23. Causes behind failure of democracy in Pakistan

The word democracy stems from the Greek words demos, "people" and kratos, "rule." A democracy is simply a system of government in which the people rule. Many political thinkers tried to put forth the definition and theme of democracy in different ways. Paul Cruickshank, Sophomore and Morrissey defined it: "A Democracy is a system which places priority on allowing the common individual the ability to express his or her ideas without fear of persecution or arrest".  John Calhoun once remarked "Democracy [is] not majority rule: democracy [is] diffusion of power, representation of interests, recognition of minorities" . Lauren Wons  was of the view that democracy is " a government for the people where citizens are allowed to make their own decisions on issues and voice their sentiments" . After analyzing these definitions, one can conclude that the ultimate goal of democracy is to empower people. All powers should be vested in people as per the basic idea of democracy.  Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan,  wanted to make Pakistan a robust and dynamic democratic state in which all the citizens were equal before the law, rights of minorities were protected, media was free and independent; and government officials were held accountable.  Besides, he publicly endorsed the idea of making Pakistan a welfare state based on Islamic Social and Economic Principles. However, his dream remained unfulfilled to date. Since its inception, Pakistan witnessed frequent military rules, engineered elections, dismal performances by the civilian governments,  'controlled' media, 'selective accountability',  rampant poverty, widespread corruption, low literacy rate and a high incidence of white-collar crimes. As of now, democracy is still an illusion in Pakistan and the aforementioned evils persist with a tendency to grow from bad to worse.

Protesters in clash with security forces in Islamabad in 2017 

Causes behind failure? 

⦁Historical factors— Pakistan had inherited a strong military-bureaucracy nexus in 1947. The duo did not let civilian governments prevail over the system. Renowned political analyst Hamza Alvi aptly dubbed the asymmetric relationship  as "overdeveloped state". As  a result, political institutions, which constitute foundation of democracy, remained ineffective and fragile. The failure in result directly affected performance of successive governments to deliver the goods. And the rhetoric of bad governance and 'incompetence' was recurrently used by the military dictators to the topple civilian governments. The vicious vacillation of power between civilians and military dictators hampered the prospects of Pakistan being an agile and robust democratic state. To date, the military wields immense influence and controls foreign and security policies of Pakistan.

⦁Fragmented society and weak leadership: Pakistan has been a polarized society at large. There are various extremes in every sphere of life in the country. Take religion, there are multiple categories in Pakistan: fundamentalists and orthodox, moderate, liberals and extreme liberals and the oppressed minorities which cannot even practice their religion freely. Each and every religious group is at war with the others and striving hard to impose its own version of religion upon others.  The orthodox section has always despised democracy and denounced it as a ploy of the West to undermine Islam and its ideals. On contrary, the liberals spurned the clergy and always worked to defame it as people with "regressive" minds.  The gulf is too wide to be bridged. Similarly, there exist great disparities among various parts of the country as far as development is concerned. The people of poor areas always resented their fellow citizens inhabiting the developed areas. One should bear in mind that diversity is a blessing only when there is a strong leadership at the helm of affairs protecting interests of disparate groups. Unfortunately,  the prospect of a strong leadership remained elusive in Pakistan.Thus the vision of an integrated and well-knitted nation remained a distant dream. India is also a country with unprecedented diversity.  But the good thing about India was that it had a strong and clever leadership to manage the diversity.

⦁Geography: a curse or a boon?:Geography of any country is pertinent in determining its fate. The strategic location of Pakistan is very important: the country is a gateway for Central Asia to the Arabian sea;  it borders with the emerging superpower: China; it has the oil-rich Middle East to its west; and  the emerging regional player India lies on its east and the country is not far away from Russia, which is also an important player in world politics. Owing to its geography, Pakistan has always been a key player for the US politics in the region. With belligerent India to its east and a hostile Afghanistan to its west, Pakistan became a security state. The security dynamics necessitated enhanced military role in Pakistan. Instead of spending 'limited' resources on people, successive rulers were compelled to channel scant capital to security-related realm in the country. Furthermore, Pakistan has been establishing its foreign relations based on security dynamics. That is partly the reason behind poor trade relations of Pakistan with other countries. The overemphasis on security of the state arrested the growth of other important sectors in the country. Therefore, one can say that the location of the country has become a curse for its people largely because of the flawed policies of the top brass. To make Pakistan a welfare state, the top leadership in the country has to shun the policy of viewing everything through the security prism. Economic considerations ought to prevail over the security mantra. Moreover, as a matter of fact, Pakistan can strengthen its security only after strengthening its economy. Strong economy is indispensable for the welfare of the people of Pakistan. The happier the people, the stronger the democracy.

⦁Lack of mass political parties and leadership:Another evil that has existed in Pakistan since its independence has been the existence of political parties revolving around certain personalities or families. Currently, the two dominant parties i.e. the PMLN and the PPP are family fiefdoms of Sharifs and Bhuttos respectively. Both the parties have been a dominating force for decades in the country. Common people are not considered competent enough to rise to the highest ranks. To become prime minister or chief minister, one has to have origins in these families. Similarly, there are many other political parties in the country, which are being run and controlled by one person or a group of rich people. Therefore, it is a rare occurrence in Pakistan that common men rise to the powerful ranks. As a matter of fact, democracy advocates empowerment of common people. Everybody is entitled to become prime minister or chief minister. Political parties based on mass of people are a chief component of a strong democracy. In United States, the elevations of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson and Barack Obama to the highest echelons of power offer glaring illustrations of how mass-based political parties provide opportunity to common people to rise to power and display their talent.

⦁Islam and politics:Islam has been a dominant force in the politics of Pakistan. Islam is a religion which provides a complete code of life. It offers complete guidance regarding social, economic, political and religious spheres of human beings. However, in Pakistan, it was used by the various sections of people for personal interests. Political leaders, more often than not, used to garner votes or other benefits. Some used it to consolidate their power. While others used it for financial gains. Whereas, it has repeatedly been used by certain sections to spread violence and anarchy. Another type of orthodox Muslims used it to oppress minorities and women in the country. Freedom of expression recurrently comes under attack in the name of Islam.  All in all, various sections of the society used Islam to undermine democracy in Pakistan.

⦁Poor Socio-economic conditions:Pakistan is a rich country with poor people. Despite enormous natural resources in the country, the people of Pakistan have remained impoverished and deprived of basic necessities of life. According to a recent report, 29% people of Pakistan fall below the International Poverty Line. Pakistan fared poorly in all social indicators as per multiple reports by reputed international organizations. This was largely because of the poor governance by successive governments. As a matter of fact, poor people are ones who don't or can't participate actively in politics. They don't have access to food, shelter, medical-care, education and sanitation services. It doesn't make any difference to them whether they are ruled by a dictator or a civilian. It is precisely the reason behind their tepid response to calls of civilian leaders in the wake of military coups. Another important aspect is that ignorant, poor and illiterate people are more vulnerable to exploitation by opportunists than educated and rich people. All in all, poor people of Pakistan are in chains and cannot make decisions about their lives.

⦁The monopoly of interest groups:Feudal lords and clans are entrenched in rural areas of Pakistan and have absolute control over the lives of millions of poor, uneducated, and alienated masses. They (Lords and clans) determine whom  common people will vote for in elections regardless of useless things like performance, integrity and sincerity of the representatives. Any attempt at liberating poor people is staunchly opposed by the interest groups.
⦁Other causes include: rampant corruption at every level of government, poor accountability system, nepotism and cronyism.

Recommendations

⦁ Supremacy of the constitution
⦁ Improvement in socio-economic conditions of people
⦁ Free and Fair elections
⦁ Independent Media
⦁ Accountability of public office-holders
⦁ Strong leadership
⦁ Equal distribution of natural resources among federating units
⦁ Meritocracy in appointments at various levels