Typology of Political Alliances in Pakistan

Abstract

Alliance formation is an essential part of electoral politics; hence, they are formed in most
democracies worldwide. The political history of Pakistan is rich in political alliances but, no
objective study of these alliances has been conducted. Questions like, what are the various types of
alliances that emerged in Pakistan? How alliance can be classified? What affects the relationship
amongst the allies? What are the characteristics of the alliances formed during the military and
civilian regimes? need to be studied objectively. The present study attempts to answer some of
these questions. This paper mainly deals with a conceptual discussion about the various forms of
alliances formed in Pakistan and a brief introduction of the alliances that functioned during the
civilian and military rule in Pakistan. Based on the differences and similarities amongst these
divergent alliances, an effort is made to establish a typology of these alliances. A descriptive 
analytical method is used for this paper where the functionality of various alliances is studied by
going through both primary and secondary data available. Analysis is done through a comparison of
the traits of the alliances formed in different eras of the political history of Pakistan.