“A Ballot Box Democracy is dangerous for Pakistan.” These are the words of Sabiha Sumar, an independent filmmaker from Karachi, Pakistan. Reluctantly, I agree with her! Reluctantly, because I would rather have an ‘Imperfect Democracy’ than a ‘Virtuous Autocracy’. But when it comes to Pakistan, an imperfect democracy is more dangerous than an authoritarian ‘Military Dictatorship’. Remember the democracy in Pakistan under Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif? The country was headed towards a ‘Failed State’ status. Taliban and Al-Qaeda were established and nurtured in Afghanistan during that period. Even the sordid A Q Khan episode took place during the democracy in Pakistan. It is not just the corruption that reaches to high heavens during democratic dispensations, but the surge in ‘Islamic Fundamentalism’ that rears its ugly head every time Pakistan returns to democracy. What do you think would happen this time around? I am holding my breath!
Unlike India, Pakistan was not really conceived as a democratic state. With the exception of Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, no one in the Muslim League was really a democrat at heart. On top of all this, religious identity was the basic justification for forcing the partition. These were not good signs for a brand new ‘Democratic State’. Unfortunately, Jinnah did not survive long enough to help establish the institutions of democracy. It was left to the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, to carry the load virtually single handedly. On October 16, 1951, Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated at a public meeting. The fate of Pakistan’s democracy was sealed that day. Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan was succeeded by Khawaja Nizimuddin, a Bengali, who had no local support in West Pakistan. All this while General Mohammed Ayub Khan was waiting in the wings. He took over the country in a military coup on October 27, 1958. Rest is history!
Democracies take time to develop. Even the United States of America took decades to develop as a stable functioning democracy. Even today, the ‘Presidential Candidates’ talk of an ‘Imperfect Union’. That means, work in progress. Pakistan was very unfortunate, it never got the time or the leadership to develop as a ‘Nation State’. What you have today is the legacy of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf.
Filed under: Pakistan | Tagged: A Q Khan, Al-Qaeda, Ballot Box Democracy, Benazir Bhutto, Democratic State, Failed State, General Mohammed Ayub Khan, Imperfect Democracy, Islamic Fundamentalism, Karachi Pakistan, Khawaja Nizimuddin, Liaquat Ali Khan, Military Dictatorship, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Muslim League, Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, Nawaz Sharif, October 16th 1951, October 27th 1958, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Sabiha Sumar, Taliban, Virtuous Autocracy, West Pakistan
