The narrative presented in this book has featured a dialectic of ‘order’ and ‘change’ that is deeply imbricated in the post-colonial structure of power, as it was during the colonial period. For the most part, the state has upheld the imperative of order even while privileging the logic of capital and the inevitable transformation that a deepening capitalism brings with it. The result has been both substantial continuity in that entrenched classes and institutions have maintained power and privilege, and transformative change as mobility ‘from below’ has allowed newer, nativized segments of society to push their way into an expanded ‘historical bloc’.

This basic dialectic of order and change – and the contradictions to which it invariably gives rise – is not unique to Pakistan's case. In many other postcolonial societies the structure of power is distant and coercive yet permeable and personalized, while the deepening of capital has greatly altered the dynamics of a previously insular political-economic system. Certainly the trajectories of what I have called the politics of common sense must be thoroughly contextualized, yet the conceptual parallels in Pakistan's and other cases are considerable, particularly in the era of ‘globalization’.

In conclusion, I will provide a brief summary of the argument that has been presented in the book, detail developments since the beginning of the millennium, and offer some tentative projections on the prospects of rupture in the structure of power moving forward. In doing so I will once again bring into focus the heuristic method adopted throughout this book; an understanding of contemporary political forms in Pakistan requires explication of a dynamic and expanding structure of power and a recognition of the fact that this structure is, in some measure at least, legitimated from below. As I have argued throughout the preceding chapters, these two levels of analysis should not be considered mutually exclusive; coercion and consent are two sides of the same coin.

When All is Said and Done

Despite the immense changes that have taken place throughout society, particularly from the 1960s onwards, the configuration of power in Pakistan continues to feature the ‘steel frame’ which has survived by propagating the imperative of order.