Musharraf says democracy in Pakistan is ineffective

Says army has always had role since country’s independence

Former president and military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has said in Pakistan democracy is an ineffective system, whose failures have to be countered through military intervention.

“Democracy is an ineffective system for Pakistan as there are no checks and balances in the system and to counter such failures army has to act because people of Pakistan expected too much good from military,” Musharraf said while speaking at the Washington Ideas Forum.



He said the ‘inherent weakness’ of Pakistan is that democracy in the country has not been tailored in accordance with the dictates of the environment.

“So, therefore, we have to maybe tailor the political structure in accordance with the dictates of Pakistan, introduce checks and balances so that misgovernance does not take place and the army does not have to come into politics,” he said, when asked about the future of democracy in Pakistan.



Musharraf said the army has always had a role since Pakistan’s independence. “It has played a very prominent role in the governance of Pakistan, mainly because of misgovernance by all the so-called democratically-elected governments,” he added.

Talking with reference to the recent Indian allegations and threats in the wake of Sept 18 attack on an Indian military base in Uri area of held-Kashmir, Musharraf said he would have been counter-threatening India in response to its unprovoked aggression along the Line of Control (LoC) or what Indian DGMO called a surgical strike in Azad Kashmir.

“They are threatening us that they are going to strike us at the time and place of their choosing. Now, this has been said by nobody less than prime minister, defence minister and the director general of military operations. This is a very serious matter.”



“Pakistan will also attack India at the time and place of their choosing,” he said, referring to the Indian defense minister’s statement in which he vowed to target Pakistan to avenge January 2 Pathankot attack.

“I think the war hysteria that is being created in India, I repeat, India, not in Pakistan, is an issue. They do that always. This is not the only time. Every time they do that,” he said, adding that India should realise that Pakistan is not Bhutan and that blaming Pakistan after every attack would not help India.

Speaking with reference to Pakistan-US relations, the former president said the United States had used Pakistan for its interests. “The US afterwards ditched Pakistan,” he added.

Musharraf said he was still doubtful of Osama bin Laden’s continuous presence in the town and the episode of 2011 Abbottabad raid. He said Pakistan government and the intelligence agencies were not sheltering Bin Laden at the compound.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2016.