‘Democracy provides a better mechanism to resolve public issues’

“Democracy provides a mechanism to address issues and provide solutions to the people in the most organised way,” said a top political scientist of the country on Wednesday.

“The military government cannot replace democratic forces because dictatorship has never trained for resolving political problems of the country,” said Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed, former director of Pakistan Study Centre, Karachi University.

He was speaking at a lecture, entitled ‘70 years of Pakistan: Achievements and Challenges’, which was hosted by Ziauddin University at its main campus in Clifton. Dr Ahmed said constitutional institutions were capable of finding solutions through democratic ways. “If the military is a good solution, then why it fails to retain [control] on a permanent basis,” he asked.

He stated that Pakistan initially started working without any proper government system and constitution. However, after 23 years of independence, as a nation “we somehow managed to make our constitution” and it was the biggest achievement after independence, he added.

Dr Ahmed said the country’s population statistics for the last 35 years indicated that around 60 per cent of youngsters were below the age of 30, but there was a scarcity of basic facilities for them, including better education, and employment and business opportunities.

Talking about education, he said, increasing the enrolment ratio of female students at higher educational institutions showed the mental growth of people. Parents now prefer to invest in their children’s education to making property, he added.

“Unluckily, we have six to seven streams of education, including English medium, Urdu medium, A and O Levels, cadet colleges and seminaries that distracted our education system. Our government is reluctant to spend more than two per cent [of the budget] on education, whereas it is the need of the hour to spend at least 4 per cent to meet the international goals.”