Democracy in Pakistan

I. Quaid’s vision of Democracy

II. United Nations and democracy
 United Nations Democratic Fund
 UN charter endorses democracy
 Article 21 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights highlights democratic values
III. Democratic states-a universal standard form of human society
IV. Origin of democracy
V. Contribution of different cultures for evolution of democracy
VI. Varieties of democracy
VII. Islam and democracy
 Islamic form of government is close to democracy
 Islamic democracy slightly differs from western secular democracy

Main Body:

i. Political history of Pakistan:

 Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, 1951
 Martial law of Ayub Khan, 1958
 Transfer of power to General Yahya Khan, 1969
 Dismemberment of Pakistan, 1971
 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Civilian Martial law Administrator
 Martial law of General Zia UL Haq, 1977
 Restoration of so-called democracy, 1988
 Martial law of General Pervaiz Musharraf, 1999
 Restoration of democracy, 2008

ii. Causes of failure of democracy in Pakistan:

 The spirit of unity evaporated after emergence of Pakistan

 Egocentric politicians
 Military involvement in politics
 Dictators choose the worst lot of politicians every time
 Corruption
 Strengthening of bureaucracy
 Feudal cum politicians
 Leadership void

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  Lack of education
 Lack of economic development
- Paul Collier-$2,700 per capita income as the threshold to democracy
 Mutual squabbling of politicians
 Personality-driven politics
 Weak independent institutions
 Constitutional crisis
 Concentration of power with the president
 Extremists illusion that democracy is un-Islamic

iii. Impact of failure of democracy:

 Terrorism
 Fanned separatist movements
 Economic deterioration
 Failure to form independent foreign policy
 Weaker government institutes
 Writ of the government is not all encompassing

iv. Steps for restoration of true form of democracy:

 Military should stop interference
 Reformation of the judiciary
 Accountability
 Mature political leadership
 Abolition of 'Jagirdari' and feudal Systems
 Provide opportunities to common man to being elected as parliamentarian
 Strengthen public institutions
 Keep the constitution intact
 Educate the masses
 Media should play a positive role
 International community should help to strengthen democratic system
 Will and determination of all the stakeholders

Conclusion:

 Democracy-the only remedy

 True democracy is the panacea for Pakistan
 The future of democracy may seem bleak but through determination it can be
made bright

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 “Cheshire-Puss,” Alice began… ” would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?” “That
depends a good deal on where you want to go,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where.” said
Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter much which way you go… ” said the Cat. Lewis Carroll, Alice in
Wonderland.

The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had envisioned the newly independent
Muslim state’s foreign policy to be of “peace with all, and enmity with none”

Functionally, the Quaid’s also expected the nation’s irrevocable commitment to the ideals of democracy,
pluralism, market economy, social justice, communal harmony and egalitarian order. He visualized a
Pakistan that would be stable politically and strong economically where its people could live their lives
and raise their children in dignity, free from the fear of violence, oppression and injustice, and where
they and their future generations could also live free from hunger, disease, and illiteracy.

The Quaid’s vision woefully remains unfulfilled. What a tragedy and an irony that a country which on its
birth was considered “twentieth century miracle” of a state should today be struggling for a place
among the “peaceful nations” of the world. For more than half a century, Pakistan has been wallowing
in political and economic uncertainty and has had neither domestic stability nor peaceful borders. Its
post-independence political history is replete with endemic crises and challenges that perhaps no other
country in the world has experienced.

We as a nation have not only failed to grapple with these challenges but are in fact living remorselessly
with these problems as an “integral” part of our society. Governments and the Assemblies have been
part of the problem rather than solution. Aversion to the rule of law is endemic. Poor governance has
been our national hallmark. Crime and corruption remained rampant and galore both in scope and
scale. Our country is today the classic example of ingenuities for bribery, exchange of favours and
illegitimate perquisites. “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” is the common approach followed
by public officials, be they parliamentarians or civil and military officials. The culture of perks and
privileges has been growing at the expense of the state.

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin
and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has
been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other
forms that have been tried from time to time - Sir Winston Churchill

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Democracy is a political form of government in which governing power is derived from the people.
Though there is no universally accepted definition of 'democracy', but eminent scholars have ensured
democracy as equality, fair play and freedom. Even the United Nations endorses the democratic form of
government and has established the “United Nations Democracy Fund” to strengthen democratic
institutions and practices around the world. The democratic values were highlighted in the Charter of
the United Nations, as well as in the Article 21 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It has been
speculated that the aforementioned trajectory followed by the world will eventually lead this world to
the point where liberal democratic nation-states will become the universal standard for human society.

Democracy is good, I say this because all other systems are worse—Jawaharlal Nehru

Democracy has its origins in Ancient Greece. However other cultures have significantly
contributed to the evolution of democracy such as Ancient Rome, Europe, and North America. The
concept of representative democracy arose largely from ideas and institutions that developed during the
European Middle Ages, the Age of Enlightenment, and in the American and French Revolutions. The
right to vote has been expanded in many Jurisdictions over time from relatively narrow electorates, with
New Zealand as the first nation to grant universal suffrage for all its citizens in 1893.

There are several facets of democracy like Direct democracy, Representative, Anticipatory, Non-
partisan, Westminster, Soviet or Council democracy. Islam as we believe is a complete code of life, in
some areas it grants due freedom to its believers, as in the political sphere the decision for choosing the
form of government has been left for the people, provided that the described requirements for
vicegerency are met and the sovereignty lies with Allah alone. Secondly, the Islamic government is never
theocratic. It is formed by mutual consent, and conducts most of its affairs by consensus and
consultation.

It is rather more imperative to fulfill the conditions of vicegerency than contemplating on how
the government should be formed. The original concept of Islamic rule is closer to democracy. It is an
anti-thesis of monarchial, theocratic, and autocratic forms of government. It slightly differs from the
western secular democracy and lays more stress on sovereignty of GOD, equality, justice and fair play,
and does not allow any form of exploitation. Hence, in essence and soul democracy is not un-Islamic. All
are equal but some are superior on behalf of piety.

Exploring the last 63 years of Pakistan, democracy is taken as a comic relief between military
regimes. Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, the first elected Prime Minister, was in fact the demise of
democracy in Pakistan. Since then, the balance of power tilted in the favor of the military. A comparison
depicts this shift. From 1951-57 India had one Prime Minister and several army chiefs while during the
same period Pakistan had one army chief and several Prime ministers. The same army chief, Ayub Khan
promulgated the first martial law in 1958. General Ayub Khan could not withstand a popular national
movement and transferred power to General Yahya Khan in March 1969. Under him Pakistan lost its
half, which is now known as Bangladesh. Power was then transferred to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as the first
civilian martial law administrator. Bhutto pursued an independent policy, but he was charged for

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compliance in murder, and hanged by the next martial law administrator, General Zia UL Haq. Hanging
of an elected Prime Minister perturbed the whole world. The general died in a mysterious plane crash.
Then came a ten years fad of the so-called democracy. During this period, none the elected government
completed its term on account of being ousted by the special discretionary powers of the president. An
end to this ten-year spell came with a new general, who ousted the incumbent elected government. This
time the Prime Minister was charged for conspiring against the state and was expatriated from the
country. Democracy was again restored in 2008 and now it has been hijacked by the dictatorial
democrats.

The spirit of unity, cohesion and commitment shown during Pakistan movement evaporated just
after the emergence of Pakistan, and self centered knavish politician indulged themselves in the fiendish
politics that was against the true spirit of democracy. Having ascertained the weakness and egocentric
attitude of the politicians, the military-bureaucratic nexus crawled out of the woodwork and took the
de-facto control of the country. Since then military-bureaucratic establishment directly or indirectly
governed the country. Army generals usurp power at their own convenience and quit only when they
are forced to quit by mass political movements or by a sudden unexpected death.

It is a dilemma that they came up to uproot corruption and social evils but actually they weeded
out the seeds of democracy. Disgruntled by the ostensible democracy, the people started to believe in
the forthcoming miracles of some incoming Messiah from the ranks of soldiers. In the end, they always
found themselves more disappointed by the 'short-sighted' Generals than by the 'corrupt' politicians. In
order to prolong their rule, dictators try to establish a controlled democracy and more often, they
choose the worst lot of politicians. This covert or overt influence of army is the greatest impediment to
the evolution of a stable democratic system in Pakistan.

In addition to this, the military rulers strengthened the bureaucracy for securing their own rule.
Having established a permanent role in the establishment, the bureaucrats and generals preferred to
compromise with the feudal system. The military rulers were thought to curb them in the beginning but
instead of nipping them in the bud they also compromised with them to prolong their own rule.
Similarly, the feudal cum politicians avail opportunities to beguile the gullible masses. In such
circumstances, even universal suffrage could not be effective and non-political powers began to play a
more assertive role. Consequently, the leaders and politicians become the brainchild of the military and
bureaucratic nexus and since Quaid’s demise, no true leader could rise to fill the void.

Democracy presupposes an understanding of issues. The sine qua non for a Western-style
democratic system is education, which means that the people must be educated to a level to
understand the issues so that they can make a meaningful choice. Unfortunately, literacy rate in
Pakistan is a mere fraction, even the most optimistic estimates believe it to be less than 50 percent. An
illiterate person is like an aimless wanderer, who lacks a clear vision, consequently fells an easy prey to
the caste related vote canvassing. Moreover, Pakistani society is divided along the fissures and faults of
caste and sects that has retarded it to act like a cohesive unit and concentrate only on issues. Under
such circumstances, caste, sect and creed sentiments are exploited by the unscrupulous politicians.

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 Paul Collier in "5 myths about the beauty of the ballot box" has cited $2,700 per capita income
as a threshold to democracy. Researchers have found democracies to be more effective and less prone
to violence above this threshold, but below that, less effective and more violent. The same study shows
that election misconduct is more likely in countries with low per capita incomes, rich in natural
resources, and a lack of institutional checks and balances. Pakistan has a nominal per capita income of
just $1, 067 and about one-fifth of population lies below the poverty line that struggles more for earning
sustenance rather than concentrating on the political issues, and if they ever do, they believe more in
the conspiracy theories rather than underlying issues. Consequently they are oblivious of major
developments and prove to be credulous masses.

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of

opportunity—Irving Kristol

The political leaders lack a clear vision and they never had the capacity to alleviate the status of
democracy and strengthen it, in fact the mutual squabbling of the political leaders excited the other
players to assume a role. Moreover, in Pakistan the politics is more personality-driven rather than
issues-driven, which has an overall negative impact on the evolution of independent institutions and has
fanned the vested interests. Political parties are mere puppet in the hands of different families and party
elections are considered taboo and it seems that political parties have dictatorship at their own core!

Another important cause has always been the constitutional crisis and absence of rule of law
apparatus. Similarly, the several amendments in the constitution concentrated power in the President,
which was against the democratic soul. There is still need for intact constitution. Interruption in the
democratic process has never allowed democracy to form a base. Even with its flaws, the elected
government has a right to complete its tenure without any hurdles.

Last but not least, the current stream of extremism and terrorism has brought forth a new
ideology. The bearers of this new ideology of governance consider democracy as non-Islamic. They only
harbor the westernized concept of democracy and they misguide people by pleading them to abandon
democratic system and demand for imposition of Sharia, they are unmindful of the fact that a
democratic system can flourish under the aegis of Sharia.

The aforementioned transgressions of different institutions, vested interests of different

stakeholders and cavalier attitude on part of the general masses have ruined the state structure of
Pakistan. Under the direct military rule, only the elite benefited from the system and this gave rise to
economic disparity, while no benefit was being passed over to the general public. History is witness to
the fact that Pakistan has lost territory while under direct military rule. The dictators’ hawkish attitude
has fanned various separatist movements across the country. Absence of Democracy is a significant
reason for nurturing terrorism in a country. A democratic government is supposed to represent the

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people and provide political means to voice grievances, hence essentially providing a sphere where
terrorism has no place. Democracy is necessary to peace and undermining the forces of terrorism—
Benazir Bhutto. For this reason, in theory, there 'cannot' be an aggrieved group that is not adequately
represented; but absence of democracy and areas outside the realm of democratic setup in Pakistan has
proved conducive to terrorism.

Democratic setup through different checks and balances ensures transparency, fair play and
good governance. But these characteristics do not pop out with just the imposition of democratic
system rather these evolve over time. Since democratic setup was de-railed again and again, so these
fruits of democracy were never seen in Pakistan and consequently, the institutions are underdeveloped
and resultantly sporadic democratic periods were infested with bad governance. With the weak
institutions and rampant interference in other institutions’ portfolios have resulted in massive
corruption, which is a peculiar stigma to democracy in Pakistan. As an outcome of these mal-practices,
national economy has gone virtually bankrupt and national budget has become dependent on foreign
aid.

In true democracy, political leaders derive their power from the people thus they are intrepid
and assume more audacious visions, consequently the respective country forms an independent foreign
policy that best suits its interests but feeble democracy is devoid of these characteristics. Pakistan has
so-far failed to furnish its independent foreign policy, with faint support in their own country; political
leaders are swayed by the world powers, thus they undermine the national interests and sovereignty of
the country. Wiki-leaks speaks high of their sincerity and caliber in this regard.

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy- Alfred E. Smith (42 nd governor of
New York)

Though democracy has failed many times to establish its firm roots in Pakistan, but every dark
cloud has a silver lining, all these failures actually provide us an insight into what went wrong and how
democracy can be preserved from de-railing next time. The first essential step seems to stop interruption
in the democratic process and the elected government must be allowed to complete its tenure in any case.
Secondly, a major chunk of the population wants greater Islamic character in the democratic setup and
legislation. Incorporating true Islamic injunctions will lead to a more cohesive civil society and will foil
any attempts by the extremists to paint that democracy is antithesis to Islamic form of government. We
must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools— Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is a need to reform the judiciary, in the presence of an independent judicial system, the
discrepancies are kept in check thus it ensures enduring democracy. Reforming the judiciary and
incorporating the Islamic laws can also soothe the deprived and poor masses which have been
manipulated by the extremists. Moving on, corruption and selfish attitudes is eating away the

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institutional structure of our country and such mal-practices never allowed democracy to flourish. There
is a need to engineer an accountability mechanism, so that these wrong-doings are kept in check.

Common man was compelled by the existing setup to stay away from contesting an election.
Hitherto it was a prerogative of the affluent and feudal classes; such practices are against the moral,
democratic and Islamic principles. The necessary ingredient for the success of democracy in Pakistan is
the emancipation of the rural areas from the clutches of the local landlords, i.e. to take steps for the
abolition of 'Jagirdari' System. The criteria of merit; the right of freedom and equal progress for common
people should be promoted. Young and morally upright persons should come forward and actively take
part in democratic setup and elected member must be nurtured with the notion that they have to serve
the nation and they have to bail out this nation. A leader is a dealer in hope—Napoleon Bonaparte

There is a dire need to strengthen the public institutions, in order to ensure the supremacy of
law so that rules govern the country rather than the personalities. The glaring example of many
European countries may be quoted, where institutions enjoy the ultimate powers. Democracy in
actuality can only be achieved through such measures. Our constitution has been a source of constant
controversy. Now onward, no one in power should be allowed to change it for prolongation of rule or
appeasing any particular section. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The credulous masses were an easy prey to the mercenary politicians, had they been educated,
they must have asked the elected members for their rights denied, opportunities curtailed and for
defrauding the tax-payers money. Imparting education on a national scale will galvanize the masses to
form a check on political leadership. The political energy in Pakistan is extravagantly wasted on inter-
provincial squabbling. There is a dire need to get the nation out of the rut of provincialism, so that they
feel proud on being Pakistani and strive for the cause of Pakistan thus strengthening the institutions and
democracy in the country.

In a democratic state, media has rightly been called the fourth pillar of the state. It can play a
more vibrant, positive and constructive role rather than becoming another compromised institution.
Information is the currency of democracy—Thomas Jefferson
Finally, the strategic position and now the war against terror has brought Pakistan in the
limelight of the international community, so international community should help Pakistan in
establishing a workable democratic system or should at least stay away from anointing the dictators, but
it is only possible through the visionary and sagacious approach of the media.

The world has ultimately come to a conclusion after having experimented different forms of
government like Monarchy, Oligarchy, military or civil Dictatorships etc. These governments failed
despite sincere wishes of the individual leaders who came to the fore through any of these Processes. In
line with the lessons of history and despite all its past experiences of failure, there is no other messianic
way out to lead Pakistan toward a progressive state except to establish the roots of democracy firmly.
Democracy is not only a form of government; it is a philosophy which encompasses all aspects of rights
and freedom. In Pakistan, however, the already difficult situation has been aggravated by constant

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failures which never let democracy to survive. The positive change is still slow, but a bleak past or murky
present in no way means a foredoomed future as well. However, colossal efforts at every level are
required for democracy to take root. In all this hopelessness, there must be a desire for moving forward.
The future of democracy may be doubtful but it not at an end yet.
The road to democracy may be winding and is like the river taking many curves but eventually the
river will reach the ocean—Chen Shui-Bian(10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China)

No wonder, decades of domestic political chaos and projected external vulnerability have kept our
national priorities lop-sided with more than one-third of our annual budget being used for our “defence
expenditure.” Fractured institutions and strong personalities continued to scamper around and speak
directly to the leadership in different voices. This led to no or a confused policy.

Our foremost priority is to fix the fundamentals of our governance. We need domestic consolidation
through democracy based on constitutional supremacy, institutional integrity and independent judiciary,
rule of law, accountability & good governance. We must not make any compromise on principles &
national interests. We need to regain and preserve our sovereign independence.

Our leaders must give-up the Macro Polo culture. We should also do away with the system of perks and
privileges for civil-military officials and parliamentarians. No more distribution of state land or plots for
anyone. No begging. We must opt for self-reliance and national dignity. No more blind faith in the so-
called “friends of Pakistan.” Lets be our own friends. Let’s ourselves take care of Pakistan.

We need a low profile foreign policy formulated through institutional rather than personal approach
with greater focus on domestic political, economic and social consolidation. In doing so, we could best
serve our interests by following Hafiz Shirazi’s advice for “Kindness to friends”, “courtesy to enemies”
with equal faith in Allama Iqbal’s message of “self-pride, self-confidence and self dignity.”

Let us hope for a bright future for:

“Every dark cloud has a silver lining.”
Or as Shelly says in his poem,
“Ode to the West wind”
“The trumpet of a prophecy! O wind’
If winter comes, can spring be for behind!”

(Words 3876)

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