Daily Times

The world today has 195 countries of which 193 are member states of the United Nations. States of the Holy See and Palestine have observer-status at the UN. Of these 193 nations, 123 are democratic that have one similarity: people vote to elect their governments.

This constitutes 63.73 percent of the modern world. According to the World Economic Forum, of the top five most democratic nations, four are Nordic: Norway, Iceland, Sweden, and Denmark. New Zealand is “sandwiched” between Sweden and Denmark at fourth position.

Norway became a democracy in 1814. The year is also known as the “Year of Miracles” in local folklore. Its parliament is called Storging. The Icelandic parliament, known as Althingi, was established in the year 930 and is one of the oldest democracies of the world.

The Swedish Parliament, Riksdag, was established by King Gustav Vasa in 1544, and Sweden has been a democracy ever since. New Zealand started its democratic journey in 1835 with a Declaration of Independence, and the First Parliament met in 1854 in Aukland. Although the idea of democracy in Denmark is old, its Parliament, Folketing, was established in 1849.

Many Pakistanis might not have
voted for the incumbent Prime Minister and the ruling party, but we must understand that the decision to oust him lies with the people

According to the World Bank in 2016: Norway’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)is $370.60 billion and its population is 5.2 million. Iceland’s GDP is $20.05 billion with a population of 334,252; less than the population of Jhang city, in Punjab, Pakistan.

The GDP of Sweden is $511 billion and its population is 10 million. New Zealand’s GDP is $185 billion and has a population of 4.6 million. Whereas, the Danish GDP is $306.1 billion and its population size is 5.7 million people.

Thus, a combined population of 25.83 million people has an aggregate GDP of $1,392.75 billion, whereas Pakistan’s 200 million people have a GDP of $283.7 billion. The total population size of these five nations makes up 12.91 percent of Pakistan’s population, and yet the combined economy of these five countries is nearly six times larger than Pakistan’s.

Continued democracies have a direct connection with the economic prosperity. According to Business Insider, 19 of the 25 richest nations in the world are democracies.

Economic prosperity also has a direct correlation with a social order that is based on the rule of law. Of the 25 safest nations, 23 are democracies. And finally, the rule of law has a direct connection with the continuation of democracy.

Since 1971, Pakistan’s political and democratic journey has been hamstrung by direct or indirect interventions by military leaders. Pakistan finally became a republic in April 1973. That is two years since 1971. There was a democratic phase for four years, before General Ziaul Haq established his democracy which dominated Pakistan for 11 years.

With him gone in 1988, Pakistan saw four political governments of which none reached even the midterm of its allotted five years. The power-troika was at work at all times. Then in 1999, an ‘enlightened moderate’ General Pervez Musharraf landed in Islamabad, ate away nine years of Pakistan’s political progress, and conveniently absconded to UAE where he joyfully dances away his evenings. He gifted Pakistan with the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that brought the Pakistan People’s Party into power in 2008, for five years.

Put all these years together and of the 46 years since the birth of present Pakistan in 1971, 38 years have been eaten away by the discontinuation or severe manipulation of democracy in Pakistan.

No matter how terrible or incompetent one might think the present political setup is, no one has the right to elbow a Prime Minister, the Parliament or a government that has been elected by 14,874,104 voters.

No one has any right to topple the strong opposition parties — the PPP and the PTI which were jointly voted by 14,591,172 Pakistanis. No one has any right to insult the 44,859,313 i.e. 55 percent of the registered Pakistani voters in 2013 General Elections who travelled, queued, and voted with hopes of a better Pakistan via democratic continuity.

Many Pakistanis not have voted for the incumbent Prime Minister and the ruling party, but we must understand that the decision to oust him lies with the people and their power to vote. The recent machinations are not new to Pakistan, and each time such processes have happened, Pakistan and Pakistanis have suffered.

Ask yourself: What is the gain of reinventing the political wheel that has been countlessly (re)invented by the troika of bureaucracies in the past? Firmly believe that if Pakistan has a future, democratic continuity will take us there. A system of politics or governance that is based on machinations eventually delivers terrorism and mayhem. Have we not we witnessed enough of that already? We must continue to trust in democracy.

The writer is a social entrepreneur and a student of Pakistan’s social and political challenges. Twitter: @mkw72

Published in Daily Times, July 24^th 2017.