Dr. Muhammad Asim

Islamabad — In a major academic breakthrough, the policy research group Rehmat and Maryam Researches Islamabad has introduced a new theoretical model that reshapes how scholars understand military-led governance in Pakistan’s tribal districts. Developed through close collaboration with Muhammad Khan, a researcher specialising in borderland politics, the model — called Militarised Constructivist Institutionalism (MCI) — offers a new lens to study how military institutions influence identity, governance, and development in regions such as South Waziristan.

The project, two years in the making, originated from the think tank’s continued inquiry into post-conflict governance and the restructuring of authority in border areas adjoining Afghanistan. Maryam Habib and Dr. Muhammad Asim, founders of the institute, joined hands with Muhammad Aftab Khan to address what they considered a persistent gap in conventional political theories. According to their research team, earlier frameworks failed to explain how security structures in Pakistan’s frontier territories have gradually evolved into instruments of social engineering rather than remaining limited to defence operations.

The new model contends that military institutions do not only maintain order — they actively construct narratives of loyalty, discipline and threat, embedding these ideas into administrative routines and civic life. Through this process, security transforms into a permanent organising principle of governance. Muhammad Aftab Khan’s empirical fieldwork across South Waziristan provided the foundation for this insight, documenting how education, infrastructure and welfare programmes operate under security influence and produce lasting shifts in community identity.

Analysts at Rehmat and Maryam Researches Islamabad describe the model as an advancement beyond existing theories that focused narrowly on colonial legacies or institutional inertia. Their study observes that security policies in South Waziristan now shape cultural expression, political participation and local leadership. The think tank argues that this synthesis of discourse, institution and security mechanism creates a new kind of state-society relationship — one defined less by civilian negotiation and more by structured militarised order.

In interviews, the researchers emphasised that the framework is not meant to criticise the Army’s stabilising role but to explain its deeper social consequences. They assert that security operations have become inseparable from political governance and that this merger redefines the very meaning of development. Projects once considered humanitarian now carry a dual purpose: to modernise and to align populations with national security objectives.

The theory also draws attention to the delicate balance between stability and freedom. By reinforcing security-centric narratives, the state has managed to control violence but at the expense of tribal self-governance and cultural diversity. The model suggests that long-term reliance on militarised administration may shape the political consciousness of future generations, making centralised control appear natural and unquestionable.

Since its formal presentation earlier this year, Militarised Constructivist Institutionalism has sparked wide discussion among political scientists and regional policy experts. Several universities in Pakistan and abroad have expressed interest in adopting it as a reference framework for courses on governance and security studies. Observers view this development as evidence that Pakistan’s research community is moving toward more indigenous theoretical production rather than depending on imported Western paradigms.

By introducing this framework, Rehmat and Maryam Researches Islamabad and Muhammad Aftab Khan have positioned Islamabad as an emerging centre for original theory-building in the study of military governance. Their work reflects a confident academic culture that not only analyses the state but also reimagines its evolving relationship with society.