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Thursday March 28, 2024

Revolutions are dangerous

PPP Media Cell HeadFormer President and Co-Chairman of PPP Asif Ali Zardari has discovered the ultimate conclusion, rightly so, that democracy can only survive and thrive in this country in a culture of political reconciliation and tolerance. He has been trying endlessly to transform this vision of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto

By Akram Shaheedi
May 26, 2015
PPP Media Cell Head
Former President and Co-Chairman of PPP Asif Ali Zardari has discovered the ultimate conclusion, rightly so, that democracy can only survive and thrive in this country in a culture of political reconciliation and tolerance. He has been trying endlessly to transform this vision of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto into reality since her martyrdom. He has emerged as the sagacious proponent of the policy of reconciliation to build the bridges among the political forces of the country for good.
He has been running from pillar to post to forge unity among the political forces of all spectrums to stem the perils to the political system.
There is a consensus among the political parties to lead the country under the democratic dispensation. The consensus needs to be further augmented with the tangible steps. The joint session of Parliament during the sit-in politics last year was a rare sight in the history of politics of this country when all the political parliamentary parties, except one, came to the rescue of democracy and passed a unanimous resolution against those who wanted to topple the elected government through unconstitutional means. The resolution has on its back the entire political weight of the Parliament with the resolve to save the constitution and democracy at all costs. The Parliament and the system survived with the unequivocal determination to defend it while keeping in mind that failure is not an option.
In his recent interview on Geo TV, Asif Ali Zardari, made it clear that he would not allow the anti-democratic forces to hurt democracy and its continuity. He made this declaration notwithstanding his reservations about the impartiality and fairness of the 2013 elections. He took a strategic decision then of opting for the political system, and swallowed the bitter pill of the alleged manipulated mandate. It was a rare thinking of him as party politics had been the singular driving force, not the national politics, of our political leaders who generally had the audacity to cross all limits to enter in the corridors of power. The only exception had been the PPP because it had always come to power through vote while track record of other ruling parties was imbedded with tactics of playing on the both sides of the street, a purely Machiavellian approach. He took out the wind out of the sails of those who were forcing the holding of mid-term elections in the country when he said that he wanted free, fair and impartial elections in the country in 2018 under the electoral reforms being formulated by the Parliamentary Committee of the Parliament. His support matters. It means he has put cold water on the hopes of those who have been wasting their energies to contemplate the holding of elections this year or early next year. His sole contention in his projection is the completion of constitutional tenure by this democratic government, paving the way for the successive democratic government to replicate it and so on and so forth. It does not matter so much to him whether the government was led by PPP or by political opponents of the PPP. This is national politics in real sense of the word and should be appreciated as such. His total commitment for democracy and its continuity is the mission worthy of pursuing unto accomplishment. He has been working very hard for the cause of democracy considering it as the only way forward to address the national maladies. Without it, the future of the country and indeed the bright future of the people of Pakistan will remain in jeopardy. Democracy— and stronger, prosperous and peaceful Pakistan— are intertwined.
Democracy is the political basis of Pakistan and the vision of the Founder of the Nation made it abundantly clear when he said, ‘you may belong to any religion, caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of state. In due course of time, Hindus cease to be Hindus and Muslims cease to be Muslim, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in political sense as citizen of the state.’ Pakistan People’s Party and its leadership is committed to this vision of the Quaid because being a liberal, progressive and democratic Party its ideological basis stands for the struggle for the evolution of a pluralistic and tolerant society where all are equal regardless of colour, creed, gender or ethnicity. The party had been, has been, and will continue to strive for establishing democracy in the country that is truly of the people, for the people and by the people. Its struggle for the empowerment of the down trodden has no parallel as it carried the flag of the people’s rights under the most tyrannical and ferocious dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq who had bequeathed all evils including extremism and terrorism. PPP had been struggling since the post-Zia era to break free the nation from the reminiscent of the dictators and dictatorships. For that, the PPP has been in quest of seeking co-operation of other political parties to make them stakeholders in the system and jointly follow this daunting task of national politics to the total success. The eagerness of other forces, barring tiny minority, in this count is very reassuring for the bright prospects of the political system and the nation.
Policy of political reconciliation is the penchant for all our national woes and history of government and politics in Pakistan amply establishes the veracity of this paradigm. The democratic elected governments’ witch hunting against the opposition parties in the past destroyed the politics in the country and the men on the horse back pushed them out of the political arena calling them as political hooligans not fit for the job of leading the nation. The interventions branding revolutions sapped the process of evolution. Such ‘revolutions’ were the beginning of the degeneration of the nation as a whole as the process of nation building came to a grinding halt. They took the responsibility upon themselves excluding the people of the country and their representatives from the mainstream politics. The so called revolutions shook the foundations of Pakistan followed by the political and economic mess of appalling proportion. “Revolutions are dangerous” commented Asif Ali Zardari recently. In the same breath he said that evolution was both desirable and sustainable due to its wider ownership. Revolution is like gamble that hardly pays. Evolution means hard earned gains. Francis Bacon’s piece of advice to the rulers contains grains of wisdom when he wrote, ‘a man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes a wrong one.’
One wonders as how much time it will take of successive democratic governments to cleanse the royal mess because its longevity will continue to haunt and hold back the national development.
muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com