Daily Times

The good mangoes are finally done with, the weather has turned cooler, the bite of the heat is gone and the monsoons have brought another spate of disastrous floods. Soon enough a horde of goats, sheep and other such will be bought and fattened to prepare them for the festival of the slaughter. We in Lahore also saw load shedding return with a vengeance. Things are finally settling back to where they should be in September.

It seems that even the devastating floods have not diverted the attention of the talking heads on television and op-ed writers in our newspapers from the impending and imminent danger to democracy. Interestingly, in Pakistan, democracy is always under threat even when there is no democracy of a recognisable sort. I was away from Pakistan for many years but I have lived through at least two rather peculiar democratic dispensations in Pakistan. The first one was of course the basic democracy of Ayub Khan in the 1960s and then Musharraf’s democracy in the first decade of this century.

The last six years are now mentioned as a period of “real” democracy in Pakistan and, therefore, worth defending. However, having lived under the PML-N government in Punjab, I have serious doubts about this. Frankly, the PML-N’s government in Punjab felt no different from the one that existed during the Ayub Khan era and, at least to me, it feels a lot less democratic than the one that existed during the Musharraf years. As far as the PML-N government at the Centre is concerned, I had great hopes for it. After all, it would be difficult not to do better than the Zardari-led PPP government it replaced. So far, the PML-N government in Islamabad has proved me utterly wrong.

Many decades ago, it was fashionable to describe Pakistani leadership as either “confessional” or “charismatic”. The former included, at least in the Pakistani context, the likes of Ziaul Haq, the father of ‘Islamisation’, and his political progeny that arose from the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), the most prominent member being Mian Nawaz Sharif, our present Prime Minister (PM). The Bhuttos, both father and daughter, fell into the charismatic group. Zardari essentially became president riding the pro-PPP tide following Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s martyrdom. Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) is another party that depends entirely on its charismatic leader for public support just as the MQM depends on Altaf Hussain’s leadership for its existence.

That brings me to the rather sad part of democracy in Pakistan. With the exception of the Jamaat-e-Islami, virtually all other parties with any parliamentary presence are family affairs. As long as a single family or individual dominates a political party, that party cannot be called democratic under any definition of democracy. So who are the representatives of democracy that everybody is trying so hard to protect?

Here I must admit that I never felt the marches into Islamabad led by Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan were either going to bring about a revolution or freedom (azaadi). However, I did believe that these two movements would bring into focus the rather dubious nature of what we call democracy in Pakistan. And they have done that successfully. I suppose it is time for them to call it a day, let their supporters go home and prepare for the soon to happen festival of the slaughter unless of course their supporters plan to perform sacrifices of appropriate animals in the open areas of Islamabad. Nah!

It is entirely appropriate to talk a little bit about the rather vocal supporters of democracy. These can be divided into three rather diffused groups. First are the supporters of the status quo. This includes the rulers that enrich themselves shamelessly and all the crony capitalists that feed voraciously at the trough of governmental largesse. The second group is of religious organisations that need government support to continue their nefarious activities. The third group is made up of what were once called members of the left and who now prefer to call themselves progressives. This last group supports the PML-N, a rightist Islamist party, for reasons that are entirely obscure to me.

It seems that support for democracy at this time is really a demonstration of fealty to the Sharifs. The unsaid message being that if we support you, will you support us and give us a chance to enrich ourselves under your dispensation? Perhaps I am being a bit too harsh but other than that I see no reason why ‘progressives’ would like to support the person that once tried to bring about the 10th amendment to the constitution of Pakistan. It is indeed sad that the organisation once called the Anjuman-e-Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASS) and the ‘progressives’ are on the same side.

Finally, everybody is extremely consumed by the possibility of an army takeover. First, I must insist that whatever else the generals might be, they are not stupid enough to take over Pakistan at this time or in the near future. Second, having lived in Pakistan and especially Punjab during the Ayub Khan and Musharraf eras, and now the PML-N government for the last six years, I must admit that those times were no more autocratic and non-democratic than the present PML-N government. Third, the generals and their cronies are no worse than what we have today. Of course, none of them will do anything to make the lives of ordinary Pakistanis any better.

And that brings me back to where I started, mangoes. As long as there are good mangoes to be consumed and some decent brain masala and mutton karahi to be had occasionally, and, more importantly, if my bootlegger can deliver adequate amounts of decent libations to my home, I do not really care who runs the country. Am I being selfish? Indeed I am.

The writer has practiced and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at smhmbbs70@yahoo.com