We always talk about democracy but as it happens we are not a nation which can even understand the meaning of democracy. It is very easy to raise the slogans of liberty, equality and fraternity. We talk about making Pakistan a welfare state but neither our ruling class had ever tried to establish it nor the civilian governments did anything in this regard.
Democracy needs a patriotic ruling class where the rulers should sacrifice personal interests for national interests but unfortunately we never had such rulers. The rulers in Pakistan depend on bureaucrats who happen to be power-mongers, greedy, corrupt and materialists.
They have taken the public’s money and fattened their foreign accounts with it. The same was done by most of our politicians. They claim to provide food, clothing and shelter to the people but in fact they have deprived the people of these basic necessities of life.
In fact, Pakistan is a country where more than 60 percent population lives in rural area which is illiterate, and may continue to remain illiterate if they do not act wisely. Hunger and disease is their fate. Democracy is a function of education and only educated voters can choose wisely the representatives to form the governments.
If any sensible patriotic government comes to power, only then we can think to form a real democracy which means “Government of the people, for the people and by the people”. Such democracies can be seen in the USA, England and many other countries. As far as Pakistan is concerned, it would better be ruled by army or semi-military democracies because at least army is patriotic.
SANA ASLAM
Karachi
