Participants of a roundtable on Thursday stressed the need for a continued evolution of democracy in South Asia and especially in Pakistan, as they agreed that the democratic process in the country had been a combination of positive and negative outcomes but a sustained course was essential for ensuring accountable governance in Pakistan.
The discussion on “State of Democracy: Challenges in South Asia” was organised by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS).
IRS Executive Director Ashraf Jahangir Qazi referred to modernity as a precursor for democracy rather than vice versa, and argued that in western societies, it was the democracy that had followed modernity rather than the other way round. He defined modernity as the presence of institutional structures for addressing a community’s problems and not certain predefined notions of living a life.
He advocated the mobilisation of masses on the basis of people-centric programmes for achieving modernity and, thus, a substantive democracy in South Asia.
Lt Gen (r) Saleem Hayder was of the view that such mobilisation would need sincere leadership. Dr Tanvir Ahmad Khan maintained that even though Pakistan was having all the democratic institutions, they were unable to deliver effectively because of lack of attention towards institutions that resulted in acts like land reforms and independent election commission.
Ziauddin, an eminent journalist and analyst, said democracy was not an end in itself but a means leading to equitable distribution of wealth and power in a state and society. He argued that Pakistan had not transitioned from a feudal to a democratic polity, adding that democracy had not taken root in the country because of the ascendance of military and the civil bureaucracy in the political history of Pakistan.
Ziauddin complimented the current government for developing consensus on the 18th Amendment as well as the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award. He also called the judiciary the most powerful and independent in Pakistan’s history and referred to it as a good sign for the future of democracy in the country.
He added that the judiciary and the media were exercising a collective control over the executive for keeping its activities in check. He argued that putting the whole blame of bad governance on the political government was not correct and that the rot, including in the civil bureaucracy and lower judiciary, was equally responsible for it.
IRS President Ashraf Azim, Senior Fellow Brig (r) Bashir Ahmed, Senior Research Analyst Dr Shaheen Akhtar, Aarish Khan and Arshi Saleem Hashmi, an associate professor at the National Defence University, also attended the discussion.
