As I write these lines, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa, with two of his fellow judges, is busy conducting a hearing of constitutional significance. Moments ago, the Honorable Chief Justice remarked, “I am surprised that such orders are being passed. The judiciary cannot make decisions at its own discretion. Should we take action for contempt of court?”
Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Faez Isa made these remarks under extraordinary circumstances as he heard a petition from the Election Commission of Pakistan on Friday evening after sunset. The stance taken was that Justice Baqir Ali Najfi of the Lahore High Court had halted the nationwide electoral process on the request of a lawyer affiliated with the PTI and that the Election Commission could not conduct general elections on February 8, 2024.
Following an emergency hearing, the three-member bench headed by the Chief Justice himself, suspended the Lahore High Court’s decision and declared the petition filed in the Lahore High Court inadmissible. Election Commission was ordered to release the election schedule on immediate basis.
Following the emergency hearing by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the subsequent orders, there is little doubt that general elections in Pakistan will indeed take place on February 8.
Following the emergency hearing by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the subsequent orders, there is little doubt that general elections in Pakistan will indeed take place on February 8. It would be reasonable to expect all national political parties in Pakistan to express satisfaction with this decision.
Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, with his stern remarks and a passionate demeanor, seemed to convey that the holding of General Elections on February 8 was extremely crucial. He emphasized that the outcome of these elections could be expected to bring about a significant change in the destiny of the country and alleviate the economic losses incurred during the recent years.
This development at the highest court of the country may seem like a glimmer of hope to the politically-young, but for those who lived through what is now history, it is just another spin on the merry-go-round that the country’s political legacy has been. One may ask, are we the only country in the world that holds elections periodically? If not, do we need the highest court’s intervention to make sure that elections are indeed held? Do we have to have, every few years, interim terms dedicated to political accountability? Do other countries jail their Prime Ministers as frequently as we do? If no other country is doing all this yet we are, has that been of any good to our country? If your answer to all these questions is in negative, you should not expect anything good to come out in the near future, however pessimistic it may sound.
No disease, however benign, goes away without the right diagnosis. The two most major diseases that ail this frail country of ours are our political Alzheimer’s and the messiah syndrome. Without these, why would one forget that less than a decade ago, we de-seated, disqualified and jailed the then Prime Minister? And that the fate of the ones before him were not so different. The fact that this cycle of de-seating, disqualifying and jailing the Prime Ministers has always failed to dent their political stature puts the whole process into question. Why have these cycles then, especially when no one else does and they work just fine, in-fact, they fare much better than us.
Democracies are designed to work on the same principle that centrifuges do. Keep spinning and the politically-light are automatically thrown out by the centrifugal force. What would happen to the democratic centrifuge that is stopped every few seconds and the heavy weights at the center are replaced by the lightest? For answers, read the history of Pakistan’s political centrifuge.
The first political heavy weight of Pakistan; Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was taken out by force in 1977 under dubious allegations of all sorts including a murder charge that eventually took him to an early grave. Did that make him weaker? Dead, yes. Weaker, definitely No. Even today, from his grave, he commands the biggest and the only political legacy of Pakistan. His daughter, Benazir Bhutto carried forward his legacy by not just leading his party and becoming the Prime Minister but by also getting murdered. To counter the Bhutto legacy, a light weight; Nawaz Sharif, was introduced in the system. The battle between Bhutto and Sharif continued throughout the 1990s and the entire apparatus of the state was stopped again and again to take out the one in power, as soon as they started gaining traction with the public. Benazir was murdered in 2007. Nawaz had become a heavy weight by then. The system needed a new light weight and therefore Imran Khan was introduced to keep Nawaz in check. As expected, Imran replaced Nawaz in 2018 and was himself ousted in 2022. Now Nawaz is all geared up for a new term.
On the other hand, the list of messiahs piles on. We had messiahs who ousted Bhutto and brought in Nawaz, then the ones who ousted Nawaz and gave Imran his overdue chance. The country’s economy, however, refuses to grow despite all these interventions made with the sole purpose of catalyzing its growth.
Let’s come out of the Messiah Syndrome. There is no messiah, no one is there to rescue us. No heroes, no villains, just agendas. Let’s recover from our Alzheimer’s and remember that we have traveled these roads in the past. The green pastures and fresh water ponds we see now are all mirages and they have fooled us enough. Enough for us to know that these roads don’t take us anywhere. No accountability will yield anything. No election will be fruitful. Not unless we stop interfering in the electoral process. The only solution for bad democracy is more democracy and no centrifuge is greater than the centrifuge of democracy, let it work.
The writer is a veteran journalist based in Islamabad. He writes on social, political, economic, defence and strategic developments across the South Asian region. He can be reached through on [email protected]