Are there two pakistans

Quite a few of these people are supporting Khan and Musharraf and are also hoping that the two will form an alliance before or after the elections.

For liberal and secular Pakistanis, the worst scenario would be to have an Islamic party come to power - whether through ballot or revolution. Those who have not yet left the country are contemplating doing so; many people feel insecure and fear persecution. The Islamic Republic's artists, writers, poets and activists, however, are still hopeful that sanity will prevail in their country sooner or later.

Despite terror attacks, rampant targeted killings of political workers, rights activists, and common people alike, progressive Pakistanis refuse to give up. Musical concerts, theatrical performances, literature festivals are not as frequent in Pakistan as they used to be, but they are still happening. People continue to go out and eat and watch the latest Indian movies at cinemas.

Pakistan is apparently breaking down but there is still some hope left; only time will tell whether the conservative or the liberal Pakistan will last. Former military dictator Musharraf has returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile to take part in parliamentary elections. But will he be able to create an impact in Pakistani politics as a civilian political leader?

Pakistan makes headlines for religious extremism, Islamist militancy and suicide bombings. But is this the real face of Pakistan? The country's artists, musicians and writers say there is a different side to the country. Visit the new DW website Take a look at the beta version of dw. Go to the new dw. More info OK.

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A tale of two Pakistans Are five years of democracy enough? This "Two Nation Theory", as it came to be known, has become the official Pakistani narrative for the creation of the state and key to how Pakistan defines itself.

Pakistan was perhaps the first country to be formed on the basis not of a common ethnicity or language, but religion. Yet at the same time it is not, and never has been, a theocracy.

This dichotomy is behind much of the debate around Pakistan's national identity and issues such as its treatment of minorities. Before partition, there was real concern among Muslims living in British India at the prospect of becoming a minority in a Hindu-dominated independent India. About one quarter of the population was Muslim.

Despite the Congress Party's assertions of its secular values, many Muslims were sceptical and feared that the Hindu majority would seek to marginalise them. Jinnah himself was an advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity before becoming disillusioned with the attitude of Congress.

But did, for example, a Malayalam-speaking Sunni Muslim from southern India really have more in common with a Punjabi Shia from the North than with his Hindu neighbour? There existed vast differences in language, culture and religious interpretations between Indian Muslims, even if they were united by a common faith.

Jinnah was not the first to articulate the Two Nation Theory, but with the creation of Pakistan he transformed it into a political reality. The theory is now taught to all school children in Pakistan.

It is why many see independence as liberation from India, as opposed to independence from British colonial rule. At a tutoring centre in Islamabad, I asked teenagers why Pakistan was created. So that was why a new country was needed to get their rights.

But when Pakistan was created, more Muslims stayed on in India than left. And then in Pakistan itself split in two, with the creation of an independent Bangladesh. She says the official Pakistani narrative favours teaching ideology over history. He claims Muslims who moved to Pakistan have done "far, far better" in terms of literacy levels and economic opportunities than those who stayed in India. He rejects the suggestion that the independence of Bangladesh following a bloody civil war undermines the idea all Muslims in the subcontinent could be categorised as "one nation".

It is clear that the theory is key to Pakistan's national identity. Today, Kashmir remains the only region of British India that has not been integrated into one of the two nations or gained independence.

In the following two-minute animation, Al Jazeera looks at how the Indian subcontinent was divided by the British in and how it has changed since then. By Shakeeb Asrar. Published On 14 Aug