STATE RESPONSE TO SECTARIAN VIOLENCE IN PAKISTAN: THE ROLE OF MILITARY AND BUREAUCRACY IN SECURITY GOVERNANCE

The problem of sectarian violence in Pakistan persists as a structural issue which continues to compromise the internal security of the country, undermine mechanisms of good governance and destroy social harmony among communities. Although large-scale incidents of sectarian violence have been reduced significantly over the last decade, sectarian attacks still persist taking new adaptive forms and becoming even more decentralized and localized. The current paper will seek to identify and explore how Pakistan has responded to the problem of sectarian violence through the lens of the roles of the military and the civilian bureaucracy in security governance. The study will follow the approach of qualitative historical analysis and draw on scholarly literature on the topic, policy-related documents, and recent news articles about events from 2020 to 2024. The theoretical underpinning of the study comprises the principles of securitization theory, civil-military relations, and institutionalism. The findings of the study suggest that the structural weakness of security governance is evident in the lack of balance between the military and the civilian bureaucracy. While the military institution demonstrates effectiveness in the reduction of violence in Pakistan due to intelligence-led operations and comprehensive counterterrorism efforts, its dominance and influence in the field may result in the development of the civil sector's underdevelopment, discontinuous policies and lack of sustainability in efforts made. The civilian bureaucracy, although being responsible for governance and violence prevention in the country, proves to be fragile institutionally, being exposed to political influence and lacking necessary resources and mechanisms for action. In conclusion, the lack of a cohesive approach to the civil-military relationship can be attributed to the fragmentation and reactivity in responding to the problem in question..