WAJsal
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The ‘System’-By WAJsal
The recent comments made by former President Pervez Musharraf regarding Democracy and its ineffectiveness in Pakistan incited strong and harsh reactions from different democratic sectors, particularly the politician. These statements begged the same old questions in one’s mind, ‘whether democracy is actually the best system for Pakistan…’ and many such questions linked to that.
Being a keen observer of the political history of Pakistan and a firm supporter of a democratic system and democratic ideas, these comments also begged me to question my beliefs. Before one shares one’s analysis on the subject, one begs the question whether democracy is a better system compared to dictatorship, and specifically in the context of Pakistan. One doesn’t have to give it much of a thought, really. Dictatorship in Pakistan has caused almost irreversible damage to the country and to its ideology; democracy, on the other hand, has never been given a proper chance to grow and prosper. One thing the general public is quite wrong to do is to confuse democracy with the politicians who are associated with the system. Dictatorship has not really been an efficient system anywhere in the world, any time in history, apart from there being no checks and balances in it. Instead, a class, the ruling class, is un-touchable and beyond the law, while comparatively, democracy, if properly administered, has all the checks and balances a system requires.
Moving on to the main topic of my write-up, do I think that Democracy in Pakistan has no checks and balances and that it is an ineffective system for Pakistan? Yes and a no. Democracy is not a divine system, it is not flawless, it’s is not mistake free. In my opinion any system without the right people in the right place will inevitably become a useless and a corrupt system. Be it by design and intent the best functioning system ever, a system requires devoted and “right” people to be successful. It requires a will, will from the “right” people, will from the “right” type of people, will from the general public. There are many examples of countries doing much better than they should only because of the “right” people leading in the right place. Right people is put in quotation marks as it is not my intention to propose an elite ruling class, only individuals, as the right people.
There are today certainly few or no checks and balances in Pakistan, be it under a democracy or a dictatorship; the scale does vary regarding the degree of corruption in both systems. The problem with democracy in Pakistan is with certain gaps in the judicial system and the whole system, of which the judicial section forms a part, in general too, which allows the corrupt room to breathe and to practice freely what they do. The biggest hurdle in my opinion is still having the wrong people at the right place. Honesty is lacking and is the biggest piece of the puzzle. Politicians most often do give democracy a bad image in Pakistan, but they should not be confused the ‘system’ at all.
Not to get into the technicality of things, there are many gaps in justice system which are exploited by the corrupt. Justice is very hard to find and is usually very slow to find. There are cases of people getting a judgement after 17 years and being released from involuntary imprisonment in jail. These are some of the biggest flaws in the system, but the biggest flaw is our ignorance of these flaws. There is no will from any concerned authority. The status quo ante remains and people forget everything wrong that happens in a matter of days.
One wonders why the status quo ante never works in our favour, to improve the ‘system’ as a whole, fix basic problem of mentality with the police, fix basic problems faced by farmers who face number of problems from the ‘Patwaris’. Is it really impossible or beyond our understanding to fix these basic problems, fix electoral system. Strengthen the system and democracy. Do we not have the resources to fix these problems? No. The only thing lacking is the will. The corrupt are at the top in this country and every one of these small problems is most definitely in one way or another linked to the ruling elite. The ruling elite is in one or the other linked to every sector facing corruption, or to activities that are exhausting the countries resources and weakening the economy.
In simple words, the status quo ante would never fix the basic problems faced by the people as it feeds them in one way or another. If the ‘system’ as a whole is fixed, the majority of the present ruling class would either be in jail or would have to find a different profession.
The Way forward…
“Pakistan had retained the structure of the colonial state from its inception. Lacking an indigenous bourgeoisie, dominated by a feudal elite totally dependent upon the colonial bureaucracy, deprived of well-structured programme-oriented and duly encadred political parties and without a judiciary which would jealously protect civil authority and the citizen rights, Pakistan saw a gradual choking of the democratic spirit from its early days.” Aitazaz Ahsan-Divided by democracy
Pakistan’s future certainly lies in some form of democracy successive democratic governments have strengthened the system in general and the country is slowly but surely coming back on track. The system still requires many things to really deliver. For the general public, democracy or any other system means nothing as long as it is not delivering. The general public wants to see immediate results, which is not possible. The administrative system in Pakistan was never formed fully by the founding fathers[ an independent country, a free state was formed, but the administrative foundation was, as mentioned before, never laid down. Soon after its independence, Pakistan faced disaster. Pakistan was to have been a democratic state ruled by the people and by the people only. Instead, it was steered on a course that was contrary to the nation’s ideology.
The Army in Pakistan plays a key role. Its role has become greater especially in times when it is expected to hold back and let the civilians lead. One thing that General Raheel Sharif has done has given Army the direction or a path of professionalism that it needs to follow. The psyche in Army has seen a change after the last episode of martial law; it has realized that ruling the country is not its job. The civilians should be allowed to make the laws and form policies. The important thing in this change of heart is for continuity of these policies to the time when civilians really do dominate the scene. Only if there is sustained continuity of these policies, and these ways of formulating policy, will the system get the time and the breathing space it needs to evolve gradually.
The Judiciary plays a big role in any system; free and fair justice means a prospering society. The opposite holds true. A weak, failed society is a result of a flawed justice system. The Judiciary in Pakistan has always been under the influence of the powerful. The poor are left searching for justice for years, and decades in some cases. Judiciary needs to reak these shackles;, the general belief in the Judiciary is that it should not interfere with how a government is run or with any policy that is implemented. The sour taste of previous tenures, like the one of Iftikhar Chaudry, still remain. Some even go on to call it a ‘muk muka’ between leading elements preserving the status quo ante - the ruling parties and the judiciary. On the contrary, I believe that, it is the unfounded fear of interfering and the unfounded fear of questioning the people’s mandate that keeps the Judiciary from delivering. Delivering,for instance, in cases like the 2013 electoral riggings and the recent Panama leaks. The Judiciary needs to reform itself, it is the judiciary which should itself implement any reforms it suggests to the government. Appropriate constitutional amendments should be made and justice should be made fair, swift and equal for all. It should be realized that the Judiciary is the only institution or third party that should resolve political differences. When people looking to the army to arbitrate, it is a failure of the politicians, but also a failure of the judicial system.
Moving on to the last point, the politicians are the ‘people at the right place’. Politicians need to look, have to look, to think about the country rather than their personal gains. The psyche leading us to a status quo ante needs to change, or I would go on to say that the psyche is beyond any external reforms. The people need to change the status quo altogether, need to use the power that they have. ‘The people don’t know the power they have.’ In a country like Pakistan, a small number of families, a particular class, rules this country and is eating it up from within like a termite eats wood. making it hollow and empty from within. All the resources are being looted and the beneficiary is this ruling class by and large. Any revolution or ‘change’ can only be brought in by the people and by the people only, by expressing their will through the ballot; forceful interventions by a third party have always made thing complicated. This in turn has benefited this class. Making a political martyr is the last thing Pakistan needs. In this, the Judiciary has to act as the instrument of the people, and has to ensure that the actions of the politicians are in consonance with the will of the people, since the people cannot act on their own.
We have to bring in checks and balances in Pakistan,the system has gradually, over time, made good the lack of an original foundation and installed everything – almost everything All the institutions need all the laws present. Over time, every time we got thwarted, we learnt from our mistakes and improved the system incrementally. As stated before, it is the ‘will’ to implement these rules and regulations that is missing. There are surely some lacunae in the law, some gaps. But all society has flaws. These flaws, social, economic, and somewhat cultural take time to be resolved. The institutions that should be doing their jobs are influenced and directed by the politicians, which is a major problem. Fixing this involves making room for the ‘checks and balances’ a system requires in Pakistan.
On a concluding note, I would like to add that in my opinion and in the opinion of many, Pakistan is at a very fragile state in its history. It might either boom and become the state long dreamt off or go into oblivion and be a weak and next to un-fixable state like Afghanistan or Iraq. There are surely many international powers in the picture that don’t want to see a resolution. We have taken a stand against terrorism and the times are not far when we shall have a peaceful environment, a stable secure environment, the society we used to have.
As we have seen, this will need the Army to stand aloof from the administration of the country and of policies, and to do its job of defence of the state without getting into each and every aspect of the functioning of the country.
It will need the Judiciary to act according to the strictest principles of constitutionalism and the rule of law. The Judiciary must search for the best interests of the people, as evidenced by their will revealed through the ballot, and must not make the mistake of assuming that the politician wholly represents the will of the people: today, the politician only represents the self-interest of the politician.
The political class has to reform, or submit to reform; we need politicians who put the country above themselves.
Most of all, we need the people to remain fixed and unchanging in their resolve to achieve a well-governed, prosperous and peaceful state, and to demand this through their exercise of their vote, and through a watchful vigilance over the direction that the country is taking.
All the efforts are a waste without the continuity of the policies. The averity in general public has to grow. Pakistan cannot afford to go back anymore. No international power can dictate us anymore. We shall not be ruled a class of families looking to destroy this country and looking to remain in rule for years to come. Democracy is the future of this country, a people’s revolution is required. Right people in the right place is the only thing Pakistan requires.
First posted on PDF
(Please don't use this without any permission.)
The recent comments made by former President Pervez Musharraf regarding Democracy and its ineffectiveness in Pakistan incited strong and harsh reactions from different democratic sectors, particularly the politician. These statements begged the same old questions in one’s mind, ‘whether democracy is actually the best system for Pakistan…’ and many such questions linked to that.
Being a keen observer of the political history of Pakistan and a firm supporter of a democratic system and democratic ideas, these comments also begged me to question my beliefs. Before one shares one’s analysis on the subject, one begs the question whether democracy is a better system compared to dictatorship, and specifically in the context of Pakistan. One doesn’t have to give it much of a thought, really. Dictatorship in Pakistan has caused almost irreversible damage to the country and to its ideology; democracy, on the other hand, has never been given a proper chance to grow and prosper. One thing the general public is quite wrong to do is to confuse democracy with the politicians who are associated with the system. Dictatorship has not really been an efficient system anywhere in the world, any time in history, apart from there being no checks and balances in it. Instead, a class, the ruling class, is un-touchable and beyond the law, while comparatively, democracy, if properly administered, has all the checks and balances a system requires.
Moving on to the main topic of my write-up, do I think that Democracy in Pakistan has no checks and balances and that it is an ineffective system for Pakistan? Yes and a no. Democracy is not a divine system, it is not flawless, it’s is not mistake free. In my opinion any system without the right people in the right place will inevitably become a useless and a corrupt system. Be it by design and intent the best functioning system ever, a system requires devoted and “right” people to be successful. It requires a will, will from the “right” people, will from the “right” type of people, will from the general public. There are many examples of countries doing much better than they should only because of the “right” people leading in the right place. Right people is put in quotation marks as it is not my intention to propose an elite ruling class, only individuals, as the right people.
There are today certainly few or no checks and balances in Pakistan, be it under a democracy or a dictatorship; the scale does vary regarding the degree of corruption in both systems. The problem with democracy in Pakistan is with certain gaps in the judicial system and the whole system, of which the judicial section forms a part, in general too, which allows the corrupt room to breathe and to practice freely what they do. The biggest hurdle in my opinion is still having the wrong people at the right place. Honesty is lacking and is the biggest piece of the puzzle. Politicians most often do give democracy a bad image in Pakistan, but they should not be confused the ‘system’ at all.
Not to get into the technicality of things, there are many gaps in justice system which are exploited by the corrupt. Justice is very hard to find and is usually very slow to find. There are cases of people getting a judgement after 17 years and being released from involuntary imprisonment in jail. These are some of the biggest flaws in the system, but the biggest flaw is our ignorance of these flaws. There is no will from any concerned authority. The status quo ante remains and people forget everything wrong that happens in a matter of days.
One wonders why the status quo ante never works in our favour, to improve the ‘system’ as a whole, fix basic problem of mentality with the police, fix basic problems faced by farmers who face number of problems from the ‘Patwaris’. Is it really impossible or beyond our understanding to fix these basic problems, fix electoral system. Strengthen the system and democracy. Do we not have the resources to fix these problems? No. The only thing lacking is the will. The corrupt are at the top in this country and every one of these small problems is most definitely in one way or another linked to the ruling elite. The ruling elite is in one or the other linked to every sector facing corruption, or to activities that are exhausting the countries resources and weakening the economy.
In simple words, the status quo ante would never fix the basic problems faced by the people as it feeds them in one way or another. If the ‘system’ as a whole is fixed, the majority of the present ruling class would either be in jail or would have to find a different profession.
The Way forward…
“Pakistan had retained the structure of the colonial state from its inception. Lacking an indigenous bourgeoisie, dominated by a feudal elite totally dependent upon the colonial bureaucracy, deprived of well-structured programme-oriented and duly encadred political parties and without a judiciary which would jealously protect civil authority and the citizen rights, Pakistan saw a gradual choking of the democratic spirit from its early days.” Aitazaz Ahsan-Divided by democracy
Pakistan’s future certainly lies in some form of democracy successive democratic governments have strengthened the system in general and the country is slowly but surely coming back on track. The system still requires many things to really deliver. For the general public, democracy or any other system means nothing as long as it is not delivering. The general public wants to see immediate results, which is not possible. The administrative system in Pakistan was never formed fully by the founding fathers[ an independent country, a free state was formed, but the administrative foundation was, as mentioned before, never laid down. Soon after its independence, Pakistan faced disaster. Pakistan was to have been a democratic state ruled by the people and by the people only. Instead, it was steered on a course that was contrary to the nation’s ideology.
The Army in Pakistan plays a key role. Its role has become greater especially in times when it is expected to hold back and let the civilians lead. One thing that General Raheel Sharif has done has given Army the direction or a path of professionalism that it needs to follow. The psyche in Army has seen a change after the last episode of martial law; it has realized that ruling the country is not its job. The civilians should be allowed to make the laws and form policies. The important thing in this change of heart is for continuity of these policies to the time when civilians really do dominate the scene. Only if there is sustained continuity of these policies, and these ways of formulating policy, will the system get the time and the breathing space it needs to evolve gradually.
The Judiciary plays a big role in any system; free and fair justice means a prospering society. The opposite holds true. A weak, failed society is a result of a flawed justice system. The Judiciary in Pakistan has always been under the influence of the powerful. The poor are left searching for justice for years, and decades in some cases. Judiciary needs to reak these shackles;, the general belief in the Judiciary is that it should not interfere with how a government is run or with any policy that is implemented. The sour taste of previous tenures, like the one of Iftikhar Chaudry, still remain. Some even go on to call it a ‘muk muka’ between leading elements preserving the status quo ante - the ruling parties and the judiciary. On the contrary, I believe that, it is the unfounded fear of interfering and the unfounded fear of questioning the people’s mandate that keeps the Judiciary from delivering. Delivering,for instance, in cases like the 2013 electoral riggings and the recent Panama leaks. The Judiciary needs to reform itself, it is the judiciary which should itself implement any reforms it suggests to the government. Appropriate constitutional amendments should be made and justice should be made fair, swift and equal for all. It should be realized that the Judiciary is the only institution or third party that should resolve political differences. When people looking to the army to arbitrate, it is a failure of the politicians, but also a failure of the judicial system.
Moving on to the last point, the politicians are the ‘people at the right place’. Politicians need to look, have to look, to think about the country rather than their personal gains. The psyche leading us to a status quo ante needs to change, or I would go on to say that the psyche is beyond any external reforms. The people need to change the status quo altogether, need to use the power that they have. ‘The people don’t know the power they have.’ In a country like Pakistan, a small number of families, a particular class, rules this country and is eating it up from within like a termite eats wood. making it hollow and empty from within. All the resources are being looted and the beneficiary is this ruling class by and large. Any revolution or ‘change’ can only be brought in by the people and by the people only, by expressing their will through the ballot; forceful interventions by a third party have always made thing complicated. This in turn has benefited this class. Making a political martyr is the last thing Pakistan needs. In this, the Judiciary has to act as the instrument of the people, and has to ensure that the actions of the politicians are in consonance with the will of the people, since the people cannot act on their own.
We have to bring in checks and balances in Pakistan,the system has gradually, over time, made good the lack of an original foundation and installed everything – almost everything All the institutions need all the laws present. Over time, every time we got thwarted, we learnt from our mistakes and improved the system incrementally. As stated before, it is the ‘will’ to implement these rules and regulations that is missing. There are surely some lacunae in the law, some gaps. But all society has flaws. These flaws, social, economic, and somewhat cultural take time to be resolved. The institutions that should be doing their jobs are influenced and directed by the politicians, which is a major problem. Fixing this involves making room for the ‘checks and balances’ a system requires in Pakistan.
On a concluding note, I would like to add that in my opinion and in the opinion of many, Pakistan is at a very fragile state in its history. It might either boom and become the state long dreamt off or go into oblivion and be a weak and next to un-fixable state like Afghanistan or Iraq. There are surely many international powers in the picture that don’t want to see a resolution. We have taken a stand against terrorism and the times are not far when we shall have a peaceful environment, a stable secure environment, the society we used to have.
As we have seen, this will need the Army to stand aloof from the administration of the country and of policies, and to do its job of defence of the state without getting into each and every aspect of the functioning of the country.
It will need the Judiciary to act according to the strictest principles of constitutionalism and the rule of law. The Judiciary must search for the best interests of the people, as evidenced by their will revealed through the ballot, and must not make the mistake of assuming that the politician wholly represents the will of the people: today, the politician only represents the self-interest of the politician.
The political class has to reform, or submit to reform; we need politicians who put the country above themselves.
Most of all, we need the people to remain fixed and unchanging in their resolve to achieve a well-governed, prosperous and peaceful state, and to demand this through their exercise of their vote, and through a watchful vigilance over the direction that the country is taking.
All the efforts are a waste without the continuity of the policies. The averity in general public has to grow. Pakistan cannot afford to go back anymore. No international power can dictate us anymore. We shall not be ruled a class of families looking to destroy this country and looking to remain in rule for years to come. Democracy is the future of this country, a people’s revolution is required. Right people in the right place is the only thing Pakistan requires.
First posted on PDF
(Please don't use this without any permission.)
Last edited:
