With all the gnawing and nibbling from within, what will be left to celebrate for Pakistanis in 2018 will be the completion of terms by two consecutive democratic regimes. Something strange is taking place in this country. People seem to be content with the continuation of civilian rule as a way forward rather than returning to what some political experts term as the ‘zero-sum game of military dictatorship’. There is also a growing realisation within the establishment to let democracy flourish – with certain caveats vis-à-vis key matters of national security.
The only people who do not seem to realise the significance of this popular political mood are our politicians who still vie for power even if it means destabilising the country. During the last five years, the political leadership has invariably been embroiled in a never-ending fight for power. Even those self-proclaimed claimants of a ‘new Pakistan’ are playing the old tactics of the 1990s in their bid to reach the top seat of power. In this power-philia the real losers are the citizens of Pakistan who want a stable and workable democracy to take roots in this country.
Democracy is not about the upper realm of power but about civic engagement, downward and horizontal accountability and – most of all – about people. Democracy is about freedom of expression, association, art, culture, creativity and aggregation of voices from below. It is about the sovereignty of the people; ultimately, democracy is a process of liberation of body and mind from the domain of enslavement – be it religious, cultural or economic.
Unfortunately, our democracy is bereft of people-centric political ideals and imagination. It is more about family dynasties, expediencies, rent-seeking, corruption and accumulation of power. It is not dictatorship per se that has haunted our polity; it has rather been incompetence, self-centredness, greed, fear and our trajectory of dependence on international capitalism.
In the 1980s, Pakistan became the most favourite nation of Western powers even though it was the most brutal period for Pakistani citizens that resulted in the suppression of the people’s voice. Western powers poured in billions of rupees each year and helped consolidate and sustain a dictatorial regime for 12 years at the cost of democracy. Freedom of expression, accountability, public participation, good governance, civic engagement, gender equity and all those lofty political ideals the West claims to uphold were trampled with the unconditional support extended to dictators by global capitalism.
In 1999, Pakistan saw another military coup which was propelled with support from Western powers at the cost of civil liberties. Consistent struggle by the people of Pakistan forced Musharraf to exit, but the scars of such regimes have not fully gone yet. Our myopic political leadership has not been able to offer a viable alternative to dictatorship – despite facing consistent political lynching in the past. The citizens of the country have never supported dictatorial regimes but the political leadership has disappointed the people and there is dwindling faith in democracy too. Having said that, the people of Pakistan have always stood by newly emerged political leaders – from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Imran Khan – with the hope to see political transformation in favour of common citizens.
Nonetheless, it would be unfair to draw an analogy between the political strategies of ZA Bhutto and Imran Khan as both deployed diametrically opposed approaches to mobilise public support. Bhutto was an avid reader of the poplar mood and a strong political mobiliser while Imran Khan has essentially remained a mercurial character with an elitist political outlook.
In the 1990s, the two dominant political parties – the PPP and the PML – played a dirty game to destabilise each other in their quest for power. They were the biggest obstacles in the democratisation of Pakistan, with a visible disdain towards the people they claimed to serve. Their political wrangling, lack of statesmanship, anti-people economic policies and unabated corruption created viable conditions for dictatorships to flourish. These political leaders had to get the comeuppance for their lack of political will, vision and intent to create an inclusive democratic rule. But they do not seem to have learnt any lessons and we see the advent of another era of political impasse in their quest for power.
The PPP and the PML-N are now joined by the PTI whose leadership seems to know no bounds to gain power. The PTI’s political leadership has not been able to provide an alternative political strategy that goes beyond an anti-Nawaz rant. The people of Pakistan want to see a clear roadmap and a long-term strategy of economic and political stability, employment and improved access to social services. Like its political rivals, the PTI is embroiled in the dilemma of tending to an over-ambitious Imran Khan and the expectation of its voters to concentrate on delivering what it promised for Naya Pakistan. In the PTI, however, all is old – except for Imran Khan himself, whose insistence on a new Pakistan is equal to his becoming the prime minster.
The PTI has failed to evolve an alternate political leadership for a long-term political change in Pakistan. It has become a hotchpotch of electable, feudal and political opportunists who would love the continuation of old Pakistan. They are the beneficiaries of the political status quo – quite contrary to the claims of ‘Naya Pakistan’, which does not seem to take roots even in the province where the PTI is in power.
In its topsy-turvy political history of democracy, the people of Pakistan have seen the dismemberment of one half of the country and the declaration of some citizens as non-Muslims. We are doomed to fail as democracy when its caretakers, the political leaders, resort to religious shenanigans to gain political mileage.
Jinnah’s political ideals of a secular, democratic and modern Pakistan could never be translated into reality. The contradiction between secular political ideals and an ideological religious state will continue to polarise Pakistan. The political conundrum of ideological legitimacy amidst the rise of ethnic and secular identities will never be resolved without an equally powerful counter-narrative of nationhood. Our political parties must come up with an alternative political discourse to cement the political fissures appearing on the horizon of a debilitating state.
It would be a travesty of popular will if we condoned the democratic undercurrents that have been inherent to politics in Pakistan and which make it a resilient nation. It would be too early to predict whether the country will enter its third phase of democratic transition, but it is obvious from the popular mood that Pakistan may not want another era of dictatorial rule.
The resilience of people to fight for their political rights has multiplied in the age of a free flow of information and technology. It is high time all stakeholders realised that Pakistan will never grow as a nation if we do not learn to rise above parochial power games and invest our energies to create a true democratic Pakistan.
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Islamabad.
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