Democracy: end itself

Head of PPP media cell

The outcome of the recently held elections of AJK Assembly did not raise the eyebrows of the people and the political pundits because a great number of them were of the opinion that the federal government Party would win the elections and form the government as per the past record. They have been proved right this time as well although the tempo of elections campaign was forecasting a modicum of upsets in the elections results. That did not happen because PML-N had emerged as the single largest party with comfortable position to form government in AJK. The defeat of Barrister Sultan Mahmood can be described as the major upset because he has been defeated with big margin by his opponent. He left the PPP and joined the PTI fold to brighten up his political prospects. Ironically, he exemplified the narrative of ‘man proposes God disposes.’

Looking at the working of legal/administrative framework between the AJK administration and the federal government, Islamabad mandarins can conveniently use the inherent leverage quite effectively to harness electoral advantages leading to pleasing results both in qualitative and quantitative terms. That is what has happened in the latest elections in the AJK. The PPP AJK chapter has pointed out to the manipulation of the PML-N designed to steal the mandate. The federal government has won elections while the PPP and the Muslim Conference (MC) secured three seats each followed by PTI that bagged two seats only.

However, the impressive victory of the government in AJK will not let it off the tenterhooks of the egregious activity of the Move on Pakistan Party and especially the PanamaLeaks that has assumed the major bone of contention between the Opposition and the government. The Opposition parties are united to pursue the PanamaLeaks to the logical conclusion in which the prime minister’s family members are allegedly involved in money laundering, tax evasion and tax avoidance charges. The issue of ToRs is lingering even after the passing of couple of months. It is a stalemate and thaw seems as elusive as right from the beginning.

Unfortunately, the politics of aggressive street politics may overtake in the near future. PTI has already announced of taking to the street early next month. The prospects of the aggressive politics of agitation are not promising because other parties have not been taken into confidence by the PTI. Meanwhile, the government should take major political initiative to pre-empt the other parties from adopting the collision course. For, the country cannot afford politics of agitation as war against terrorism is at the critical stage. Confrontation and sharp division among the political forces will immensely suit the terrorists. The issue of Move on Pakistan Party has already aggravated the tension on the political horizon of the country. The Opposition parties have done the right thing by putting the pressure on the government to take action against the leader of the Party for inciting the army’s interference in the political domain. This is clearly flagrant violation of the constitution and therefore the culprit should be brought to justice for committing the heinous crime. The government moved in, apparently reluctantly, to arrest the head of Move on Pakistan Party for his culpability of hanging up posters in the country bearing anti-democracy slogans enough to give sleepless nights to the PML-N top leadership and intense sense of anxiety to the majority of the Opposition parties. The government’s earlier ambivalence supposedly sprung from the exigencies of survival strategy as it was already hard pressed due to the gathering political storm stirring apprehensions of Bonapartism.

The posters explicitly called upon the Army Chief to take over the country because the incumbent government had failed to deliver and the country was heading towards disaster of unmitigated scale. The ruckus of posters had rung the alarm bells both in the government and in the Opposition circles fearing the ultra-vires political change inexorably leading to political redundancy of the politicians of all spectrums. It was not at all acceptable to the majority of the parties in the Opposition fold, particularly to the PPP and regional parties those had emerged as formidable political force to be reckoned with. About PTI, the people were skeptical after its chairman’s observation that people would distribute sweets if military usurp power in Pakistan.

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto took the position totally compatible to PPP ideology. He made it quite clear to the PTI chairman and others that PPP would never celebrate the military takeover of the country and instead would resist such misadventure with unprecedented show of people’s power. The people of the country took a sigh of relief after the chairman declared unflinching commitment of the Party to democracy. He actually represented the aspirations of the people whose overwhelming majority was in favour of democracy. Their heavy tilt in favour of democracy was indeed rooted in their bitter experiences of successive dictatorship models those had wrought miseries on them of startling proportion.

PPP could not think of compromising on democracy because it had nurtured it with the blood of its leaders and workers. Democracy was, is, and will be an article of faith for the Party. Its track record was the testimony to the upholding of the flag of democracy high even under the most ferocious dictatorship of General Zia. It was also matter of record that PPP always played leading role in the movements of restoration of democracy in the country during all the successive dictatorships’ periods. Democracy was its politics aimed at empowering the people because they deserved. PPP and democracy were inseparable because people were their ultimate priority. 

Democracy is the finest form of partnership of the people, whereas dictatorship is the worst kind of unilateralism that is averse to people and their aspirations. Democracy is constant endeavour of winning the hearts and minds of the people, whereas dictatorship is allegory of hanging sword over the heads of the people. Democracy respects the people, and dictatorship dehumanises them. Democracy guarantees fundamental rights to citizenry, and dictatorship trample upon such rights under its iron boots. Democracy always succeeds in the final analysis, and dictatorship’s ill-fate is fait accompli. Dictatorship is fundamentally criminal misadventure, and democracy is legitimate and kosher political movement.

In Pakistan’s context, autocrats had played havoc with the collective destiny of the nation. For, each dictatorship proved mega disaster in all walks of national life. Successive periods of dictatorship in the country were immersed with national faux pas like dismemberment of the country, India’s occupation of Siachin, Kargil debacle, legacies of extremism and terrorism including the drug and Kalashnikov culture. All were the despicable legacies of them. Afghan war was also imposed on the country by them as US proxy merely to perpetuate their illegitimate rule. Nation had been paying heavy price of their condemnable poor judgments because extremism and terrorism had come home to roost posing the existential threat to the country. Former Army Chief General Kayani was candid enough when he admitted that internal threat to the country was bigger than the external threat.

On the other hand, during the civilian/elected rules the territorial integrity of the country remained intact in absolute terms. Not an inch of country’s territory was ever occupied by enemy country during all the elected/civilian rules. On the contrary, Sheheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto retrieved thousands of square miles country’s territory from India which was occupied by the enemy in 1971 war during General Yayha’s watch. An amazing addition to the landmass of the country was Gwadar which was added by the civilian prime minister of Pakistan. Its strategic and economic potentials for Pakistan begged all descriptions. China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would have not even conceived if it had not been acquired from Oman by the then prime minister.

The lobby that has been lately vociferously speaking in favour of the re-visiting of dictatorship in the country is both shocking and misleading. Their abject fixations fueled by their parochial interests will not allow them to formulate their honest opinion reflective of their intellectual integrity. They even do not take into consideration the track record of dismal failure of the dictatorship model not only in Pakistan but also around the world. Their projection of dictatorship juxtaposed with their tainted intention is synonymous to dancing to the tunes of the anti-democratic forces fabricated to promote their own trivial interests. The undeniable history of territorial losses to the country during the dictatorships’ periods should be enough to convince them of the dictatorship’s depredation. But, their greed will not get satisfied till they get their pound of flesh.

Their mollycoddling of the men on horseback may distract their attention to defeat terrorists who are on the run, and our brave soldiers are committed to follow them to the gates of hell. The security establishment may also consider sending loud and clear message to the unwise urging them of desisting from engaging in such cascade of discussions that serve the interests of our enemies. It was indeed right move at the right time of the ISPR to clarify that the army or its affiliated organisations have nothing to do with the hanging of posters in various cities across the country.

muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com