Why a democratic Pakistan is a far cry?

Not even a single prime minister in the 75 years of history of Pakistan has completed a full tenure of his office. Beginning with the assassination of the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, the country’s twenty-second Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted through a no-confidence motion. It was the first time in the history of Pakistan that a sitting Prime Minister was removed through a vote of no confidence.

No Public Leader has ever Completed the Tenure

Historically, prime ministers were removed from their office on a basis of a variety of reasons. This included the dissolution of the government, the imposition of martial law, through resignation or assassination, by president dismissal, and the disqualification by the Supreme Court. However, none was ousted through a no-confidence motion. In the words of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a no-confidence move can never be successful without the military’s tacit approval.

The Pakistan of Jinnah

This is the very reason Pakistan has not become the truly Democratic country, which the founder, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has imagined it to be.

In order to become a truly developed country, the strengthening of the Democratic principle is the basic necessity, but the politicians in Pakistan are not allowing the democratic norms to flourish in the country.

Why Sham Democracy for Pakistan?

What we saw during the ouster of the Prime Minister was the political engineering not supported by the will of the masses. The opposition political parties are calling the whole process a victory of democracy. However, many of the democratic principles were neglected and violated during the removal of Imran Khan.

For instance, we cannot find a single example, in a truly established democracy, where lawmakers are bought and sold during broad daylight. Similarly, during this whole Saga, we have also witnessed the unholy alliance of those political parties which are poles apart from one another on the ideological front. Moreover, most politicians have their hidden personal agenda instead of the national interest as their guide to achieving the power corridors.

Thus, we have witnessed the violations of the laws and the constitution in this episode with impunity.

Pakistan on the Path of Welfare

It is true that most of the policies of Imran Khan’s government were driving the country in the right direction to becoming a truly independent state. Therefore we cannot rule out the possibility of a foreign hand in his ouster.   

This is exactly what has been confirmed –twice– by the National Security Committee. “There was blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan by a foreign country”, the communique read. However, no serious steps have been taken on the state level to counter such hostile act by the security establishment.

According to the law country, there should be some serious allegations against the Prime Minister in order to table the no-confidence motion. In this case, there was no serious allegation against the Prime Minister. The only reason cited was that there were massive inflation and higher commodity prices, which in my view were the global worldwide phenomenon. Hence the success of no confidence has made this whole process more controversial.    

Focus on Economy, for God’s sake!

Up till now, the only agenda of all the opposition political parties were to remove the Imran Khan from the Prime Minister’s office. They have been successful in that. However, they have no idea what to do next. This whole political fiasco revolves around Economic management.  Now the government (previous opposition) should focus only on managing the Economic Affairs of Pakistan, which seems to be failing.  

They have to focus on one point agenda, which is the economy! Since this was the agenda on the basis on which the previous government was toppled. So now, it’s their sole responsibility to correct, the direction of the economy. People are now demanding dollar devaluation and the minimization of inflation along with commodity prices.

Nevertheless, since the (appointment) of the new cabinet and the Prime Minister, no serious work has been done in correcting the economy. So far, the government’s focus is on achieving some personal and political interest and vendetta. This speaks volumes that they do not represent the plight of commoners.   

Only time will tell the reality.