- The challenges to continue in 2020s
Despite major gains in the fight to make Pakistan a parliamentary republic, the goal of civilian supremacy as envisioned by Founding Father Mohammad Ali Jinnah remained a dream in the last decade. The struggle for genuine democracy will continue in the new decade beginning today.
The successes achieved include constitutional amendments, including the 18th Amendment that restored the centrality of the Prime Minister’s office; the 19th Amendment that reformed the judicial appointments procedure; and the 20th Amendment that set down a procedure to install a caretaker set-up and matters related to the formation of the Election Commission. Major parties in the parliament however failed to remove the amendments introduced by Ziaul Haq in Articles 62 and 63, requiring legislators to be Sadiq and Ameen. They also failed to reduce the arbitrary powers given to NAB by President Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf. The short-sightedness on the part of the PPP and PML-N was to cost them dearly in the years to come.
Another success was the apparently orderly transfer of power from one elected government to another. The pre-poll rigging in the 2018 elections however showed that offstage players could still play a crucial role in installing a government of their choice.
The struggle for democracy also suffered setbacks. The civilian turf lost to non-elected bodies could not be retrieved. Thus, decisions about vital foreign affairs and internal security matters remained in the hands of offstage players.
With so many private TV channels and apparently a free press there was initially a lot of euphoria about media freedom. This was to end soon when all kinds of pressures were used to curb media circulation and ruin it financially
Economy was not given sufficient importance during the last decade. Pakistan consequently fell behind several regional countries including Bangladesh in per capita income, foreign reserves, life expectancy, population control and literacy rate. Pakistan currently faces a wave of unemployment and rise in poverty levels.
The tussle to make Pakistan a modern democracy and a social welfare state rather than a national security state will continue in the 2020s. Its outcome will depend on how far the mainstream parties are able to reform themselves. These parties have to be much more responsive to common man’s issues, evolve well thought out economic strategies instead of depending on empty slogans and remove the perception that they have turned parliament into a billionaires club. Instead of depending on electables they should encourage educated middle class politicians by drastically reducing election expenses. Above all they have to have to be more rooted among the masses than they currently are.
