THE IMPACT OF INTRA-RELIGIOUS PLURALISM ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF DISTRICT CHAKWAL

Abstract

Religious based conflict, especially intra-religious conflicts in regions having dominant majority religions not only leads to loss of lives and infrastructures but also hinders the socio-economic development of the region. Sectarianism for the past three decades and continuing to this day, is a great menace spread out across whole Pakistan. Existing literature on sectarianism has almost completely focused on the sect vs sect typology and have been primarily descriptive in explaining the conflicting relationships between Shia and Sunni. The purpose of this research study was to explore the impact of intra-religious pluralism on socio-economic performance of District Chakwal. Multiple Secondary data resources were consulted to allocate areas of relatively no sectarian based violent incidents. Quantitative Content Analysis was applied on the data sets collected on the basis of relevancy under the guidance of extensive review of literature. The study found out that District Chakwal, having experienced relatively low sectarian violence for the past three decades, performed significantly well on all socio-economic indicators. The target area of study showed the highest literacy rates for Men in the Province of Punjab, along with consistently low crime rates and ranked fifth on best performing districts on multidimensional poverty indices.