In October 2012 a bakery employee in Lahore was thrashed by Elite Force personnel. The victim alleged in his FIR that he was beaten on orders of the son in law of the then Chief Minister Punjab because he refused service to the CM’s daughter or made her wait. In January, 2013 the accused were acquitted when the victim retracted his statement and said he did not want to pursue the case anymore.
Court records and police diaries are replete with retractions and withdrawals of statements and FIRs by the poor and weak complainants in favor of the rich and powerful accused.
In June 2014 armed police personnel opened fire on a crowd in model town killing fourteen people including two women. Till date, justice remains out of sight for the actual victims while demands for justice keep resurfacing whenever politically convenient for other ‘beneficiaries’.
In 2015 a bright young career officer Muhammad Ali Nekokara was dismissed from service over alleged charges of inefficiency and misconduct. His ‘inefficiency’ was that he opined against the use of force to stop unarmed civilian protestors in Islamabad. An officer of unquestionable integrity, having a remarkable record and impeccable credentials; Nekokara remained dismissed from service for three years while several incompetent, dishonest officers continued their service and were rewarded for their unflinching loyalty, not to the state but to those who ruled. Many were given out of turn promotions which they held until the highest court of the country had to tell the government that such promotions were illegal.
During the past thirty years all governments allocated development funds to the members of Parliament and provincial assemblies; a practice not provided for in law or the constitution.
Since 1988 all major political parties including the Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, Pakistan Muslim League Quaid e Azam and now Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf, have indulged in encouraging floor crossing where members elected on one party’s ticket are encouraged to join another party which happens to be in government.
In most of the democratically elected governments of the past three decades local governments remained either absent or superficial; in complete contrast to the dictates of Article 140 of the Constitution.
The list is long. The point here is that all the above quoted incidents and actions, including many others, were either illegal or extralegal manipulations of the system. System here is the confines within which a state has to operate; drawn by the Constitution, the laws, principles of justice and democratic norms. Such actions did not go outside of the system per se, instead while remaining within it they consistently battered, hammered and dented the system into a completely unrecognizable form. Fundamental rights remain part of the constitution; however, the state’s guarantee of their protection is practically absent. Access to justice continues to evade more and more masses that do not hold power, wealth or clout.
Using this battering and corruption as a justification there were periodic interventions where the military took over; absolutely by Zia, partially by Musharraf and, as alleged by critics today, by proxy this time. The one thing common among all the interventions is that by virtue of brute force those who take over have the freedom to go outside of the system, and they do almost every time; no boundaries, no confines. The rotted system is left to heal its self while the players move to a different landscape. The dying planet is put on ventilator and the game is shifted to space. The powerful become the weak, oppressors become the oppressed, tyrants become revolutionaries and the fight begins for bringing the pieces back to the chess board where the rules are, where King is the King and Queen is the Queen and there are no other pieces that hold power over them.
The old debate is rekindled; is a bad democracy actually better than a good dictatorship? Can democracy self-sustain and self-heal if given time? Are unaware, uneducated voters able to vote wisely? Can there be actual accountability when the powerful ruling class controls all? Is a distorted, battered, deformed system better than no system at all?
The masses don’t care about these debates. They don’t care about the system being parliamentary or presidential. They don’t care if there is a system at all. Why? Because our people have not been allowed to go beyond what’s necessary; food, clothing, shelter, education, health and access to justice. There have never been any real or substantial measures for provision of these necessities to the masses, neither by the democrats nor by dictators. Democracy is when power resides with the people, not when elections are rigged, when votes are bought or when the public gets only fifteen minutes of attention in the elections and is then forgotten for five years. There is no democracy when the demos can’t have their grievances redressed.
There are two measures that can put our country on the path to progress and mend the system which desperately needs mending not escaping from.
One is strengthening the judiciary by way of reforms that include appointments strictly on merit, stern and expeditious accountability, freedom from mafias including the mafias in lawyer’s community and media, freedom to adjudge and independence from all interference. Only when a country’s judiciary is free and qualified to decide without fear or favor can wrongs be righted; and only when wrongs are righted do wrongs begin to vanish, not flourish.
Second is meaningful and substantial electoral reforms that guarantee free, fair and transparent elections. The only way to give people power is to give them a free and fair election. Let them hold their politicians accountable. When their right to that accountability is robbed by the powerful politicians or military dictators, they are robbed of their existence.
If you need to go out of the system to do that, fine. But when everything but the meaningful and needful is done, there is no use. After a few years the ventilator comes off and the system begins to strive for its life yet again. Weak and feeble, it cannot defend itself against more hammering. There is a limit to the dents it can take and to how many times a ventilator can be used.
The writer is a practicing lawyer with a Masters Degree from University of Warwick, an ex-Member Provincial Assembly of the Punjab