial states. Going beyond the causes and symptoms of the deep state, Professor Ahmar’s succinct study equally features possible alternatives for a democratic, stable, society-centered future where primacy of citizenship, human rights, constitutionalism, developmental policies and empowered civilian structures stay prioritized defying the reductionist and narrowly-defined view of security."
- Iftikhar Malik, FRHiS, Professor-Emeritus, Bath Spa University, U.K

"Professor Ahmar has written a very important and sorely needed book which explores the reasons why Pakistan has fallen behind its peers culturally, economically, socially and technologically. It puts the blame squarely on the "Deep State" which is run by the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The head of the army is now constitutionally empowered to run the country, having the same executive authority as its president and prime minister. Since 1958, eleven years after it was born, Pakistan has gone through four bouts of military rule. Since then, the army has effectively ruled from behind the scenes. Now that rule has been given constitutional protection. The book explores how the Deep State determines what is and what is not in the national interest of Pakistan. It has equated national security with military security and ignored the "soft" factors that determine the quality of life of the 250 million Pakistanis and its national security in the broad sense of the term. Thus, spending on education, health, and physical infrastructure is de-emphasized while spending on the military is emphasized. A vivid example of these messed up spending priorities is the state of affairs in the largest city in Pakistan. Karachi, once the "jewel in the crown," is now a city in which people struggle to get from Point A to Point B because the roads are broken, buses break down often because of bad maintenance, the infrastructure is decaying, power outages happen only too frequently and gas supply is shut off. To add insult to injury, urban crime is rampant. The book is based on a comprehensive review of the academic and scholarly literature, supplemented with articles from the mainstream media and is essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in Pakistan's future."
- Dr. Ahmad Faruqui, author and economist, based in the U.S.