Is this democracy?

CAN the political melodrama being enacted in Pakistan today be called democracy? Those involved - all political leaders, the media, the anchors and others - believe this is democracy. The events that are portrayed 24/7 on TV, WhatsApp and Facebook are seen as giving the people a voice. How the 'voice-giving process' is being conducted is nobody's business. All we old-timers know is that we cannot call a spade a spade.

The fact is that we have never had democracy - the version envisaged by Mr Jinnah - since the country was born nearly 75 years ago. Given the Quaid's penchant for law and orderliness he adopted the British-style parliamentary system which was given to us as the British parliament's Act of 1935. It took our constituent assembly/assemblies nine years of virulent infighting to frame our own Basic Law which is supposed to be the social contract between the state and the people. This had not even been sanctified by an election when Gen Ayub imposed his martial law in 1958. The first countrywide general elections were held in 1970 which ironically led to the break-up of the country after nine months of army action in East Pakistan and a war with India. Can one term this period as democratic?

Yet our romance with democracy refused to die despite all the mishaps. We have yet to understand the nuances and deeper meaning of democracy and its basic requisites. People do not know, let alone understand, the aberrations that mark our constitutional history.

For instance, we have pretended that a serving army general, also the commander-in-chief (Ayub) being appointed the defence minister in a civilian cabinet is a norm in democracy. Similarly, no eyebrows were raised when a civilian politician (Bhutto) was appointed martial law administrator in December 1971.

We have yet to understand the nuances and deeper meaning of democracy.

It took centuries of social, economic and political evolution to pave the ground for democracy as we see it in action in the West today. It is this experience of hundreds of years of development that has made Western societies what they are today internally - largely tolerant, honest and displaying sportsmanship. Admittedly, there are exceptions, but then, there are also strong judicial mechanisms to address the ills that crop up. However, the evils of power manifest themselves in abundance in interstate relations that are the legacy of imperialism. For that, the former colonial states had to strengthen themselves...