NWFP for army action in southern Punjab

[LastOfTheDinosaurs]

@Med911

I agree. Modern economies is not based on Agriculture, but Pakistan still relies heavily on Agriculture as its prime source of GDP.
Like I said, at the formation of Pakistan, the advantage of Punjab was due to its inherant strength in Agriculture initialy.
Also, Punjab was favored, as much of the Army recruits were from here. Infact, I would say that the parts of Punjab that were high on the list of recruitment by the British were also the more prosperous.

S I think it was due to the initial strength of the Punjab economy that ultimately lead to the consolidation of economic control over the other province.

I should also add that the fact that the power brokers, who were the original supporters of Pakistan, and were part of the Muslim league also hapened to be wealthy land owners from agriculturaly rich areas, such as Punjab etc.
Not to mention the fact that much of the Army always happened to be Punjabi.

So the dominance of Punjab was apparent well before the creation of Pakistan.

The circumstances under which Pakistan was created among other things ultimately produced the equation we see today.

With some of the points I agree e.g. the canal irrigation system that British Raj laid in Punjab and Sindh togethor with farm to road network brought prosperity to Punjab (they did the same thing in Pesahawar Valley as well). Furthermore, Pakistan Army was Punjabi heavy since 1947 and there was stiff Punjabi resistance to recuitment from other ethnicities especially in officers rank (Prof Stephen P. Cohen).

What benifited Punjab were the dictatorships especially the Zia’s one which overpowered Punjab’s military and civil bureaucracy and its commercial-industrial class byond all limits of fairness.

Till 1971, Urdu speakers were dominent in finacial institutions and industries while Punjabis were powerful in miltary…The nationalization program of Bhutto through the persuation/scheming of Dr Mubashir Hassan (of Lahore) changed that configuration and laid the foundation of future Punjab’s emegence in those domains as well (during Zia era).