Dr Hasan Askari has painted an accurate picture about the country’s politics and role being played by various political parties who continue to fight among themselves. It was the joint responsibility of the major political parties to steer the country out of the crisis after prolonged rule by a dictator, but sorry to say that after three years of purely democratic rule, the end result is zero. The writer talks about alternate leadership like PTI and JI; this could be a wishful thinking because our politics revolve around personalities irrespective of their agendas that ultimately fades away after the election process is over.
Therefore, it is difficult to create any dent in their vote bank. Media is playing a very constructive role by highlighting the weaknesses and bad governance on the part of current rulers but it had very little effect on them.
What happened in Azad Kashmir elections is simply a trailer of what is going to happen in the coming general elections. We have yet to attain maturity in politics. It is true that opposition parties, especially the PML(N), are targeting army and ISI but this is not going to help any political party or going to increase their vote bank. In fact, they are exposing themselves to such an extent that it will be difficult for them to maintain this stance for a longer period.
The writer has rightly summed up that we cannot afford another collapse of democracy. If we really want democracy to flourish, let all the institutions work in close harmony.
LT COL (retd) MUKHTAR A BUTT
Karachi
