A number of people are pessimistic about the future of democracy in Pakistan. There is an incessant campaign against the political leaders and democratic government by some judges of the superior judiciary and the intelligence agencies. The Jamaat-I-Islami and Imran Khan engage in massive propaganda against the PMLN and the PPP leadership in a bid to project themselves as the third option. The PPP and the PMLN periodically engage in mud-slinging against each other.
Democracy appears to be in serious trouble when we apply the ideal criterion to judge the performance of the current democratic experiment. Since it is far short of the ideal situation we tend to think that there is no democracy. We expect that one day genuine democracy will suddenly come into existence. If we follow this approach we will always have been disappointment because the ideal system of government will never be established.
Democracy should be seen as a process. You move from less democracy to more democracy and this process needs mid-course corrections all the time. Democracy is achieved through a graduated process when the leadership and the people at large are equally keen to move in the direction of more democracy. It requires commitment to the ideals of democracy and equal citizens. The society as a whole has to work towards achieving democracy rather than expecting the leaders to deliver democracy on their own initiative. Democracy requires self-restraint and patience on the part of citizenry.
Democracy does not simply mean the holding of the elections, although elections are one of the requirements of democracy. Other requirements of democracy are constitutionalism, the rule of law, civil and political rights, accountability of the rulers and independent judiciary. All the state institutions have to perform their role within the frame of the constitution and law rather than one institution trying to dominate the other.
Democracy recognizes the primacy of the elected institutions and leadership. This primacy is pre-requisite for parliamentary democracy. It means that the elected legislature and executive have a clear edge over other institutions. However, all institutions must stay within their constitutional limits.
Independent judiciary is needed for democracy but it is not the only condition for democracy. It cannot and should not expand its domain of authority by undermining other institutions of the state.
When we talk of interaction among the institutions of the state it implies interaction among the people holding the key positions in these institutions. Institutions do not mean bricks, walls, furniture and files. When someone interacts with institutions or institutions deal with each other, the individuals occupying the key positions matter. Their disposition and agenda as well as how these change over time influence institutional disposition and agenda. The survival and collapse of institutions depend on personal, group, corporate and professional interests of the key individuals in these institutions. It is not possible to delink individuals from institutions and if the key position holders in an institution perceive themselves under siege from other institutions or power-players the disposition of that institution is affected.
The PPP-led federal government, especially President Asif Ali Zardari, faces a siege like situation due to the subtle behind-the-scene moves by the military top brass, the political fall-out of the Supreme Court judgment on the NRO, and the off-again, on-again pressure by the PMLN that often results in polemical verbal exchanges between the leaders of the PMLN and the PPP.
One can apportion some blame of the PPP’s current predicament to its poor governance, inability to address the socio-economic problems of the common people, the attempts to run the coalition government as a single-party government and the failure to maintain working relations with the PMLN. These factors increased problems for the government. However, Zardari’s political future was not jeopardized until he developed policy differences with the military top brass and alienated the superior judiciary by unnecessarily delaying the restoration of the chief justice and some of the judges. A new controversy developed when Zardari attempted to by-pass the recommendation of the Chief Justice for the appointment of the judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts of the Punjab and Sindh.
The Supreme Court judgment on the NRO was a major embarrassment for the federal government. It left enough space for the opposition to continue targeting the federal government, especially Zardari. While ignoring the constitutional immunity from criminal proceedings to the president the judgment has asked for revival of the cases against the president in Switzerland.
Nawaz Sharif has demanded on more than one occasion that the national wealth hidden in Swiss bank account should be returned to Pakistani state. This is a direct attack on Zardari and this has adversely affected the relations between the PPP and the PMLN, although Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has attempted to defuse the tension.
The PMLN and the PPP have to recognize that a free-for-all struggle against each other will undermine democracy. They need to work out their differences within the democratic framework. Any attempt to seek the removal of Zardari or the government through the superior judiciary or the military will be counterproductive to the goal of sustaining democracy.
The success and failure of democracy depends on how the political forces interact with each other. If they engage in bitter fight against each other, the initiative can shift to non-elected state institutions.
Author: Dr Hassan Askari
