Pakistan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Pakistan - Research Paper Example Historically, Pakistan came under the rule of different rulers like the Mauryan Empire, which ruled for two hundred years before Christ (B.C). After this, Pakistan was conquered by the Kushan Empire. The area that is now Pakistan and India was always merged into one polity under all this different rulers who saw it as the best way to govern the Indian subcontinent (Kaplan 2). The area was characterized by two rivers; the Ganges River and the Indus River and their tributaries. The Indus River and its tributaries fall on the Pakistan side and the Indus with its tributaries fall on the Indian side, with the watershed running almost perfectly matching the border demarcation that separates the two countries. Earlier rulers, like the Kushans, never tried to demarcate the region into two separate entities unlike the British, Mughals and the Mauryans, who saw the need to group them under such entities (Kaplan 3). The source of Pakistan’s troubles could be attributed to the Muslim expe rience that Pakistan got under different Islamic warriors. Every successive conquest saw the area named as Pakistan today; being at the center of these conquered territories (Kaplan 1). One of the major capitals of the Mauryan Empire was Peshawar, which is a major city in today’s Pakistan. This further indicates that this region and Pakistan, as a whole, have had a long running history with Muslim influence (Kaplan 2). This does not imply that religion is the problem, in Pakistan, but an avenue used, by wrong elements, to act as a vessel for their objectives. Hurdles facing Pakistan can be linked to its history of being a frontier territory because it acted as a transition point for many cultures, religions and governments even in the medieval ages. There was the influence of religion and cultural diversity, from the Arab world and central Asia, on one side, and change of governments from the eastern frontier. It was made up of different socio-cultural elements, and with the dawn of the 20Th century, Pakistan did not inherit any form stable institutions that citizens believed in as was the case with neighboring India after Colonial rule (Kaplan 2). When Pakistan came into being, the majority of the country’s wealth existed in the Indus valley, which encompasses the Punjab state. It has the best irrigation fields and the river basin provided numerous resources business opportunities. The area was also on the trade routes used to trade with other neighboring regions like Afghanistan, China and Russia (New York Times 34). It has the best schools and the majority of females are educated unlike other parts of Pakistan like the Sindhi, Baluchistan and Pashtun states. This caused discontent to develop between the privileged state of Punjab and the rest of the country (Kaplan 3). This led to the development of strong ethnic authorities at the expense of government institutions that were lacking or were inefficient. Their different linguistic varieties st rengthened the animosity between different warring factions. This has left the country with Islamic idealism as the only attempt at unification which has fuelled Islamic extremism (Kaplan 4). The inhabitants of the Indus River valley complain that they are discriminated against as the only working portion of the population (Kaplan 4). Failed or failing state institutions are the