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Political elites of Pakistan: Promoting or subverting democracy?

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Political elites of Pakistan: Promoting or subverting democracy?
Global Village Space |


M. Q. Yaaser |

Paragraph 124 of Supreme Court’s decision on the Panama Case stated the following:

“Some provisions of article 62 of the constitution certainly contain some strong moral overtones but those provisions have not been undone by the popularly elected parliaments in the last many decades.”

The Pakistani political elite, like all the political elites around the world, is following the saying, ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’.

This is very true. The so-called democratic and political parties in Pakistan, despite being progenies of military rule raised political slogans against the military dictators, but none have made some serious efforts to remove the constitutional amendments made by and during the eras of such dictators.

Deliberate negligence of political leaders
One of those efforts must have been made to change, replace or even eradicate and erase the words of ‘SADIQ AND AMEEN’ from the constitution. These are vague terms, the tools of which can be used against the political leaders by the dictators for the victimization of the former. The newspapers and electronic media are full of slogans and sermons by the political leaders against the military dictators and their utter disregard for the constitution. However, the fact remains that civilian government has done little to redress the flaws in the constitution.

Read more: PML-N’s ‘interesting’ rule: Have the 2018 elections already been lost?

Political leaders create an impression that they are trying to bring in stability in the political process. They play ball with the media and the people.

Apart from this, same is the case with the number of reserved seats for women in national (60 in a house of 342) and provincial assemblies. This was again the amendment that was made during the rule of a military dictator, General Pervez Musharaf. If the above rule of abrogating the constitutional amendments made during the dictatorial regimes in the country is followed, this also applies to the special seats for women in the national and provincial assemblies. Special seats for women, if they are needed in any case, must not be more than 10% in all the assemblies. These special seats are being used as political bribery to the powerful political families and, if analyzed, one can find each woman representative a close relative to a sitting male member of the parliament. There can be one or two exceptions.

Dictatorial legacies
Why does the civilian leadership make no efforts to undo such provisions? This could be because the so-called democratic and political parties want to keep the constitution, media, and especially the people of Pakistan confused since it favors the political mafia. The Pakistani political elite, like all the political elites around the world, is following the saying, ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’.

Political leaders create an impression that they are trying to bring in stability in the political process. They play ball with the media and the people. This is entirely different from the rest of the modern world, especially Europe and America.

When there is a military regime in Pakistan, the slogans of the political parties are worth listening, even ‘charter of democracy’ can be signed between the arch rivals parties.

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Political elites of Pakistan: Promoting or subverting democracy?
 
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