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Democratic Pakistan to be a role model for Islamic world

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Senator Dr Abdullah Riar, a Pakistan People’s Party member, said here on Wednesday that were the United States to help Pakistan regain democracy and constitutional rule, it could serve as a model for the Islamic world.

In an address on Pakistan and the present political situation, the PPP lawmaker said if Washington was truly serious about democracy and civilian rule taking root in Muslim countries, as it professes, then it should first help Pakistan take that road, instead of backing the present military-led government.

Despite Pakistan’s chequered history, said Riar, he was optimistic about the prospect of Pakistan regaining representative rule. The last six years, he stressed, had brought upon the nation another phase of “deliberate political management” with the collaboration of a feudal and religious substructure. The country is going through a constitutional and democratic crisis. A progressive, liberal- democratic Pakistan is the only way forward to address the issues of social development, and combating terrorism and fundamentalism in both the long and the short run. President Pervez Musharraf’s continued insistence to keep his military uniform as well as occupy political space has become an obstacle for the resumption of the democratic process. The seven point agenda he promised to implement on taking over had fallen by the wayside, he added.

Sen Riar said in Pakistan institutions have been depoliticised and the military has been politicised. Virtually every public enterprise is currently headed by a retired military officer or an affiliate. Federal-provincial issues, such as a fair and equitable distribution of financial resources, remain unresolved. The most contentious question relates to the distribution of waters which is creating signs of instability in the minority provinces. While the country has achieved a certain degree of macro-economic stability, there has been a growing increase in unemployment and it is obvious that macro economic stability has had no visible impact on the daily life of the people of Pakistan. On the contrary, inflationary pressures have squeezed the last penny from the pockets of those who need it the most. He said the accountability that the regime had promised has been turned into a political instrument against opponents. The mainstream leadership has been driven out of the country. Unprecedented manipulation of the electoral process in the 2002 general elections andthe recent local government elections has distorted the political process in critical ways.

The PPP legislator said by holding non-party local elections, the regime had reinforced ethnic, sectarian and fundamentalist fault-lines in the Pakistani society through suppression of the fair and equal environment that political parties like the PPP seek to build. As a result, secular leaders and parties have been marginalised and regressive forces strengthened and built up. He said were the recent local council elections to be taken as a pointer, one could hold little hope for the fairness of the 2007 national elections. He called for the appointment of a credible and impartial national election commission. He said, “Musharraf’s isolation in the domestic context is impacting his ability to deliver on anti-terrorist goals with each passing day. He does not have the legitimate political mechanism or support to follow through on combating fundamentalism.”

Sen Riar called the policy being followed towards India as a “highly erratic and individualised process with no national consensus being built on the ground.” Mainstream political parties and parliament are being marginalised and blocked out of the exercise now underway. While the military is politicised, the nation is being steadily depoliticised. “The downside is huge, as Pakistan is essentially a young, non-homogenous country in need of political pluralism to reconcile competing provincial, sectarian and ethnic interests. The unitary nature of a military regime has never suited Pakistan, a lesson engraved on the national psyche after the trauma of 1971,” he added.

He said Gen Musharraf keeps international and regional fears alive by insisting that Pakistan’s stability and security depend entirely on his person, which is projected as a justification for concentrating all powers in his dual offices. However, there was reason to be optimistic. The Pakistan of today is not same as it was in previous decades. There is much greater receptivity for democracy and unrepresentative rule is viewed as anachronistic. Urbanisation is another fillip for democracy. Because of the communications resolution, even in far-flung areas, people can see how successful societies manage their affairs, or how in a neighbouring country the government in office has been sent packing. “This phenomenon is a counterforce to the logic of authoritarianism and feudalism in this era of globalisation,” he added.

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