Democracy in Pakistan

The word democracy comes from Greek word ‘demos’ meaning rule of people. In fact, the famous form of government also originated in one of the historical cities of Greek, Athens. World needs to thank this birthplace of democracy. However, In Pakistan, democracy is still in its infancy stages and undergoing an evolutionary process.

The founding father of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah, envisioned Pakistan as a purely democratic state. However, he inherited a weak political party. The worst part was his early demise just after one year of the birth of Pakistan. The political intuitions, judiciary, law enforcing agencies and parliament were not established yet. Pakistan lacked genus and trained supply of skillful politicians and civil servants initially. This lack of infrastructure meant a topsy-turvy, instable and uncertain future of democracy.

Another big blow to the system was subsequent military coups. The civil military tensions grew as early as this nation state came into being. The threat from India and weak foreign policy paved the way for Army’s supremacy. This resulted in Pakistan becoming a security state amidst cold war era. The military didn’t allowed the political parties to regroup, groom and progress by putting full stops in 1958, 1977 and 1999. They undermined democracy and stayed in power for decades. It was out of their jurisdiction and domain to rule for such a long time by making excuses like extraordinary circumstances demanded military to intervene.

A constitution crisis meant that there was no manual, roadmap and guideline on how to run Pakistan. Democracy’s main pillar is the law, which makes functioning and governing a smooth process. Our neighbor, India, who got independent at the same time, was able to frame a constitution in 1949. That is why there was no military intervention throughout the course of history in India. On the contrary, Pakistan was not allowed to experiment with genuine democracy. It took almost 23 years to draft a final constitution with consensus and unity of all political parties.

In Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s era, we saw the true essence of democracy when massive crowds were gathered in his public gatherings. He targeted the poverty-stricken masses of the country that were sidelined, marginalized and secluded right from the beginning. The military coup of Ayub Khan did resulted in economic growth, but that was conducive to the 22 influential feudal families and skewed towards military institution. Conversely, Bhutto empowered public by his famous slogan, food, clothing and shelter. This socialist approach drove many people in voting. The East Pakistan was also rallied under Fatimah Ali Jinnah and then under Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman. The true characteristics of democracy were highlighted profoundly in these times when we could see that every vote mattered and layman was given significance.

Another positive development lately was that Peoples Party completed for the first time a complete five year term and relatively smoothly, power was transmitted to next elected government. There is no question, that democracy needs to be more refined, nevertheless, I am optimistic that there is a positive future of democracy in Pakistan and pseudo-democracy will be eradicated with the passage of time.