Unpredictable Future

Pakistan stands at a crossroads. Its survival is now dependent on its economic well-being which in turn can only be achieved by a stable political regime elected by the people through free and fair elections without any engineering or intervention. To achieve this prime objective, it is imperative that the much-needed constitutional and legal reforms in the electoral system are undertaken without any further delay as its present legal and constitutional dispensation has failed to guard against corrupt regimes and proven counter-productive. Moreover, it has to break with its past, shunning practices that have caused regime failures throughout its political history. It is time to make a fresh solemn pledge to honour and uphold the noble and exalted promise made some seventy three years ago by its founding fathers and recoded in the Objectives Resolution wherein it was irreversibly agreed and decided that the authority in Pakistan was to be exercised through the chosen representatives of the people. It is the grundnorm (basic norm) of Pakistan’s constitutional order that has been violated time and again by all and sundry.

A look at the political history of Pakistan would show that military interventions were sought to be justified on the grounds of necessity. Pakistan had a continued existential threat from its hegemonic neighbour India with whom it had fought four full-fledged wars. A continued state of emergency and a hybrid political system denying fundamental rights hampered the growth of political and social awareness and culture necessary for the election of a stable government. There is a general belief that access to power has been possible with the aid and blessings of the establishment that has arrogated to itself the right of protecting Pakistan’s ideological and physical boundaries. Thus, all political governments hardly completed their term in office and if they completed their terms fraught with political and economic instability causing a regime failure as those governments failed to complete their programs and fulfill promises made during election campaigns.

The regime failures in Pakistan have mainly occurred due to two reasons. In the first instance, there is an undemocratic behaviour of political elite, political parties and leaders who are always ready and willing to lend their shoulders to topple ‘elected’ governments. Political leadership in Pakistan mainly belongs to a landed aristocracy and an urban elite coming from industrial, commercial and real estate businesses and is close-knitted because of inter-marriages and common interests that have deeps links in the establishment for whom power is a source of wealth generation and an instrument of perpetuation of prestige and privilege. The second reason is the continued praetorian role of the establishment that has kept the democratic process within bounds.

Unfortunately, none of the political leaders has risen to the higher echelons of a political party and power from the grassroots. From the early fifties, power intrigues, infighting and intolerance amongst the political classes also delayed constitution-making and regime failures bear witness to it. During that period (1947-1957) several governments were dismissed at short intervals which created a culture of political instability and distrust in politics. One political leader was pitched up against the other in the power game. Regrettably, this sorry state of affairs has continued even now.