The political instability rose in the regime of President Musharraf when the Chief Justice of Pakistan was sacked without any reference and sent to home, later under house arrest.
The murder of Benazir further added to the political instability, but now after the establishment of a democratic government, political instability has been reduced to a greater extent. The major factors which have contributed to the political instability of Pakistan over the number of years are: military takeovers, failure of democratic governments in achieving goals, terrorist activities and unstructured and uncertain environment. Overall, political environment will take time to stabilise.
Absence of strict punishments for the power usurpers in the constitution allowed them to manipulate the political and constitutional institutions as they wanted. Civil and military dictators played havoc with the constitution, parliament and political parties.
Political parties in Pakistan are also not so doing well. The intra-party election is nowhere to be seen. The leaders, consequently, are autocrats. Political parties are famous in the name of leader of the parties. Personification has harmed extremely the true essence of democracy.
Judiciary has also dual strategies. Mostly the role of the judiciary has been vulnerable. It has always provided a so-called legal way to the dictators to assume the power. The constitution has been abrogated many a time with the help of the judiciary. Beside the judiciary and army’s role in politics, the intelligence agencies have become a major actor on the national political scene. Military intelligence and Inter-Services-Intelligence are widely believed to have had a major hand in shaping the candidates and the choices available to voters at least since General Zia’s general election of 1985. In this situation, how a true democratic government could be formed to realise the dreams of the great Quaid?
The element which has vitiated the democracy in Pakistan is violence in politics. The patience required for a democratic system is highly lacking in almost all the parties and theirs drivers. Democracy accommodates the presence of dissenting party. Democracy is the product of wishes of the people and not of the desires of an elite few. But political parties of Pakistan could not do so. Illiterate voters, family ties among politicians and feudalism has constrained democracy in Pakistan.
TEHMINA AMJAD
Lahore
