Fight over resources

HERE is an interesting question: what exactly animates the polity in Pakistan that it sees repeated military interventions in civilian politics, as well as repeated attempts by political parties to try and team up with the military and annihilate their opponents? All political systems see competition between parties. It is what they are designed to do after all, to sublimate the conflictual forces within their society via a rule-bound space. But Pakistan is among those countries that see cutthroat competition, where parties don’t just seek to out-maneouvre each other but actively try to annihilate their opponents. There has been only one exception to this rule, and that was the years running roughly from 2008 to 2017, when two separate, rule-bound transfers of power took place following elections in 2008 and again in 2013.