Pakistan democracy in death throes

“Every country has an army,
In case of Pakistan, the army has a country.”

It seems imminent that Pakistan is going to have a quasi-military government within the next few days. Military rule is not new in Pakistan. In fact, out of 63 years of its troubled existence, Pakistan never had a truly functional democratic governance system. However, in recent months there was a glimmer of hope that democracy may take root in Pakistan. Fourteen months ago when Nawaz Sharif won the election and took charge, it was seen as a triumphant victory for democracy in Pakistan. For the first time in Pakistan's history, one elected government actually handed over power to another elected government.

Unfortunately, that hope for democracy withered away as the cricketer turned politician Imran Khan appeared in the scene as the front man for the Pakistani military establishment. It did not need to happen like this. Sometimes it is hard to change the trajectory of history. It seems inevitable that over the years Pakistan will morph into a rogue state with nuclear weapon. But one may ask why it is so. A simple but straightforward answer is that under the feudalistic and dynastic rule in Pakistan, democracy never had a chance to flourish. The independent institutions in a state which are critically important for functioning of democratic governance could not develop properly. The widespread rigging in the last election, as alleged by Imran Khan, could not and would not happen if the election commission in Pakistan was truly independent.

While we ponder over the plight of Pakistani political process, we may perhaps ask ourselves: which election was more rigged – May 11, 2013 election in Pakistan or January 5, 2014 election in Bangladesh?

Dr. Manjur Chowdhury
Chief Entomologist & CEO, SAFEWAY
Banani, Dhaka