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Democracy in Pakistan
The subject of Democracy in
Pakistan is based on hypothetical assumptions that:
(1)
The Pakistani Society is a Democratic Society.
(2)
The Lawyers, Journalists and Students are Ordinary Pakistani
citizens.
(3)
The Secular and Liberal element of the society is necessary for a
democratic regime.
The Democracy is the system of
government where the People is sovereign to decide for itself in State
affair. The people’s government is under the authority of the people and
not under the authority of any God, any prophet, any king, any dictator,
any autocrat, any philosopher or any intellectual.
In terms of this definition of
Democracy, we will analyse the three above assumptions.
A « society » includes all the
individuals without any exclusion. If a society is democratic then all
members will be termed as democrats. The elites, the ruling establishment
as well as the common people will be democratic individuals. If not all,
there will be at least a majority of them. If such was the case, it is
strange that such an ideal society has failed to establish democracy in
Pakistan. So, obviously the people of Pakistan do not belong to a
“Democratic Society”.
The Lawyers, Journalists and
Students are certainly citizens but not Ordinary citizens as it is assumed
above. They represent a small fraction of a Privileged class of total
population of the country. The ordinary citizen is the masses composed of
poor and (mostly) illiterate peasants, labours and workers. Their basic
worry is the everyday bread for the family no matter what is the system of
the government. The people understand very well that the present movement
of well intentioned Lawyers, Journalists and Students will end with a
change of Power without changing the system of government. There will be
another Autocrat disguised as a Democrat.
It is true that the secular and
liberal element of the society is necessary for a democracy but it is not
sufficient. We had two leaders who had enough credentials to be classified
as liberal and secular. The founder of Pakistan could have established a
secular and democratic regime right after the birth of Pakistan as it was
done by Indian leaders. But instead of making a clear choice Mr. Mohammad
Ali Jinnah and early leaders tried to mix the two, Islam and Democracy. In
any religious state, it is the religion which is supreme and not an
individual citizen. So, any religious state can not be a democracy.
The other well known Secular and
Liberal Democrat in the history of Pakistan is the man who promised the
people “khAnA, kapRA, makAn”, but instead gave the present Constitution
which officially established Pakistan as an Islamic State. Any Pakistani
law has to be in a limited boundary such that it is not repugnant to
Islam. The present Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a “Chef-d’oeuvre” of a
Secular-Liberal-Megalomaniac Democrat. It is safe to deduce that Secular
and Liberal element is not enough to establish Democracy.
We started with Governor General’s
Democracy, then moved on to President’s Democracy, Basic Democracy,
Megalomaniac Democracy, Islamic Democracy, Corrupt Democracy and
Enlightened Democracy but alas we never had the Democracy which could be
termed as the Government (of-by-for) the People.
Any future government with or
without President General Musharraf will not become automatically
democratic. Without him a period of Corrupt Democracy will start. But his
greed of power has become more intense than the interest of the nation. He
is no more trustworthy and popular among the people. It is the time that
he takes his leave from his present usurped responsibilities. The peaceful
process will be that after the general election either he says good-bye or
the newly elected representative assembly relieves him from his present
positions. Any change by force will simply bring another dictator with a
greater greed of power.
The sixty years have been spent in
an effort to bring democracy from the TOP like Founding Father, Army
Generals, Feudal Lords and Rich Politicians. Of course a part of the
educated elites was also the part of this group. The result is that still
we have not achieved the democracy and I doubt if we will ever have it
from the TOP.
The other possibility is that people do it
themselves. This can be done peacefully as we have seen recently in some
of the East European countries or by force as French did a couple of
centuries ago. The choice will be theirs. In either case the people have
to be made conscious of their own democratic rights. This can be only done
through education and knowledge. There is a lot of field work for sincere,
secular, liberal and educated elites.
Muhammad Ahsan Khan
Strasbourg (France)
ahsan@noos.fr |