Speakers call for efforts to strengthen democracy

Urge supremacy of Constitution

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentarians, academicians, human right activists and youth representatives during a dialogue titled Democracy and Conflict Prevention on Saturday urged for collaborative efforts to further strengthen democratic values.

The event was organised by Centre for Civic Education Pakistan at Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) here in connection with International Democracy Day 2017.



The speakers of the dialogue included Senator Hidayat Ullah Khan, MNA Tahir Iqbal Chaudhry, National Commission for Human Rights members Shafique Chaudhry and Dr Yahya Ahmed, National Coordinator Inter University Consortium for Promotion of Social Sciences Islamabad Murtaza Noor, rights activist Liaquat Shahwani and Department of Anthropology, QAU Waqas Saleem.

While sharing research findings of study conducted by Centre for Civic Education, Noor said that out of total 25,599 days in Pakistan, democracy functioned for 9,892 days (39%).

He said that based on indicators of electoral process and pluralism, political performance, functioning of government, civil liberties and political culture, Pakistan stood at 111th position out of 167 countries in Democracy Index for the year 2016.

Saleem highlighted the vital role of Parliament in order to bridge the gap between state and society. He also urged dialogue and frequent interaction between academia and parliamentarians to strengthen democracy in Pakistan.



Shahwani said Constitution of Pakistan clearly stipulates that adequate provisions shall be made for ensuring supremacy of Constitution, rule of law, decentralisation, independence of judiciary and equality of citizenship.

Shafique Chaudhry urged supremacy of Constitution, inclusion of civic education in curriculum and adoption of democratic attitude at individual level.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2017.