The Child Democracy
Rana Rizwan Hussain
Alas, the child democracy which reached the age of five years for the first time in Pakistan has been stabbed again. It is said that it is a human tendency to swallow the sweet and spit the bitter but in Pakistan it has been proved to be otherwise. The people of Pakistan swallowed the bitterness of system for last five years and when they came to taste the sweet, it was already taken away from them. What a misery it is for a nation to not to be able to decide its own fate. It was a very healthy gesture on the part of all those external forces who could derail but did not derail democracy from its evolutionary process, particularly when there came many opportunities for that in the last five years. The statements in favour of democracy from all those quarters were very encouraging and it sounded that for the first time all the big guns were determined to support the democratic system for the sake of betterment of Pakistan.
The elections 2013 have brought before us number of novel aspects which were never observed before in the history of Pakistan. The zeal which the youth showed for the preparations of the elections and 60% voters turn out all over the country which never happened before. The overseas Pakistanis traveling back to Pakistan in groups only for casting their votes and the sight of elderly people standing in the long queues to make their contribution in the democratic process are the events which have never come to scene before. In these elections the nation was all ready to do a good to themselves by choosing honest leadership and bring a positive and favourable change in the country. After all, this was the time for them to taste the sweet after undergoing five years of terrible governance. The masses trusted the co-operation of those quarters who supported democracy during those five years when it went below its minimum standards and expected that with the same co-operation they would be able to choose the next representative of their choice. The nation had every right to feel the relief after passing through the toughest economic conditions. Unlike that what has happened is that the masses are out on roads, media is speaking of the record election rigging in large number of constituencies where voting turn out has been much larger than the registered voters there. The proofs of rigging are not what should be discussed in this article but it is abundantly clear that the type of rigging which has taken place cannot occur without a freehand from those quarters about whom the masses believed that they would play a supportive role for the upbringing of democracy. Those quarters should have respected the public mandate if not for the sake of people of Pakistan but for the sake of the same child democracy whom they nourished for five years and let that bad child hound the people throughout the period. Those who kept aback from interfering into the democratic process at that time should have reserved themselves from interfering into the electoral process as well, as that was the day for the people of Pakistan to decide their destiny. A fake public mandate is no better than a dictatorship rather it can be worse for many reasons. It is a question which remains unanswered to me that why the child democracy should be killed just after five years when it was brought up with a determination to grow it old into a strong and sturdy man. This is an intervention not only into the democratic process but also into the public opinion and the will and desire of the people to improve the system they live in. This unfortunate interjection is likely to have serious repercussions upon the short and long term politics of Pakistan.
For people of Pakistan, there is an advice. Democracy is not a system which rests in the hands of powerful people for protecting their vested interests but it is a tool which exists with the common people and can be used through public opinion all the time. It is said that where there is a wrong, there is a remedy. The wrong which has been done to the nation through rigging the elections can be remedied through standing against the ill intentions of those who have done it and of those who have caused it. The biggest cure of the illness which we have got as a result of elections 2013 is to keep showing our determination to have a Naya Pakistan and by standing against those who obstruct its way. For all other who are concerned the advice is to let the democracy groom and become strong enough to defend itself against its enemies, as this is in interest of all.
Writer is a practicing lawyer based in Lahore, lecturer of commercial law and founding partner at Hussain & Associates; hnachambers@gmail.com
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