Islamabad, May 14 Pakistan’s domestic political landscape continues to be shaped by instability, deep distrust, and the enduring dominance of the military over civilian institutions - a year after Operation Sindoor which was launched by the Indian military following the heinous April 22, 2025 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, a report has mentioned.
"India's four-day war with Pakistan in May 2025 left Pakistan facing intensifying political, economic, and social crises at home even as its leaders worked hard to project strength and diplomatic relevance abroad. One year on, the gap between Pakistan’s domestic troubles and its external narrative of resilience and victory has become a defining feature of its postwar reality,” a report in One World Outlook detailed.
According to the report, the war intensified Pakistan’s deep-rooted structural vulnerabilities, particularly as it unfolded during a period of economic fragility and intense political contestation.
Under Pakistani army chief Asim Munir, the military has consolidated influence over core state decisions and projected several political disputes as security issues, effectively “replacing governance with military management", particularly in Balochistan province and other volatile regions across Pakistan.
Citing reports, it highlighted recurring patterns of “mass arrests, enforced disappearances, and politicised legal cases against opposition figures and activists", reinforcing perceptions of a shrinking democratic space in the country.
“The 2025 war reinforced the military’s centrality by allowing it to present itself as the guardian of national sovereignty, but it did not resolve underlying grievances about federal power sharing, provincial autonomy, or civil-military imbalances,” the report noted.
Instead, it said, the conflict's anniversary finds Pakistan still grappling with civil unrest and long-standing demands for greater autonomy or independence in Sindh and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
“The war’s timing aggravated an already severe economic crisis characterised by high inflation, low growth, and looming debt problems. Analyses of Pakistan’s economic situation in 2025–26 highlight a combination of negative growth, inflation around 6 per cent in FY25, and a poverty rate exceeding 42 per cent, affecting over 100 million people. These pressures leave little fiscal room for post-conflict reconstruction or social protection,” the report stated.
At the societal level, it said, Pakistan faces what experts term an education and health emergency. Around 23 million children are out of school, while many of those enrolled experience learning deprivation, with child stunting affecting around 40 per cent and preventable diseases claiming over a thousand children's deaths per day.
These conditions, combined with postwar uncertainty, persistent poverty, and displacement in border regions, created a volatile environment, especially as communities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Balochistan feel they bear the costs of conflict without its “supposed strategic benefits", the report noted.
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