The reasons why democracies are favoured as a form of government by trillions of people around the world are that they are believed to offer dignity to people living under them. But this is not always true. It is certainly not true in Pakistan, where we see one incident after another of the lack of dignity in which people live and die.
The lack of dignity comes in all possible forms, in all possible ways. Poverty itself is an undignified situation to be living in, with nearly 45 per cent of the Pakistani population now living in poverty, according to the World Bank. This figure is, of course, partly due to the World Bank's alteration in the standards it sets to measure poverty, but it is also a suggestion of the kind of lives people lead everywhere. It is mortifying to believe that while a few think nothing of spending thousands of rupees at a single restaurant for dinner, others in the country make do with roti and water for their meal.
Most people living in dire conditions survive on chai. The sugar in the tea offers them calories, but of course, no nutrition. Even children who come to school having eaten something are often fed chai and the lack of nutrition is causing a lack of sufficient brain development in young people and children. This is a terrible situation to be in, given that the country – with a huge youth bulge – will be dependent on its young in the years to come.
It is also terrible to think of the lack of dignity involved in people begging for food or rummaging through garbage heaps to find something that is edible or can be sold to buy a few morsels of food to eat. Yet the democratic government in the country, if it can be called that, allows the situation to continue and the lack of dignity goes on.
There are other examples of how governance and dignity go together as well. An elderly man on a street in Lahore was punished by being sent to jail, although only for a day or so, after verbally abusing the chief minister of Punjab. Abuse of any kind is simply not acceptable and should not be permitted. However, the question is whether he would have been treated in the same way if the abuse had been directed at some other person rather than the chief minister.
The difference between the privileged and the deprived is extreme. People abuse their domestic help every day, and recently we have seen a viral video of a commissioner beating a roadside vendor during a drive against encroachments, inflicting a series of slaps across his body while the man cowered, unable to retaliate in any way – no doubt thinking about how he was to end in the future. This is not how the government should run.
There is also a lack of dignity in the way people die, as there is in the way they live. The ‘honour’ killings in the country are one example of this. According to figures in a report by the Aurat Foundation, 2.5 women die each day in the country for ‘honour’. The number is likely to be somewhat higher given that only a small portion of these deaths are reported. The latest case from Balochistan in which just 30 or so miles off Quetta, a group of people came forward and killed a man and a woman for ‘honour’ is an example of the lack of dignity in lives and the lack of choice for many people in the country democracy and the process of electing representatives means nothing at all.
We also see this in the flooding, which has swept across the country, claiming over 200 lives in Punjab and KP alone. Almost triple this number have been seriously injured. The floods target those who live without adequate shelter, as homes are swept away and people are swept off roads as they walk along overflowing nullas and other waterways. Of course, those in vehicles have also fallen victim to the raging waters caused by climate change. But the largest number of those killed is of people who also suffer poverty or deprivation in some form.
These incidents go on from day to day, from week to week and no doubt over years and decades. We have seen recently cases of privileged people running over the less privileged and killing them in acts triggered by either rage or the use of drugs. We have all read the reports. There is no doubt that government officials, too, will be familiar with these cases in Karachi, in Lahore and other cities. Yet nothing is done and no change occurs. The people who die simply die.
In some cases, under the Qisas and Diyat laws, money is given out to their families. This often ends the matter. The case of Noor Muqaddam, whose killer has recently been sentenced to death, is again an example of a terrible, undignified death for a dignified and apparently sensible young woman. The dignity shown by her father, a former diplomat, in the case has been exemplary. We wait to see if the final act of justice will be delivered in that case. There are many others in which this does not happen.
The process of giving people dignity is not particularly challenging to achieve. It is based on granting them the basic needs of life, such as an education, healthcare and social welfare of some kind. In the time of growing unemployment, it is simply unacceptable to have people who have no means to earn a living of any kind. Something needs to be done. Something needs to happen. It is uncertain how we can change this and how quickly this can happen. The trigger has to come from within the government and its representatives in one form or another.
The fact is that this has not happened for many decades. People die without dignity of any kind. Some are buried in mass graves. Others live in misery year after year, month after month, with no alternative but to continue life in these conditions. When change will come, we do not know, but there has to be some correlation between democracy and dignity. There can be no sense in having a democracy if dignity does not come along with it. People everywhere need dignity of one kind or the other if they are to live lives with something useful to them and can give them lives that are worth living.
Unless there is dignity, it is simply not worth staying alive and continuing in the conditions which exist at present. We need to think about this harder, discuss it more often, and, most importantly, come up with a solution.
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: kamilahyat@hotmail.com
