The quality of democracy in Pakistan is on decline, year after year. Though the country is in its third democratic regime since 2008, its democracy is still fragile and vulnerable to traditional power centres. Historically speaking, roots of democracy have been planted in a controlled environment rather than being provided an enabling environment for its organic growth. The result is very obvious: society is divided on religious, sectarian cultural, ethnic and linguistic lines instead of invoking constitutional rights on democratic grounds. Undemocratic governance structures deepen the gulf between the state and society. The given situation is liable to bring a common man to a point where he suffers a trust deficit of cosmic proportions with elected representatives and their policy level decisions. It is a bitter reality that Pakistan has embarked on a democratic path on a sporadic basis. Since its independence, more than three out of its seven decades, military has rules. That left limited space for the primary departments of the state to capacitate them to the level where they could emerge as strong and independent institutions. Even different elected governments have been cut to size. Things are turning from bad to worse. According to the Democratic Index 2018, Pakistan is ranked at 112, while its neighbouring countries are at India 41, Bangladesh 88, Bhutan 94 and Nepal 97. Bangladesh, apparently a nascent democracy as compared to Pakistan, is far ahead of us. Bangladesh, which was once a part of us, offers us lessons to improve our democratic structures and systems. The declining graph of democracy may be witnessed from grassroots level to parliament. A man in the street is not conscious enough about his political rights, and is thus isolated from the political process, forcing him to suffer passively rather than act assertively. For him democracy is just about casting a vote without an informed choice. This mindset, prevalent in society, kills the very essence of democracy. We, unfortunately, are still not able to take the basic steps towards democracy. One of them is registration of voters. In the 2018 elections, tens of thousands of women were found unregistered as voters for not having a CNIC. That disenfranchised a big chunk of voters from their basic right to cast vote, resulting in damaging the creditability of elections. But in our country this trend is taken as the norm. To address this situation, political education must be part of the curricula at the primary level, highlighting the role of an active citizen. Citizens must be made aware that ballot is just the entry point in democracy, and the real thing is to make public officeholders accountable for their performance on a regular basis. In the same way, parliamentarians must be conscious about their fundamental role, which is to propose legislation to protect and promote the rights and well-being of citizens on social, political and economic fronts. But, on the contrary, the top priority of our parliamentarians is to get development funds for their constituencies, which amounts to encroaching on the mandate of local government representatives. Ironically, dictators rather than democratic regimes have largely introduced the local government system. A parliamentarian, driven by an urge to have control over development funds, is least concerned about the legislative process, which in turn, deteriorates the quality of the business of parliament. Though Imran Khan, at the time of opposition, was highly critical of allocating of development funds, but after entering power he had to surrender to the pressure of traditional politics. Sooner or later, we will have to end this practice of funds through parliamentarians if we want to strengthen our parliament in democratic terms. Media in Pakistan is overstretching its limits. It is always seen as a key player in destabilising elected governments and paving the way for a new power setup The scope of political debate in parliament and on electronic media has been much narrowed, and is also steadily going downhill in terms of quality parameters. The level of political debate is restricted to blame-shifting, sloganeering, personal attacks on political rivals to score points, and use of intemperate language, rather than come up with policy level proposals in the best interest of democracy. The decorum of parliament demands that argument must be built in the idiom of democracy. Media is another area where there is an utter lack of ethical and professional spirit. Now the corporate sector largely dominates the mass media to advance its own interests in which hot and spicy news are sold like a commodity. Only those topics are touched upon that have the potential of enhancing ratings in competing channels. Topics of human rights, local government system, climate change, water management and educational and health facilities, to name just a few, are nowhere to be seen in the mainstream media. Media in Pakistan is overstretching its limits. It is always seen as a key player in destabilisingelected governments and paving the way for a new power setup. In the interest of the nation, media must go back to its basic role, which is to act as a watchdog for implementation of manifestos of political parties and creating and shaping of public opinion, transparency and accountability. Most importantly, opposition parties must also be provided with sufficient space to present their point of view. After all, divergence of opinion is the beauty of democracy. A gag on media should be the last thing a democratic set-up should go for. For a truly democratic culture there is need of political activities at grassroots level to build a sense of participation among people. The mainstream political parties must organise themselves, from village to national level, with holding intra-party elections on a timely basis. A local government system should be implemented. These basic steps will bring about a positive difference to a great extent. The writer is a development practitioner working with the South Asia Partnership-Pakistan