What’s Real Democracy? Can’t Say Because it’s Not Here in Pakistan

Sharif’s, the so-called bearers of democracy aren’t stepping down from power to honor the democratic process. Even after the Panama gate episode, the family stands blithely before the world.

Nawaz Sharif (the former Prime Minister of Pakistan) isn’t ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’ anymore as declared by the Supreme Court in consonance with the Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution. But every day he appears to a big turnout posing an imbecile question, “Mujhe kiun nikala” (Why ousted me?). Welcome to democracy in Pakistan.

Yes. That’s how it goes. An ousted Prime Minister holds Jalsas around the country and defames the paramount judicial institution, the non-heirs of Bhutto ask for votes in the upcoming General Elections claiming a forged lineage, a party whose leader threatened the writ of Pakistan gets the latitude to come to power again.

As against the popular definition of democracy by Abraham Lincoln: “Democracy is to the people, for the people, and by the people”, witness the Pakistani version now. It is a democracy “to the fiefdoms, for the business, by the Sharifs, Bhuttos, and whoever agrees to their absolutist alliances.”

We have a democratic infrastructure but not democratic settlers to govern and run it. We have the ministry of education, but no access to education; we have the ministry of health, but patients die because of insufficient resources; we have the ministry of information, but we can’t stop the knife stabber from spreading terror; we have the ministry of energy, but we can’t predict when we will have the power outages abated. That’s how we roll in our version of democracy.

It is unfortunate that the bearers of democracy (the parliamentarians) can’t hold onto the system because they have other things to do, like enchant party slogans, attend investigation sessions, defame the opposing political party, file references, prove their counterfeit assets and degrees, etc. Over the years, they have evolved in no terms except for in affluence of wealth.

In a few quick points, let’s see how democracy works in Pakistan:

It is restricted to accumulating votes and never getting back to the voters after a success. Remember the promise of making Pakistan load-shedding free by 2016?

It is to give air to social causes at a given time to serves one’s political interest but never genuinely working to eradicate the problem from its core. Who doesn’t recall the famous slogan: ‘Roti, Kapra, Aur Makaan’?

It is to use one’s ancestry as an open ticket to rule the country without actually qualifying for the position. You must know that Bilawal Bhutto cum Zardari is contesting for Prime Ministership this year.

It is to curb the freedom of speech that exposes the real face of the democracy-of-interest while promoting the same freedom against religion. Let them burn down the Quran and don’t punish because Quran preaches to forgive. Our patent of double standards.

It is trading on foreign funding to eradicate terrorism but doing nothing beyond passing resolutions in the national assemblies. Anyone with an update on FATA reforms?

It is muckraking the defense forces for intrusion in the democratic affairs but never actually taking care of the security condition of the country itself. Shut all those signals and let no one talk when it’s critical on Ashura and Eid Milad un Nabi, because silly, don’t you know that our police is impotent to track miscreants?

With a poverty that is skyrocketing in global charts, our democracy is spending billions to successfully run election campaigns, while also deploring the military budget. I heard someone question the land sold to DHA lately. I am amazed why didn’t he inquire about the land allotted to the Benazir Housing Cell that never came into sight.