Many Pakistanis now realize that their “sovereign” democratic government is neither sovereign nor democratic and is in the pocket of unaccountable elite having financial interests abroad. Under the sitting so call democrats, the things are worsening all over Pakistan day by day. Politics has become the business of rich in Pakistan. The present parliamentary system suits the feudal political elite only, they hold reign of power through this system. Present form of democracy has allowed “thieves” to plunder the country. It has little to do with genuine democratic representation but rather more closely resembles a revolving fascist dictatorship beholden to the interests of a wealthy elite and big businesses. Fake democrats surely produce a fake democracy as is in Pakistan. Our ruling elite have not done any service to their country, democracy or the people of Pakistan. This is what our self-styled ‘liberals’, civil society and our media don’t understand.
Although Pakistan is said to be a democracy, its media are hardly free or able to play a genuine watchdog role. Our private media that lack the vision, skills and platforms to report effectively on the serious challenges faced by the nation and the country – corruption, poverty, poor governance, loss of public institutions, shutting industry, flying capital, worst ever law and order situation, degrading or non-existent infrastructure and so on…, to name but a few, is engaged only to protect their financer politicians and to hide their corruption in the name of protecting “democracy”, simultaneously weakening the national institutions on their behest. Let us give a big hand to our “free” media for achieving this sorry state. Let us thank them for learning the word democracy and before really knowing its essence, trying to do the nation a favor by making villains look like heroes and heroes, villains. I think, during the last five years almost whole system has been corrupted. The advocates of democracy need to understand that merely holding elections is not the solution.
Democracy ensures that people are governed no better than they deserve. Instead of empowering the people in real sense, our so called leaders have reduced democracy into a situation where a voter can auction his vote to the highest bidder against the spirit of the democracy, which truly allows people to replace one set of rulers by another of similar nature. Many voters in Pakistan do not exercise their right to choose properly. Their vote is based on factors such as caste, creed and color. As a result, they end up sending crooks and criminals to parliament. Empowerment requires the rule of law. People feel empowered only when they know that they have rights and that the institutions of government exist, first and foremost, to enforce them. Our leadership should make education its top priority, set a goal of raising literacy rate to the maximum in order to empower the people. What kind of democracy is this where the vast majority of people are destitute? Is right to vote the essence of democracy? No, it is not! To call Pakistan a democracy now is a joke. Go through the list of criminals occupying high places and the notion is not lost. Money, religion and caste get votes, not democracy. Until this is sorted out democracy in Pakistan is overplayed!
This is a bitter truth that our national political parties have lost their capability to run the government due to lack of democracy within and running the parties like dictators. A Parliament filled with feudal lords —this is no democracy. Monarchy of one family & dynasty of one party, the name is Pakistani democracy. While truly “free and fair” elections are important, many kinds of election fraud have been outlawed in electoral legislation in Pakistan. Result is that democracy or dictatorship now matter little to the economically marginalized masses of Pakistan. For them mere survival is now the most pressing issue at hand. The current government is not enjoying the popularity even which the Musharraf regime used to enjoy in its initial phase. Now masses are of the opinion that the military dictatorship era provided them with better living opportunities and they were at ease than the present civilian dictators. The political instability in Pakistan, though frequently attributed by the politicians and their paid media to the frequent military takeovers, but the military only come once politicians fail miserably. The people always welcome the change. Every time during the political crisis the parliament fails to deliver.
The ECP has not been able implementing the constitutional scheme. For instance, thousands of posts have been advertised by the PPP-led Federal Government just a few months prior to the elections; Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is hiring loyalists on important government posts that could influence election results; the diversion of Rs15 billion from major national projects to the prime minister’s discretionary fund; massive advertisements for the promotion of PPP using public money. The ECP has awakened only after millions of rupees have been spent on these highly politicized advertisements. Election Day rigging is massively practiced in the country by tampering, stuffing ballot boxes, dishonest counting and dishonest tabulation of results. Voters are also given money for voting for a particular candidate. And, of course, public resources are used to influence, affect or alter the formation of government after election. During the last five years except for sucking all the blood out of Pakistani’s veins and leaving it crippled, the PPP really did not accomplish anything. PPP can not call itself a democrat when their very leadership is nothing more than a family owned business empire, a throne shared between fathers and daughters and sons and now even husbands, no matter how ineligible and destructive they were and are as leaders. Our leaders toe the American line and behave like foreign agents. For coming election too, the vote is so expertly being stolen by the ruling PPP that electoral observers will never understand what really happened.
There is still time for our political leadership to remember that no system that has lost its sense of justice, and, therefore, its moral legitimacy, has survived for long. But they are beginning to run out of it. To restore the system’s legitimacy, opportunity will have to be provided to the middle and lower class, by improving education and creating the support structures that allow people to train for, obtain and keep good jobs. Perhaps a transparent election – an important proxy of democracy – would allow the people greater freedom to exercise their political rights. Strengthening democratic institutions like elections matters for empowering the people. Strengthening the social and economic status of the people really matters for democracy. We have to see a successful system governing Pakistan. Transparency, accountability, equality and assurance of fair elections are need of the hour — all mandatory for democratic change. Unless there are reforms to ensure a corruption-free democratic process, democracy in Pakistan will remain an unrealized dream!
