The whispered warning

Today is the first day of an era in which the entire democratic superstructure is finally in place in Pakistan


Fahd Husain December 05, 2015
PHOTO: TMN

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. — TS Eliot

And so ends the final round of the local government elections in Pakistan, an achievement in itself whose credit would mostly go to the Supreme Court. Had the judges not browbeaten the provincial governments into holding them, the mega electoral exercise would most certainly have not unfolded.

Today then is the first day of an era in which the entire democratic superstructure is finally in place in Pakistan. It signifies the end of a period dominated completely by the federal and provincial governments, and the start of a process that should theoretically lead to grass-root empowerment.

Joy, relief for winners

This much is obvious. What is slightly less so is the fine print at the bottom, which signals a warning to all and sundry: you are now entering unchartered territory where rising expectations of the electorate can lead to all kinds of unforeseen, unpredictable and perhaps even uncontrollable consequences. Let’s dive right into the fine print.

The theory of ‘Social Contract’ was an important facet of European political and intellectual discourse from the mid-17th to the 19th centuries. Titans like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacque Rousseau and Immanuel Kant delved into it in their writings, which in turn became the foundations of the modern political structure prevalent in democratic societies. Simply put, the social contract states that people surrender their natural given rights to the ruler in return for the protection of their rights. In modern terms, this would mean giving the government the right to make laws and the right to enforce these laws, in return for which the government provides us basic rights that allow us to live orderly and fulfilling lives.

Fine. But how does this lesson in political science connect to the just-completed local government elections?

PML-N leads in Punjab with 560 seats, followed by independents with 513



The explanation is circular. Today, formally, Pakistan is a complete democracy. From the Union Council to parliament and the Senate, all people holding the power to make decisions have a public mandate to do so. The judiciary is independent and the media unfettered. Every nut and bolt holding the democratic structure in place, is in place. The social contract is drawn up, and signed.

And now it begins. So we the people say to the government: you tax us, so in return give us the services and protections that you have promised. It is a pure and simple give-and-take. If there is a discrepancy between what the government takes, and what it provides in return, this constitutes a classic ‘performance deficit’. This deficit can lead to major social and political upheavals.

Dar lures provinces to justify Rs40b mini budget

And deficit there is. Protection of life and property? Nope. Provision of education for all children? Nope. A service-oriented police? Nope. Justice and protection against abuse by the State? Nope. Due process and the rule of the law that does not discriminate between the rich and the poor, the mighty and the weak? Nope.

So Mr Ishaq Dar when you tax me, you are actually robbing me blind. But now it’s not just Mr Dar who will shoulder the burden of this performance deficit; now the mayors, and the chairmen and their deputies too will face the music. The cities, town and villages that we inhabit are a mess; broken infrastructure, imaginary sanitation, poor municipal facilities and a general sense of decay all around us. The villains are obvious: between them, the prime minister, chief minister and the mayor are responsible for making my life and that of my family better, but they are not — at least not in the true sense. What do I mean by that?

Let’s state the obvious first: on a purely human level, the average Pakistani is far worse off than, say an average Briton. Both, however, pay taxes (or are required to by law). This being the case, is it just the Pakistani citizen’s divine misfortune that he or she has been born in a land that is governed by rulers who are unwilling to keep up their side of the social contract? You as a citizen have transferred your natural born rights to the rulers by giving them a mandate, but in return you will only get a partial delivery of service. Your child may never get the education promised by the Constitution. This deprivation will ensure he will live a disadvantaged life, and will never ever be able to rise to the fullest potential he was born with. Multiply this tragedy to cover the entire population of kids that are out of schools and you have a future that is burdened by a nation that will be a burden on this world. Why? Because one side is not fulfilling its part of the contract.

So, tomorrow when I see trash lying on the road, I will curse the mayor. Tomorrow when I see little kids begging on intersections, I will curse the chief minister. Tomorrow when I see federal money being spent on bricks and mortar instead of flesh and bones, I will curse the prime minister. I will curse them because they rule me in the name of a social contract that now seems like daylight robbery. I will curse them because they rule me in the name of a Constitution that clearly has limited relevance to my life and that of my children. I will curse them because they rule me in the name of morals and principles rooted in my great religion that reformed a backward society within one generation and transformed it into a global superpower. I will curse them because they cover themselves in religious garbs but keep this society illiterate, backward and archaic. I will curse them for their broken promises, their lies and their betrayal.

All hail the successful completion of our electoral cycle. In the end, however, lies the beginning. The social contract is fluttering in the wind like a tattered flag — ripped, torn, shredded yet defiant. The PM, CM and Mayor might want to take a break from patting their backs to read through the fine print.

It is whispering a warning.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2015.

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COMMENTS (9)

S.R.H. Hashmi | 8 years ago | Reply Peoples Party leaders never tire of taking credit for introducing the true spirit of democracy by organizing devolution from the federation to the provinces, though I do have grave doubts as to their true intentions for doing so. Perhaps they knew that the advantage and the sympathy vote they managed to grab in the 2008 elections due to tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto would not be available in later elections and they could be confined to Sindh. So, to prepare for such a situation, they devolved maximum power to the provinces. This conclusion is further strengthened by the argument that had they really been interested in devolution, they would not have hesitated in devolving power further down to the local governments, which is what really takes democracy to the grass roots level. And instead of devolving power further down, they just did the reverse. Both Sindh and Punjab provinces deprived the local governments even of the power that the military dictator Pervez Musharraf had given them, through repeated hacking down of the local government Act. And they held local government elections even for these much diluted bodies on the insistence of the Supreme Court, and that clearly shows what service these gentlemen have done to democracy. And as you point out in you article, now we have a larger range of top officials to curse for non-delivery of service, with Mayors (Nazims) added to the positions of prime minister and chief ministers. However, the Mayor would have to bear unnecessary blame because he would not have adequate means to serve the masses for the simple reason that the local governments have been deprived of most of the powers, and the financial resources that go with them. And that means our national leaders have played another dirty trick on us. Karachi
Parvez | 8 years ago | Reply Simple lesson for the people of Pakistan to learn is......Elections alone don't make a democracy.
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