DEMOCRACY IN PAKISTAN

World War II inaugurated the vistas of democracy in the world. The genesis of Pakistan as an independent state was marked with the same trends. However, the booming democratic state as envisaged by the Quaid soon fell into the hands of demagogues, feudals, elitist bureaucracy, under the aegis of the corrupt interest groups, all sorts of mafia and the invisible foreign hands. Above all the military and the quasi-military rule strangled any hope of democracy for the developing Pakistan. The deterioration got further impetus by the foul play in the elections, stagnation of the political process by coup d` tats followed by the martial laws, sometimes in the name of Islam and other times in the name of modernism. The fault lines of democracy widened with the caricature of the constitution, corruption of the judiciary and violation of the human rights.

The seeds of anti-democratic norms were sown , when on August 1947, Khan Sahib’s ministry was dismissed along with M.A Khusroo’s dismissal on April 20,1948 in Sindh and Fazal-ul-Haq’s in 1954 in East Pakistan, despite the fact that each government enjoyed a majority in the assemblies. However, the major blow to the democratic process was the baffling re-shuffling of the minister ship thrice in a fortnight. Yet the gravest of all was the abrogation of the constitution for the first time on October 1958 by Iskander Mirza.

The rough path of pseudo democracy brought a series of catastrophic incidents in the attire of AyubKhan’s failed federal-provincial policies, Zia’s grappling with the religion, Bhutto’s demagogic rhetoric, Benazir’s conceited false claims and Nawaz Sharif’s cowardice. The path was further furnished by the sham democratic claims in the form of a uniformed unconstitutional president turning the whole nation topsy turvy to establish an illusionary democracy.

The mockery of democracy could also be observed by the fact that the so called loyal, jingoistic politicians could not form a constitution for the first nine pivotal years of independence. The objective resolution of 1949 , the constitution of 1956 and 1962 , that tried to save the sinking political raft of dictatorship and martial law ended up in the separation of Bangladesh. The gift of Bhutto to Pakistan in the form of 1973 constitution was a child’s play in the hands of the dictators, the 8th amendment LfO, the seventeenth amendment crumbled down any democratic signs that were left with country. The successful democratic countries like England and U.S live with the principle of separation of powers, elucidated in their constitution and protected by judiciary. On the contrary, Pakistan leaders devour every thing and any thing that they can lay their hands on and have likewise, changed the constitution to suit their autocratic, plutocratic whims in such a way that the constitution has been reduced to a legitimate protective covering for the illegitimate processes.

Pluralism, is an insignia of democracy. Pakistan has never hesitated to flout such a pivotal element.Innitiated by Ayub Khan , Zia and in the contemporary world by the so called Quaid-i-Azam league.in the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country like Pakistan a non-party political atmosphere representing the ruling dictators not the voice of the varied cultural society proved to be only a disaster. Unlike Pakistan, America India or Canada with bi-partism or multi-partism helps its different regions and groups to be vocal about their interests , at the same time strong political institutions bound the people together under the umbrella of a one democratic country.In Pakistan the very opposite has always occurred. ‘One unit’ formula of Muhammad Bogra usurped the rights of the people giving way to frustration and disgust. The cynical power politics of the dictators weakened the political atmosphere, elections fought on non party basis only grew skepticism among the provinces, specially East and West Pakistan , which ended up in the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971.The champions of democracy in the present are repeating the notions of their predecessors and have created same situation where Balochistan is voicing independence from the non-democratic dictators

The only thing left in the country as an aftermath of the distorted democracy is the regional parties that only inflict regional, ethnic and sectarian norms, the out come of which is terrorism , sectarianism, and violence. Something that has taken deep roots in the country and has become an incurable cancer.

Rigging elections and tampering results is another menace that has damaged the legitimate populist governments. Unlike ,foreign democratic countries the governments in Pakistan are always charged of being corrupt, illegitimate that gains powers either through the patronization of a foreign hand or some worst mafia and interest groups.

Moreover, the coup d’etat are a plague for the true democracy and such non-political moves shrouded in mystery reverse any signs of progress the country had undergone .The perpetual control of the military regimes for the 31 years and other 27 under the quasi-military rule are the mockery of the Quaid’s dream who in the last address to the constituent assembly envisaged a democratic state with a smooth political process in a tolerant nation.

The sine quanone of an egalitarian country are the rule of the common people , provision and safety of the human rights , supremacy of law and a free judiciary . Unfortunately Pakistan lacks them all .The feudals , elite bureaucrats in the form of Tiwanas , Daultanas or the Bhuttos reigned with an elitist mindset.The nexus of the government with mafia, suppression of the human rights and their violations distorted the fading signs of democracy. Deprived people of all their economic , socil, political and now even religious prerogatives add only fanaticism to country’s life , nothing else. Moreover, law and judiciary that are only the tools in the hands of the despots provide nihilistic elements to the society.

Albeit a cruel, yet a true picture was shown to the bragging leaders of Pakistan when Bush visited South Asian countries. Declaring India to be the oldest democracy Bush had given Pakistan an instance to ponder over its follies and foibles and to restrain from the errors and mistakes of the predecessors.

The 58 years of the birth of the nation illuminates same dark aspects of the country’s life . The parties as well as the masses have to realize that Pakistan was made in the name of Islam , slapping away religion in the name of modernism just to gain favours from the anti-Islamic elements can never bring true democracy .The feigned antagonism established between Islam and democracy is nothing but a sham propaganda as Islam provides all the democratic solutions of the issues the world is grappling with.

New countries emerging on the world map as well as the nations of the antiquity with well established norms have proved to be inconsistent with the modern definition of democracy, thus the need of the hour is that the phenomenon of democracy should be re defined with the consensus of the world , rather that preaching and aspiring for the ideals that are measured by a different yard stick for every country by its proponents. The act of U.S to favour the dictators in Pakistan and Egypt yet the way it has waged an un visible war against the democratic and legitimate governments of Iran and Palestine proves that America’s definition of democracy is not a universal one. .Hence, a sincere effort is required to overcome this evil of pseudo democracy and dictatorship not only in Pakistan but globally in the world to make it a better place for the humans to live peacefully.

Good entry... with such a good analytical essay.......!!!!!!!!! You seem to be in favour of uniform type of democracy in all the countries of world. Ideologically, the same task is being pursued by USA. Practically, however, USA's attitude is far from this ideological pursuit. In my assessment, this ideology is impracticable and there have to be variations in the types of democracy or even in the types governments in different countries of world. Anyway, your essay is really good. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Regards!

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Where is the SIGNATURE....????

very good opening.

Well, there's no doubt on the analytical quality of essay. Its really a very good work. I'd like to comment only on the measurements. In my opinion the measurements suggested in essay are not sufficient. Secondly the nature of political system of a country doesn't only depend on the type of leaders but also on geo-political location, prevailing circumstances and to some extent on belief of nation as well. in this case we can't demand the globalization of democracy. Now comes US agenda, here i totally agree with Khuram. US's agenda is totally ambiguous, so its not acceptable for any country till it gets cleared( which is near to impossible). In this scenerio we should emphasize on reforms in our democracy but not by so called CHARTER OF FUGITIVES, but by having new trends in it.


Regards

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