Enough!
Pakistan’s particular democratic model leaves a little something to be desired sometimes, to say the least. The recent bitterness before and after the NA-122 bye-election is a good example. Nowhere in the intense campaigning was there any mention of how competing politicians, and parties, planned to take their constituency, and the country, forward. The campaigns were dominated by mudslinging and badmouthing; where being the better man simply amounted to putting the other in worse light. More often than not things became intolerable. And there was an unhealthy use of money, once again proving that politics and democracy remain in firm control of the moneyed class.
And there are worse problems also. Of late there has been a disturbing trend of fighting political battles in public space, especially within parties. Suddenly there are very visible cracks in the ruling party. The Faisalabad faction is not happy with the Punjab chief minister and his close team. The planning minister is at odds with the power minister. The interior and defence ministers have not talked in four years, and seemed quite happy to admit it on TV. Of course this trend is not restricted to the ruling party. PTI infighting has lingered so long, and assumed such strange dimensions, that is taken as a joke in certain circles. Every few weeks there are reports of some senior people falling out, and sooner rather than later they drag the fight into the public arena.
Strangely, it seems it is our most senior politicians that need the most urgent, and exhaustive, lessons in basic democracy. In their self-glorified and celebrated struggle to save and sustain democracy, they seem to have forgotten that the institution revolves around the common people, whose needs must be addressed. And they also do not realise that people are far wiser now than before. They have watched the custodians of democracy once again assume power and wealth at the cost of the common man. In such circumstances, issues like smooth transfer of power between civilian governments have little value for the man struggling on the street. And when comes election time, he has the ultimate power to have his voice heard. Hopefully the political elite will wake up to this reality before it is too late, and take note of people’s concerns for a change.
