The right to govern.

Byline: Tariq Khosa

WHAT makes a government legitimate? The perception about consent of the governed revolves around the dominant view that public officials have the right to rule even if they are unfair or unfit as long as they gain power through procedures like elections. However, adherence to procedure is not enough: even a properly chosen government does not rule legitimately if it fails to protect basic rights, treat its citizens as equals, or act without transparency and coherence.

In order to ensure its legitimacy, a government must uphold three principles: (i) liberty, requiring that the fundamental rights of citizens be secured; (ii) equality, requiring that citizens not only have fair and equal say in selecting who governs them but that the process should be above reproach or suspicion of rigging; and (iii) agency, ensuring that a government's actions reflect its decisions taken after due debate and deliberations, and that those decisions reflect reasons of public good and do not promote narrow interests of certain individuals, groups or institutions.

In the present unsettled times for democratic dispensations, governments the world over are failing this test by not adhering to these three principles - and, sadly, drifting towards totalitarian tendencies and praetorian rule of law. Pakistan too finds itself caught in this dangerous drift, particularly accentuated in the last few years. The republic requires course correction, and here is why.

A state determines its national purpose, interests and objectives and makes policies, strategies and action plans accordingly. Our national purpose was delineated by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah as a democratic and enlightened polity based upon the principle of social justice and thus pursuing our national objectives through peace, progress and prosperity. Unfortunately, we lost sight of this purpose and ended up becoming a security state at cross purposes with the democratic aspirations of a society that requires political, economic and social justice. Unless we humanise the state, the national security narrative will continue to dominate at the expense of human security and development.

In order to ensure its legitimacy, a government must uphold three principles - liberty, equality and agency.

Rule of law, constitutionalism, human rights and due process have become casualties of our national security framework, in vogue despite no formal national security policy, which has yet to be...