In search of democracy

Like other veneers of pretence, counterfeit of democracy will sooner or later lose its value in the political market

Democracy is in peril. The Democracy Index report 2016 is out. It is titled “Revenge of the deplorables” in which it clearly states that democracy in many countries, including the United States, has receded from being full to flawed. Only 20 countries qualified in 2015 for the full status but even that list has lost one member in the 2016 rating as Trump has started dumping democratic norms. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) latest Democracy Index 2016 shows 72 countries (out of 167) experienced a decline in democratic values last year. Countries with declining levels of democracy outnumbered those becoming more democratic by more than 2 to 1.

Surprisingly, Asian countries fared better than Western countries. Asia made more headway in advancing democracy than any other region, increasing its regional average score from 5.44 to 5.74 though still behind the full democracy nations. These are interesting times in history where the world is questioning its own theories of what works and what does not work in the polity of nations.

South Asian nations have also improved its democracy index from 4.33 in 2006 to 4.88 in 2016.

Indian, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh lead in the first, second and third positions respectively, with scores well above the regional average. Pakistan at 4.33 is much lower than all of them and just escapes the last position thanks to Afghanistan. Thus these scores place Pakistan as the second most “Flawed Democracy” in South Asia. The EIU’s Democracy Index measures the state of democracy by rating electoral processes and pluralism, the state of civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

On each of the above criteria Pakistan has failed to progress. Electoral processes are now a confirmed fallacy. With total consent on elections being rigged for the last 46 years there is substantial dissent on electoral reforms. With total consent on Election Commission of Pakistan failing in its job there is substantial dissent on punishing the incompetent or the inefficient. With total consent on overseas Pakistanis being given voting rights there is substantial dissent on actually giving them that right. With total consent on making the voting more modern there is substantial dissent on using electronic voting machines or biometric testing. This substantial dissent has been responsible for the electoral process not making an inch of progress in the last 46 years in pursuit of making elections fair and free.

The state of civil liberties is visible where media freedom is concerned but where human rights are concerned all indices show gender gaps and violence, variance in rule of law between the powerful and powerless and little focus on strengthening the institutions that provide public service and justice. Perhaps one of the biggest issues is the way the government functions. Despite having democratic forums of parliament and the various standing committees the prime minister and his ministers have rarely bothered to bother these forums preferring to take whimsical decisions bypassing rules and laws. The prime minister, in fact, has hardly disturbed the cabinet to make billion-dollar decisions that have resulted in huge losses to the economy vulnerable in many sectors. The Rs480 billion circular debt settlement made without any pre-audit and accountability is just one glaring example. This trend became so corrosive that the court had to intervene.

“The prime minister cannot take decisions by himself or by supplanting or ignoring the cabinet because the power to take decisions is vested with the federal government, i.e., the cabinet and unilateral decisions taken by the prime minister would be a usurpation of power,” said a judgment authored by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar. The judgement described the tenets of democracy in crisp terms forbidding any contrary action. “It is the anti-thesis of a constitutional democracy and will amount to a reversion to a monarchical form of government reminiscent of King Louis XIV’s famous claim that ‘I am the State (literally: L’etat, c’est moi)’. The judgment further clarified in plain terms that the Constitution has to be obeyed in letter and in spirit. “It is most emphatically not the function of this court to surrender the hard-won liberties of the people of Pakistan to such a fanciful interpretation of the Constitution which would be destructive of all democratic principles,” the judgment emphasised, adding that any rule which enabled the prime minister to dispose of matters by bypassing the cabinet was ultra vires.

When there is a crooked will, there is a crooked way. How the government has flouted this judgment lately has been done by the cabinet empowering the finance minister to go ahead and do the “needful”. Thus the PM has done a “real” decentralisation of power by passing on his authority to his finance minister. Over the past three years, the finance ministry had issued supplementary budgets for buying expensive luxury vehicles for the prime minister, giving subsidies to sugar barons, including politicians from across the political divide and funding various politically-motivated projects. Between June 2013 and June last year, the PML-N government issued supplementary budgets amounting to Rs306 billion without bothering the parliament. This is a huge violation of constitutional and democratic laws and values. As a generous benefactor and in recognition of the great versatility and skills of Ishaq Dar the prime minister had also bestowed powers of promoting and selecting officers in public sector organisations.

The Supreme Court had to intervene again on this case which is being seen as a deliberate attempt by the government to reward its loyalists who would then ensure electoral victory to the government in the 2018 election as a payoff for these promotions. Amongst many names is also the name of Fawad Hassan Fawad, the prime minister’s principal secretary and right-hand man who got a “double promotion” to Grade 22. The Supreme Court found out that Ishaq Dar, who was not on the CSB board for promotion of these bureaucrats, was also present in these meetings and sarcastically asked, “What is this stranger doing in these meetings?”. Such is the state of democracy in Pakistan. Budgets, taxes, heads of state organisations and bureaucrats are appointed by the PM and his FM, who also happen to be related due to marriage of their children, in the most autocratic manner possible.

Malcolm X once said “You and I have never seen democracy, we have only seen hypocrisy”; And that is dangerous because for autocrats there is unanimous rejection but disguised democracy is defended by all those who want to exploit this label to hide their own fear of losing personal gains. The silver lining is that, like all other veneers of pretence, a counterfeit of democracy will sooner or later lose its value in the political market.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2017.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.