The head and other prominent positions were elected unopposed
ISLAMABAD: According to the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, democracy is being weakened by Mian Nawaz Sharif and destabilised by Imran Khan. Both leaders are one and the same in the eyes of Syed Khurshid Shah. The heads of the PPP and the PML-N consider their parties as extensions of their personalities. Imran Khan, on the other hand, considers the PPP and the PML-N partners in politics. While he talks a lot about democracy, his party has delayed intra-party elections for one reason or the other. There does not appear to be an iota of democratic norm in any party in the country. For our leaders, democracy is an instrument to gain power and treat those who chose them as subjects, not citizens.
More recently, we have witnessed a farce in the name of intra-party polls by the PML-N at the convention centre in Islamabad. The head and other prominent positions were elected unopposed and the lower positions would be distributed among handpicked persons for their obedience. Real democracy springs from the grassroots level and not from top down. In the West, democracy is by the people, for the people, and of the people. In our country it is ‘off’ the people, ‘buy’ the people, for the people who are privileged and powerful, not the common man. This, by no means, is democracy, but looks like the system of a despot who uses a segment of people to keep the rest in check. One would like democracy where every person is respected and no one is idolised or demonised. In the absence of the basic necessities of life, the present democracy, in Edmund Burke’s view, is like tyranny of the multitude, which is a multiplied tyranny.
Raja Shafaatullah
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2016.
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