Democracy in Pakistan: Root causes of weak democratization system in Pakistan

Dr Arshad Javed Rizvi

Associate Professor

Sir Syed University of Engineeringand Technology

Abstract

This research report highlights the historicalbackground of democracy since Athenian time, itsjourney from Aristotle to 20th and 21st era. In thisreport, focus is paid on historical background ofPakistan. Issues of bad democratic governance arehighlighted. Causes behind and reasons of it failuresare focused.

Other aspects include the democratic and non-democraticdimension of Pakistan. Whether it can be called trulydemocratic and finally, Conclude if democracy in thebest way forward for Pakistan.

Role of political parties is highlighted; democracy cansucceed only if politician’s leaders have strongcommitment to democracy in both theory and practice.

Key words: Democracy, Security, Political Decay, Weak States, Authoritarianism, Oligarhical Elite, Patrimonialism, Ideology

Introduction:“Democracy” is the form of system of government whichwas known as “democratia”. It is a system of governmentwhich has the power to make alterations in the laws andstructures of government with the eligible citizens.Ultimately, people themselves or by their electedrepresentatives to the parliament through free and fairelections under the rule of law make the legislativedecisions to run the affairs of the state or polity,sovereign power resides within the people to makesocial state.

For the first time, the term democracy appeared in thepolitical life of the Greek city state of Athens byCleisthenes during 508-507 BC. Since then, Cleisthenesis considered to be “the father of Athenian democracy”.It was a kind of direct democracy having two distinctfeatures; one was random selection of ordinary citizensto hold judicial and administrative offices of thegovernment. Second was legislative assembly where alleligible Athenian citizens were allowed to speak, voteto set the laws of the city state, but excluded nonland owners, male less than 20 years, slaves,foreigners and women. The exclusion of large part ofpopulation reflects on the true ancient understandingof citizenship. The government system was completelyreformed and reorganized to change the basis ofpolitical organization also introduced the equality ofrights for all citizens to have more power, Atheniandemocracy was introduced by Cleisthenes but laterexpanded by Ephialtes and Pericles, they worked hard topreserve the democratic principles of equality amongthe Athenian citizens as no one was allowed to hold theadministrative office more than one.

Due to the democratic influence in the Greek world,many philosophers started developing their theories.Among these were Socrates, his pupil Plato, furtherworked on more relations and positions of individualsin the community. Aristotle, student of Plato bycarrying his work further laid the foundation ofpolitical philosophy. There were many Greek city states

at that time, had different systems of rule. Aristotlecritically and systematically analyzed them andcategorized into three on the basis of how many ruled:If many it is democracy/polity, if few it isoligarchy/Aristocracy, if single person, it is tyranny,autocracy/monarchy. After two centuries of lifetime,Athenian democracy had to face decline and criticismdue to the crises of Pelopponesian war and Spartaspuppet regime of 30 tyrants.

Athenian democracy of Pericles started to reviewpositively by political thinkers in 1846 after thepublication of “A history of Greece” by George Grote.Athenian system was reexamined the kind of rule at thattime for empowering citizens in the community. In themiddle age, many governments use to hold elections andassemblies though whole population was not involved,few examples are in South Indian kingdom, Holy RomanEmpire medieval Italian city states, Sakai In Japan,Volta- Nigeric Socities.

In the human rights charter “Magna Carta” in 1215, theparliament of England clearly laid down the rights andpowers of kings and rights of individuals againstunlawful imprisonment with right to appeal and toaddress the grievances of ordinary people. Itrestricted the rights of kings. Monarchy still holdsthe power to call parliament.

In the modern era in England, power of the parliamentwas increased, further liberties and freely debating

rights to political representatives and rules ofelections were established and still in effect through“petition of rights” 1628, Habeas Corpus Act 1679 and“Bill of Rights” 1689. Under the “Acts of Union”Kingdom of England and Scotland were merged in 1707 andin the result “First parliament of Great Britain” wasestablished, figurehead monarch remained powerful.Elected parliament was only 3% of the populationrepresentation.

Compilation of United States constitution in 1787 wasthe result of “American Revolution”. It favored theelected government and granted civil rights andliberties but nothing was done for women’s votingrights and slavery. “Declaration of the rights of menand the citizens” was a result of French Revolution1789, it was short lived. Soon in 1792, nationalconvention was elected by all males. During the period,slavery could not be eradicated in the social andeconomic life especially in South America. Manyorganizations started movements for the equal rights,liberties and freedom of Black people. During twentiethand twenty first centuries, adoption of democraticsystem of government have been successful due to firstand second World War, decolonization, downfall ofOttoman Empire and Ostro Hungarian Empires andreligious and economic clashes gave birth to new statesin the world, most of them were democratic. In theresult of decolonization and on the basis of religiousdifferences India, world’s biggest democracy and

Pakistan came into existence in the result of rejectingtwo centuries old British rule in 1947.

By 1960, most of the world’s states were democratic system of governance. Now out of 192 countries, 123 have electoral democracies according to “World Forum ondemocracy”. “15th September” international day of democracy” was declared in 2010 by United Nations.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:

Democracy is considered to be back bock bone of thegovernment system, which is the essential constituentof economic, political and social development of thestate. It is impossible to run the government withoutgood governance equality of citizenship without anydistinction on the basis of religion, regional background and ethnicity are the principles of democracy. Ademocracy demands promise which has not been fulfilledin Pakistan, has been in question since its inception.Due to slow and positive process of demarcation develophigh vulnerability to wards none democratizeinterventions gave the chance to no civilian forces torule.

Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah choice democratic formof the government in Pakistan to make it peoplefriendly and welfare state but it could not meet thelevel what a constitutional democratic countriessupposed to offer, sovereignty of parliament politicallife without intervention, supremacy of constitution,rule of law and judiciary safe guard of minorityrights, fulfillment of basis need of citizens ofPakistan.

On the contrary what Pakistans democracy offered, in1977, 1999, 2007 country’s constitution was suspendedand abrogated in 1958 and 1969, its political lifesince existence had been overtaken by military general,and five elected political; government were to palledby the army.

Above all there is no system of measurement ofdemocracy and conceptualization in Pakistan.

Unfortunately all the elected democratic politicalgovernment was belonged to elite class or feudal background and the entire elected political practical.Government could not deliver democratic government dueto extremely corrupt caused cased to weaken thedemocratic structure over the years, that is whereevery time non democratic military forces had to takeover the rule of the state and country had to face thedictatorship, badly damaged the smooth constructiveprocess of democracy

Hypothesis: “Democratic and non democratic force doesn’t allow truedemocracy to flourish”.

Methodology:This research will mainly be based on qualitativemethod. For this purpose, different methods will beadopted. Descriptive methods will be used to describecharacteristics of Pakistani population, its socialcultural conditions to analyze the existing situation.This study will be based upon interviews, surveysinterrogation; secondly through exploratory methodeffort will be made to understand the causes of the

situation. Third, the approach will be explanatorymethod to explain and analyze the research problem.

History of Democracy in Pakistan

Pakistan since its inception has gone through many upsand downs and experienced many problems, it look a longtime to have written democratic constitution ofPakistan, finally after nine years of its existencefirst constitution was given to the citizens ofPakistan, but it was abrogated just after two years dueto military takeover, after that second and thirdconstitution were also given but every time suspendeddue to military generals intervention to suspended thedemocratic process in the state of Pakistan facingmarshal law.

The military rule not only destroys the politicalinstitution within the country but also annihilate thecountry’s image on world order. Zia-ul-haq regime was atrue reflection of an authoritarian rule. Its narrowbased foreign policy isolated the country from the restof the democratic world.” “(Ejaz 1994)”

According to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam,“Pakistan is made for the betterment of the peopleliving in it. People will themselves select theirLeader and it’s the responsibility of the Leader tofulfill the needs of the people and work day and nightfor this Motherland.”

According to Z.A Bhutto, “People of Pakistan deservebetter fortune when it comes to Democracy. It is agreat nation and Democracy is the best system for thisnation. Let the Democracy prevail and see the Nationflourish in front of your eyes.”

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto explained the importance ofDemocracy for Pakistan “The only solution for theproblems of Pakistan is the sustainability ofDemocracy. This will help reducing the monsters likeCorruption, Poverty, illiteracy and unemployment andPakistan can get back to the track of prosperity.”

According to Mian Nawaz Shareef, “We will makePakistan a Welfare state through our policies and hardwork”.

Measurement of DemocracySeveral freedom indices are used to measure democracy:

Freedom in the World published each year since 1972 bythe U.S.-based Freedom House ranks countries bypolitical rights and civil liberties that are derivedin large measure from the Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights. Countries are assessed as free, partlyfree, or unfree.

Worldwide Press Freedom Index is published each yearsince 2002 (except that 2011 was combined with 2012)by France-based Reporters Without Borders. Countriesare assessed as having a good situation,a satisfactory situation, noticeable problems,a difficult situation, or a very serious situation.

Freedom of the Press published each year since 1980 by Freedom House.

The Index of Freedom in the World is an index measuringclassical civil liberties published by Canada'sFraser Institute, Germany's Liberales Institute, andthe U.S. Cato Institute. It is not currently includedin the table below.

The CIRI Human Rights Data Project measures a range ofhuman, civil, women's and workers rights.[76]It is nowhosted by the University of Connecticut. It wascreated in 1994. In its 2011 report, the U.S. wasranked 38th in overall human rights.

The Democracy Index, published by the U.K.-based Economist Intelligence Unit, is an assessmentof countries' democracy. Countries are rated to beeither Full Democracies, Flawed Democracies, Hybrid Regimes,or Authoritarian regimes. Full democracies, flaweddemocracies, and hybrid regimes are considered to bedemocracies, and the authoritarian nations areconsidered to be dictatorial. The index is based on60 indicators grouped in five different categories.

The U.S.-based Polity data series is a widely used dataseries in political science research. It containscoded annual information on regime authoritycharacteristics and transitions for all independent

states with greater than 500,000 total populationsand covers the years 1800–2006. Polity's conclusionsabout a state's level of democracy are based on anevaluation of that state's elections forcompetitiveness, openness and level of participation.Data from this series is not currently included inthe table below. The Polity work is sponsored bythe Political Instability Task Force (PITF) which isfunded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.However, the views expressed in the reports are theauthors' alone and do not represent the views of theUS Government.

THE REASONS FOR DEMOCRATIC DOWNSLIDE IN PAKISTAN:-

Partition: Colonial inheritances and institutionalimbalances.

Pakistan come into existence in 1947 since then hasbeen facing institution imbalance due to people in theregion had roots go back to births period. In Pakistanadministrative and political institution were stronglyin flounce by civil and military bureaucracies with theresult weak political institution could not holdregular elections based on universal standard. Turn ondemocratic system was lacked among the masses;democracy could not flourish to fulfill the desire andaspirations of the citizen.

After partition Muslim league had to pay fullconcentration on the rehabilitation of immigrants. Itwas the league of elites had feudal back ground thoughtQuaid-e-Azam declared Pakistan a democratic welfarestate. Muslim league was not well structured andpolitically deep rooted so could not fulfill the postpartition promises and could not counter influence ofarmy and bureaucracy and leadership was deprived ofdemocratic culture, believed in federalism.

M. A. Jinnah’s Speech

"You are free; you are free to go to your temples, youare free to go to your mosques or to any other place ofworship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong toany religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to dowith the business of the State."

“Minorities to whichever community they may belong,will be safeguarded. Their religion of faith or beliefwill be secure. There will be no interference of anykind with their freedom of worship. They will havetheir protection with regard to their religion, faith,their life, and their culture. They will be, in allrespects, the equal citizens of Pakistan without anydistinction of caste or creed.” ~ M. A. JINNAH, July14, 1947, at a press conference in New Delhi.

INTERVENTION OF NONDEMOCRATIC FORCES :-

Gradually political and bureaucratic regimes becameweaker due to non efficient deliverance of politicalinstitution, created from for army into the politicalDoman, First Martial Law in Lahore 1953, and Witnessedformal involvement of army into the civilian matter tocontrol the riots between Ahmedis and Sunnies. Fieldmarshal Ayoub Khan took over the charge of chiefmarshal law administrator and ruled the country from1958 to 1969 under so cold democracy. Rule of dictatordestroyed the democratic norms amount the massed andpolitical growth in the country. In 1969 to 1971General Yahaya Khan took over rule from 1971 to 1977there was elected political democratic government ofpeople’s party, again it was murdered by general Zia-l-Haq and kept on ruling for 10 years. In between againcollected parliamentary government of Nawaz Sharifwhich was took over by the General Pervaiz Mushraf from1999 to 2008. All military rule in Pakistan imposedMartial Law suspended right of the citizens, censorshipon media, ban on political parties destroyed theparticle institution, suspensions of constitution 1973means political growth of nation was stopped, this isthe reason democratic process and politicalinstitutions could not nature to declare goodgovernance.

Social Structure of Pakistan: NonDemocratic Democracy in internal phenomenon not external became Itis for the people and by democratic in nature meanpolitical institutions are also strong and democraticbecame both are expressions of each other Plant ofdemocracy cannot be fruitful until pass through alongprocess of demonization and conceptualization ofdemocracy.

Pakistan is an area where feudalistic fares alreadydeep rooted before partition that is why feudal systemin Pakistan could not be eradicated. British rulers ofthat time and Muslim league used to claim champion ofdemocracy but internally they them self had feudalisticbackground and approach to handle the democratic andpolitical institutions. This is true that under thecanopy of democracy, feudalism has been promoted uptill now. Since its birth Pakistan has been at themercy of either military generals or feudalpoliticians, Indian congress leaders made sincereefforts to make India world’s largest democraticpolity, because congress wasn’t the party of feudalthey immediately abolished feudalism and adopteddemocratic system where as Muslim league consolidatedfeudalism as it was the party of feudal.

This system is the biggest obstruction in the processof democracy as it demands peoples participations of

rights for all citizens and peaceful equally of rightsfor all social structure. Whereas feudalism is oppositeof democracy it demand dictatorship one man show rule,slurry, oppression truly not long lasting system togovern the state.

Election process Manipulation:Democracy “rule of the people” elect the representativethrough free and fair election to the parliament toshow their representative to take handle care of theaffairs of the state. If this major component ofdemocracy is manipulated then genuine representation ofmasses to the parliament will not be possible by forall the elections in Pakistan except 1971 and 2006 tosome extent, were manipulated.

Manipulation is a crime, violation of electioncommission rules and voting rights of citizens tochoose then popular democratic government and politicalvictimization putting masses under pressures, stateresources and assets are wasted. If the elections aregenuine and instrumental, elected representative musthave elevated the dignity of parliament.

Analysis of Democracy in Pakistan

Pakistan as a state has a democratic political systemwhich is quiet unseen. It has its own political historyhas been showing negatively in democracy federationwith the touch of democracy could have never been ableto make a real welfare state where citizens themselvesfeel satisfied with the true governmental democraticpublic policies and its true implementations to fulfillthe needs, demands and basic rights, such a kind oftrue democratic system people have been wishing to havebut unfortunately they could not see the idealdemocracy in Pakistan.

There have been many reasons for the down slid ofdemocracy in Pakistan; the most important is westernpolitical interest in Pakistan. It has an extremelyimportant geographical position. American and theirallies have huge interests in this region that is whyPakistan has been having individual-based democracy dueto influence of their interest, They want Pakistanstable, programming democratic state, They don’t wantto shatter their dream of globe dominance by allowingstrong democratic and political institutions inPakistan secondly there are also many internal reasons,The most important is the feudalistic background andmind of our political leaders don’t allow to flourishdemocracy in Pakistan, Their corrupt and monarchicattitude always create space for marshal law toinference and take over the rule.

ConclusionReasons for failed democracy in Pakistan due toprevalence of feudalism since its inception Most of thepolitical party leaders are feudal 60 to 70% ofpopulation spending their lives under their influencelike slaves, naturally they are bound to give vote intheir favor in the elections, they try their level best

to maintain paradigm of autocracy under the guise ofdemocracy.

To counter the challenges facing Pakistan democracy isthe only solution to the problems through democraticaccountability we can end up eminence of corruption inPakistan, feudalistic forces will be challenged whohave been controlling so called democracy in Pakistan.Extremism and militancy has been a great threat toPakistan for the last 25 years, greatly damage thelives of the people, their properties and democraticstructure of Pakistan and democracy promote dialogueand tolerance. Due to bad governance of democraticsystem in Pakistan small provinces have been neglectedspecially Baluchistan.

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