Causes of Failure of democracy in Pakistan

(Seerat Hussain, Karachi)

Democracy is the form of government in which people elects their representatives themselves and the representatives of the people form government and the opposition, As long as democracy in Pakistan is concerned, it fails to achive its spirit there are many causes for the failure of democracy in Pakistan:

The main responsibility for the failure of democracy lies with politicians. Firstly, they are not sincere with their jobs and are unfaithful to the state. Secondly, Pakistani political leaders are so incompetent that their policies keep failing. People vote a set of politicians with a hope that their elected representatives will act as their faithful leaders and will devote themselves wholeheartedly to the services of the mankind. But to people`s dismay, Pakistani politicians do not act as honest leaders rather they act as corrupt and disloyal politicians whom ambitions lie in filling their own pockets with public money. Political leaders are responsible for playing games with people for their own benefits. They have destroyed the purpose of creating an independent homeland of Pakistan by giving rise to favoritism and corruption. In Pakistani democratic system, the elected leaders do not regularly visit their constituencies as they are least bothered of public issues. In addition, most politicians contest elections on the basis of fake degrees. According to an official report, 106 politicians have been counted for contesting elections on the basis of fake degrees. (qtd. in culprits, 1) This clearly depicts dishonesty of political leaders. Confidence cannot be restored in the masses. Moreover, political leaders are incompetent and are unable to find out the solutions to the nations` problems. Political process keeps collapsing in Pakistan and policies of political parties keep changing and it is very hard for the politicians to reach unanimous stance for a particular policy. The policy of nationalization and posting of incompetent management halted democracy further. Ever since the creation of Pakistan, the same political parties have stayed in power. For example, Pakistan People`s Party came into power many times. People keep supporting the same party under the slogan of “Roti, Kapra aur Makaan” because of their affection for the founder of the party without even realizing the consequences of their support. Under these circumstances, democracy can never flourish in its true sense.

Bureaucracy also imposes a serious threat to democracy. Practically the constitution of Pakistan is based upon the democratic principles. However, the proposals in the constitution could not be implemented because of the attitude of some people, who are not ready to leave the laws introduced by the British government. Bureaucracy has always remained powerful since the creation of Pakistan. It comprises the Central Superior Services and the Provincial Civil Services. (Piracha, 1) and the main cause which stimulated the culture of bureaucracy in Pakistan is institutional imbalance. Bureaucracy is neither in favor of giving power to anyone nor is ready to become responsible to anyone. This attitude is one of the main obstacles in the way to democracy. Most of the bureaucrats become partial and exploit resources of the country for a favorite political party. Bureaucrats of Pakistan are notorious for their corruption, inefficiency, and incompetency and thus responsible for destroying democracy in the country.

Another main cause for the failure of democracy in Pakistan is feudal system. Pakistan has inherited feudal system from “British India” and this feudal system will never let democracy flourish in Pakistan. Feudal land lords have a major role in forming policies and they would never like to formulate those policies which are against their interest or are beneficial for the people. The feudal lords acted as traitors and supported British leaders for creating a moth-eaten Pakistan and now, at the present day, Pakistan is nothing but a feudal state. Most of the political leaders of Pakistan are feudal lords who have established their identities as political leaders. The feudal lords keep people at arm`s length and treat them as their slaves. The rigid nature of this class system has deprived Pakistan from educational and economic development. The farmers` community is under the control of their feudal masters. Such underprivileged and economically demoted peasants’ can have no other option but to vote for their masters. The famers live beyond the poverty line and cannot even express their will freely. Here, the spirit of democracy is violated. Peasants are forced to support their lords due to their fear or may be due to lack of knowledge. In this way, the elections are of no use since the peasants will only vote for their feudal lords under their pressure and democracy will be worse than “oligarchy”. Supremacy of feudal class is destroying democracy as well as national integration which itself essential for democracy. Democracy has been proved beneficial for the feudal land lords since it provides a cover to them and allows them to rule for as long as they want. As far as common people are concerned, they feel themselves totally neglected in such a democracy. In this situation of distorted democracy, even a thousand elections will not change Pakistan’s future.

Democracy is based on basic traditions of equality and freedom of speech among citizens. As far as Pakistani democratic system is concerned, it has failed to achieve either equality or freedom among people and thus democracy in Pakistan is unsuccessful. This is a clear evidence of inequality when people have to pay bribes in order to get themselves a job. There exists no merit policy, while making appointments and discrimination on the basis of caste, social status and even gender has eliminated the whole concept of democracy. Rich can easily exploit the poor. For example, the wealthy people are always encouraged instead of educated people. Very few educated people join politics and assemblies. In this way, the uneducated people sitting in parliaments cannot build a democratic society on proper lines. In a democratic state, the opinion of each citizen is respected and given due importance. The citizens have full liberty to criticize the working of the government. Although freedom of speech exists to some extent in Pakistan, but due to no constitutional safeguard, it is not fully implemented. A common Pakistani citizen lacks constitutional protection and thus when any civil servant tries for the good governance; he has to face many obstacles. in Pakistan.

The main responsibility for the failure of democracy lies with politicians. Firstly, they are not sincere with their jobs and are unfaithful to the state. Secondly, Pakistani political leaders are so incompetent that their policies keep failing. People vote a set of politicians with a hope that their elected representatives will act as their faithful leaders and will devote themselves wholeheartedly to the services of the mankind. But to people`s dismay, Pakistani politicians do not act as honest leaders rather they act as corrupt and disloyal politicians whom ambitions lie in filling their own pockets with public money. Political leaders are responsible for playing games with people for their own benefits. They have destroyed the purpose of creating an independent homeland of Pakistan by giving rise to favoritism and corruption. In Pakistani democratic system, the elected leaders do not regularly visit their constituencies as they are least bothered of public issues. In addition, most politicians contest elections on the basis of fake degrees. According to an official report, 106 politicians have been counted for contesting elections on the basis of fake degrees. (qtd. in culprits, 1) This clearly depicts dishonesty of political leaders. Confidence cannot be restored in the masses. Moreover, political leaders are incompetent and are unable to find out the solutions to the nations` problems. Political process keeps collapsing in Pakistan and policies of political parties keep changing and it is very hard for the politicians to reach unanimous stance for a particular policy. The policy of nationalization and posting of incompetent management halted democracy further. Ever since the creation of Pakistan, the same political parties have stayed in power. For example, Pakistan People`s Party came into power many times. People keep supporting the same party under the slogan of “Roti, Kapra aur Makaan” because of their affection for the founder of the party without even realizing the consequences of their support. Under these circumstances, democracy can never flourish in its true sense.

Bureaucracy also imposes a serious threat to democracy. Practically the constitution of Pakistan is based upon the democratic principles. However, the proposals in the constitution could not be implemented because of the attitude of some people, who are not ready to leave the laws introduced by the British government. Bureaucracy has always remained powerful since the creation of Pakistan. It comprises the Central Superior Services and the Provincial Civil Services. (Piracha, 1) and the main cause which stimulated the culture of bureaucracy in Pakistan is institutional imbalance. Bureaucracy is neither in favor of giving power to anyone nor is ready to become responsible to anyone. This attitude is one of the main obstacles in the way to democracy. Most of the bureaucrats become partial and exploit resources of the country for a favorite political party. Bureaucrats of Pakistan are notorious for their corruption, inefficiency, and incompetency and thus responsible for destroying democracy in the country.

Another main cause for the failure of democracy in Pakistan is feudal system. Pakistan has inherited feudal system from “British India” and this feudal system will never let democracy flourish in Pakistan. Feudal land lords have a major role in forming policies and they would never like to formulate those policies which are against their interest or are beneficial for the people. The feudal lords acted as traitors and supported British leaders for creating a moth-eaten Pakistan and now, at the present day, Pakistan is nothing but a feudal state. Most of the political leaders of Pakistan are feudal lords who have established their identities as political leaders. The feudal lords keep people at arm`s length and treat them as their slaves. The rigid nature of this class system has deprived Pakistan from educational and economic development. The farmers` community is under the control of their feudal masters. Such underprivileged and economically demoted peasants’ can have no other option but to vote for their masters. The famers live beyond the poverty line and cannot even express their will freely. Here, the spirit of democracy is violated. Peasants are forced to support their lords due to their fear or may be due to lack of knowledge. In this way, the elections are of no use since the peasants will only vote for their feudal lords under their pressure and democracy will be worse than “oligarchy”. Supremacy of feudal class is destroying democracy as well as national integration which itself essential for democracy. Democracy has been proved beneficial for the feudal land lords since it provides a cover to them and allows them to rule for as long as they want. As far as common people are concerned, they feel themselves totally neglected in such a democracy. In this situation of distorted democracy, even a thousand elections will not change Pakistan’s future.

Democracy is based on basic traditions of equality and freedom of speech among citizens. As far as Pakistani democratic system is concerned, it has failed to achieve either equality or freedom among people and thus democracy in Pakistan is unsuccessful. This is a clear evidence of inequality when people have to pay bribes in order to get themselves a job. There exists no merit policy, while making appointments and discrimination on the basis of caste, social status and even gender has eliminated the whole concept of democracy. Rich can easily exploit the poor. For example, the wealthy people are always encouraged instead of educated people. Very few educated people join politics and assemblies. In this way, the uneducated people sitting in parliaments cannot build a democratic society on proper lines. In a democratic state, the opinion of each citizen is respected and given due importance. The citizens have full liberty to criticize the working of the government. Although freedom of speech exists to some extent in Pakistan, but due to no constitutional safeguard, it is not fully implemented. A common Pakistani citizen lacks constitutional protection and thus when any civil servant tries for the good governance; he has to face many obstacles. Whenever someone tries to raise his voice against government, he is pushed back instead of going forward. For example, many journalists of Pakistan who try to raise their voice against politicians are threatened by them. Many senior journalists have disclosed that they had received serious threats from both non-state and state actors.like Arshad shareef case

Illiteracy is also one of the reasons for not letting democracy succeed in Pakistan. In Pakistan, the education sector remained neglected for a long time. So maximum part of Pakistan`s population is still suffering in the darkness of illiteracy and backwardness and is unable to contribute anything towards the development of the country. High rate of literacy is important for democracy because illiteracy also leads to poverty. An illiterate and economically impoverished community cannot comprehend and follow the true spirit of democracy.so these are leading factors which are highly responsible for unsuccessful democracy in pakistan

Seerat Hussain
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