Daily Times

As the outgoing parliament celebrated completion of its five-year tenure, many people ask what democracy has given to the people. It is indeed a pertinent question but wrongly phrased. The question should be what has the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)-led coalition delivered or failed to in the last five years. Questioning the efficacy of a democratic system implicitly means that we would have been better off with a military dictatorship, forgetting the mess such governments have left behind for elected governments to clear.

To get to the right answer, dispassionate analysis of the five-year economic, political and governance balance sheet is in order. In the run-up to the coming elections politicians, political scientists, economist and journalists will hopefully analyse objectively to educate the masses. It is particularly important to explain that democracy and the present quasi-feudal and capitalist system would evolve if its uninterrupted growth is allowed. Unfortunately, the establishment has never given a free hand to the political government to take crucial decisions. Fortunately, politicians who have matured after being bitten many times by the meddlesome establishment were determined not to let the democracy applecart be toppled this time. The remaining credit goes to nobody but to the tumultuous geo-political situation where the army’s hands are full and they need politicians to support their actions.

A point to be noted here is that any particular government should not be confused with democracy. Democracy is a system that provides for electing the government. If they do not deliver, they can be removed as prescribed in the constitution. The constitution is supposed to be the consensus bible guiding this system in any society. To get the right perspective, let’s take a pause and analyse the society we live in.

As stated in my earlier columns, it has to be understood that economically and socially Pakistani society is multi-structural and multi-ethno-linguistic. The structure of society has a direct bearing on the level of democracy or even dictatorship in any country. While most critics of democracy in Pakistan undermine this hard fact, there are many who argue that given the low literacy rate, tribal and quasi-feudal structure of society, democracy is not suitable for our country. Now this is an urban middle-class intellectual snobbery and an insult to the 60 percent rural population of Pakistan. The history of even partially fair elections has shown that people have given votes to parties and their local leaders who they felt would be useful for them.

Much of this elected government’s energy was consumed in trying to find the right equilibrium between the various institutions. But this scramble for more space in the power structure is likely to continue as it happens in other developed polities also. This tussle for more power between the normal institutions of state power, i.e. the executive, judiciary and parliament, did not let the system that is in its infancy stabilise. Unlike many other countries where democracy has evolved, in Pakistan the military has been a dominant power and has refused to accept the supremacy of any elected civilian government. This factor has played an obstructive role in the development of democracy and has created distortions.

Elected governments have inherited the dangerous policy set by its military rulers, which has always been concentrated on its geo-strategic position from a military perspective and India-phobia. This embroiled the country in regional disputes with devastating social, economic and political consequences. The people of Pakistan and the region could have benefited much more had its rulers exploited the geo-strategic position of the country for economic growth. The coalition government’s attempt to build relations with India was sabotaged by the agencies and their jihadi outfits. Mian Nawaz Sharif’s efforts were torpedoed by the launch of the Kargil operation. Asif Zardari’s efforts were checkmated by the Mumbai massacre by jihadis.

A global and historical perspective is important to assess the success and failure of democracy. In India, many governments changed in the 1990s because all coalitions fell apart. Nobody questioned the efficacy of democracy and the constitutional process was followed. Even the oldest Westminster democracy is going through these pangs. The UK is faced with the question of the separation of Scotland. They have offered to hold a referendum on this issue as the Canadians did on the Quebec issue. Nobody said British troops would be sent to protect national integrity and the military has not toppled the government. That is the civilised and democratic way of settling disputes and difference of opinion, in sharp contrast to what our establishment is doing in Balochistan. Left to politicians, this issue can be resolved amicably with the Baloch dissidents.

Politically, what has democracy delivered? It helped the bloodless ouster of a military general by politicians. A great leap forward was taken towards the transfer of power and resources from the centre to the provinces through the 18th Amendment and NFC Award, something which we could not do in 64 years. Arbitrary presidential powers to oust an elected government and dissolve the assemblies were taken away. Press freedom, which some people use to show their disappointment with democracy, is an integral part of the same democracy. The opposition, which is part of any democratic dispensation, played a positive role in parliament and outside. Parliament, whose basic function is to legislate, passed 134 laws and most of them with the consensus of the opposition. This is not a small feat.

One valid argument of the critics of democracy is how these constitutional changes and new formula of division of resources between centre and provinces is going to help the common man. Here teething pains and poor handling of the transfer of ministries and resources both by federal and provincial governments has to be criticised. But gradually these problems would be solved as it is in the interest of the provincial governments. This would help in bringing power closer to the people and development decisions would be made at the provincial level. It would be easier for the people to hold their leaders accountable at the provincial level instead of running to Islamabad for everything.

However, the biggest failure of all provincial governments is that the power and resources have not been devolved by them to local governments. This issue gets very little coverage in our media although it is more crucial for the people than the much-talked about corruption. Politicians who hold power at the federal and provincial level usurped the local government powers as this gives them more funds to pilfer from.

On the governance side it is correct that the government proved inefficient. The real issues of the people are terrorism, religious extremism and sectarian and ethnic killings, poor law and order, and to be provided better governance in all government institutions. These issues have not cropped up because of democracy; they have piled up because democracy was not allowed to function here. It is the democratic consensus that gave strength to the armed forces to fight terrorists. It is the consensus developed by all leading political parties that is challenging religious extremism and cutting across the sectarian divide. However, the responsibility for the failure to restore law and order in Karachi falls squarely on all the coalition partners.

Failure to control law and order and poor governance is not the failure of democracy. Many countries are faced with these problems but there the government is blamed for its poor management, instead of questioning whether the country should have democracy or not. The solution lies in democracy, which allows voters to push their elected representatives to perform. And if they fail to do that, voters are free not to elect them again. In contrast, in a dictatorship neither can you push the bureaucrats, nor can you dislodge them through the vote.

(To be continued)

The writer can be reached at ayazbabar@gmail.com