If you perform lip service to democracy in Pakistan, you are a true democrat. If you don’t do it in practice, we have never been a true democracy, so that’s fine!
While May warmed up the capital with high temperatures, the political arena remained heated too – sadly, for the wrong reasons.
Last month, the PTI workers rallied across Islamabad and gathered at D-Chowk recording their protest against the current government and showing support for the revered party leader and former PM, Imran Khan. Disturbing visuals circulated over social media. The police committed sheer atrocities upon receiving instructions from the authorities, on the brink of that, not even the most senior (and ailing) members of the PTI leadership were not spared. Dr. Yasmeen Rashid, former health minister, was on her way to the protest when the police stopped her and shattered her car’s windscreen, injuring her and her companions.
The police indiscriminately tortured the civilians recording their protest, old and young men and women, and even the media was not exempted from the law-and-order agency’s questionable treatment. Of course, they were following the orders as received, but what an undue exhibition of force!
The sitting government has previously claimed on multiple occasions that it stands for the true ideals of democracy. But a layman Pakistani wonders: is that what democracy is all about? The same ruling parties that signed the Charter of Democracy are up to proving themselves anything but democratic.
Looking at Pakistan’s current political situation and decay of democratic values, this quote from Steven Litsky’s How Democracies Die seems apt:
“Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders—presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power. Some of these leaders dismantle democracy quickly, as Hitler did in the wake of the 1933 Reichstag fire in Germany. More often, though, democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps.”
The current government, as expected, has failed to adhere to the principles of objectivity and equal agency of expression and gathering to all political stakeholders. Political differences exist everywhere in the world and most governments face opposition of some kind but the governments must agree to disagree. Grace and civility must not be overlooked amidst political rivalry. The government officials and political leaders have a responsibility: to present themselves as true public representatives. When Pakistan’s political narrative reaches out to the world, it is not a sane one. Leaders are not superhuman beings but they can be, at least, an epitome of civility and righteousness.
