Abstract—Pakistan’s economy is a tangled economy with a mixture of democracy and dictatorship. Government is facing a number of problems due to lack of consistency in the political structure. This study investigates economics performance of Pakistan under the Military Regimes and Democracy from 1958 to 2014. Economic Performance is a very colossal term which includes number of variable such as Foreign Direct Investment, Real Gross Domestic Product , Unemployment , Per capita income), Consumer price index , Gross National Product , Corruption Index and Inflation Rate . We examined economic performance under military and democratic regimes using macroeconomic variables such as Foreign Direct Investment, Real Gross Domestic Product, Unemployment, Per capita income and Inflation Rate. We found that Military governments performed better in terms of Gross Domestic Product and controlling Inflation while democratic government performed better in terms of Per Capita Income. Moreover Foreign Direct Investment and Unemployment were almost same under military and democratic governments. Index Terms—Foreign direct investment, real gross domestic product, unemployment, military coup. I. INTRODUCTION It has been 68-years since independence but we are still unsuccessful in developing best political institutions. Countries which were far behind from Pakistan are ahead now. Our history revolves around dictatorship and democracy and the debate on role of democracy and dictatorship on economic growth of Pakistan is not over yet. Which political system contributed in the progress of its country? How Pakistan economy performed under military and democratic regimes? Literature identifies two political regimes; democracy and dictatorship and their role in economic performance. There are different type of democracies and dictatorships. Pakistan has faced parliamentarian democracy and military coup as dictators. Pakistan has faced three successful and three unsuccessful military coups attempts spanning for almost thirty five years. Until 2013 Pakistan has not faced a single transfer of democracy to other democratic government. In 2013, first time, control of government was peacefully transferred from one democratic government to the other. Democracy means freedom of speech, right to vote and control of government through majority. Democracy means everyone having equal rights. It is all about its citizens (by the people and for the people). Military coup is defined as the over thrown of current government through power by Military, it’s an illegal Manuscript received August 10, 2016; revised October 13, 2016. The authors are with University of Balochistan Quetta, Pakistan (e-mail: mukhtaruzma@gmail.com). replacement of government and taking power into their own hand. The first and foremost objective of democracy is to accomplish the objectives that best serve the interests of the people, whereas Military is liable for guarding and defending the state. About 471 coup attempts were recorded world widely from 1950 to 2011 .Countries like Afghanistan, Argentina, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, Haiti, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippine, Romania, Russia, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria and Uganda has faced number of coup attempts. Thailand has faced most coup attempt than any country in the world. Since 1932 Thailand has faced 11 successful coup attempts, India has never faced military dictator. Latest coup attempt was done on 13 May 2015 in Bulgaria [1]. In case of Pakistan, it is always perceived that military performed better as compared to dictatorship. Since independence, government was under the control of military coups for more than three decades in which they also claimed that economic performance and economic stability were far better than the democracy [2]. Democracy as a political system in Pakistan has been an onerous goal since 1947. The last sixty eight years were critical in term of growth and economic management. The year 2007 has been one of the struggling years in sense of restoration of democracy. Economic growth of Pakistan is observed to be hovering around 5% since last six decades. Pakistan grew faster than South Asia by an average of 2% during 1960s and 1980s. However growth rate was below than the regional average in 1990s. Social and Political interference has created problems in smooth trend of growth. Economic growth can only be generated when a country is politically and socially stable [3]. Number of researches has been conducted to investigate the relationship between democracy and economic growth in Pakistan. Despite having three successful and three unsuccessful military coup attempts, economic performance of Pakistan is not examined under two regimes empirically. This study aims to highlight the role of dictatorship in economic performance of Pakistan from 1958-2014 with a comparison between the economic performances of democratic and military governments using descriptive and regression analysis. II. LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT There is a substantial debate about the impact of democracy and dictatorship on economic growth. This section reviews the existing literature on macroeconomic performances under democracy and military coup. Democracy is being welcomed in most parts of the world. Economic Performance of Pakistan Under Democracy and Military Regimes Muhammad Nauman Hayat, Kaneez Fatima, Uzma Mukhtar, and Safia Bano Journal of Economics, Business and Management, Vol. 4, No. 12, December 2016 690 doi: 10.18178/joebm.2016.4.12.474