Pakistan means the “Land of the Pure.” The name carries a civilizational claim: Pakistan was ordained to protect Muslims and is superior to the Hindu-majority nation across the border. Eighty years after Partition, that claim is collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions — and the evidence comes from inside Pakistan’s own administered territory.
By Anna Mahjar-Barducci
In June 2026, Pakistani paramilitary forces opened fire on protesters in Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot, the principal towns of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The demonstrators were traders, students, lawyers and women demanding affordable electricity and wheat subsidies. The International Human Rights Foundation reported more than 32 civilian deaths between June 8 and June 16, 2026. Protest groups and local media claim the total number of wounded is ranging between 200 and 300. Amnesty International documented internet shutdowns, mass arbitrary arrests and the application of anti-terrorism law against a grassroots civic coalition. Sit-ins drew over 70,000 at Rawalakot’s Eidgah Ground, with crowds chanting “Pak Forces Out.”
The roots of Pakistan’s founding ideology lie in the 19th-century thought of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who argued that Hindus and Muslims in British India constituted separate social communities with incompatible interests. Allama Iqbal later envisioned a distinct Muslim political space in the northwest of the subcontinent. It was Muhammad Ali Jinnah, however, who translated this into a concrete political demand. He argued that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations and that Muslims required a sovereign homeland to safeguard their identity.
This is the Two-Nation Theory: not just a partition plan but a claim about the nature of peoplehood itself. It has served as Pakistan’s founding myth and its permanent foreign policy justification.
This ideology does not belong to the past. Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, declared, “Our forefathers believed that we were different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life. Our religion is different. Our customs are different. Our traditions are different. Our thoughts are different. Our ambitions are different… That was the foundation of the Two-Nation Theory. We are two nations, not one nation.” He added that Kashmir “was, is and will be” Pakistan’s “jugular vein” and that Pakistan was prepared to fight additional wars over the territory.
The events in Pakistan-administered Kashmir since 2023 challenge the Two-Nation Theory. The unrest began with protests over electricity tariffs and flour shortages in May 2023, organized through the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), a coalition of traders, lawyers, transporters, students and civil society groups. The JKJAAC formulated a 38-point charter of demands, including subsidized essentials, local electoral reforms and the abolition of 12 assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees living outside the region — seats that locals view as diluting their political voice.
Economic grievance has a structural dimension. Pakistan-administered Kashmir contributes substantially to Pakistan’s hydropower output. Residents pay electricity tariffs well above production costs. Consumers in mainland Pakistan receive preferential rates. The territory generates power for the state that controls it and receives inadequate compensation in return.
Pakistan’s response has been harsh. The JKJAAC was banned on June 5, 2026 under anti-terror provisions. Its leaders faced sedition charges. Internet and mobile communications were suspended. Federal paramilitary forces were deployed. Reuters reported a 10 million rupee bounty for the arrest of four key JKJAAC leaders.
Pakistan has built its international position on Kashmir on the premise that it speaks for Kashmiri Muslims and that India’s administration of its portion violates their rights. This premise is now contradicted by the conditions in the territory Pakistan itself administers.
In Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, Legislative Assembly elections took place in 2024. Infrastructure investment has continued, including the inauguration of the Chenab Bridge in June 2025, the world’s highest railway bridge, connecting the region to the national rail network. Across the Line of Control, in the territory Pakistan controls, a civic body demanding affordable electricity has been designated a terrorist organization, its communications severed and its protests met with paramilitary bullets.
For nearly eight decades, the Two-Nation Theory has provided the moral and political framework through which Pakistan has justified its position on Kashmir. The people of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, chanting “Pak Forces Out” in crowds of over 70,000, have delivered their verdict on that claim.
British members of parliament raised concerns about the June 2026 crackdown as Kashmiri diaspora communities organized protests across the United Kingdom. The International Human Rights Foundation has called for an independent international investigation into the killings and the conditions of those detained. These calls deserve support.
Anna Mahjar-Barducci is an Italian-Moroccan journalist, author, and researcher. Her work covers North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asian geopolitical affairs. Her articles and commentary have appeared in a range of international publications, including Australian Outlook, El Mundo, The New York Sun, Maroc Diplomatique.
