Democratic erosion threat

Pakistan is one of the world’s 'weak and mid-performing democracies that are making slow but steady progress'

Democracy is under threat in most of the world, according to a top international think tank, which says the war in Ukraine and the global economic crisis have intensified the rate of democratic erosion. Many of the ways in which International Idea — a pro-democracy think tank — described how government of, by and for the people is under threat are far too familiar for us in Pakistan. But it is not just ‘undemocratic forces’ that are employing these tactics. Rather, recent years have seen major political parties, especially those with populist leadership, using them to introduce authoritarian ideologies, as has been the case in Brazil, India, Hungary, and even the US.

Pakistan, which has always been considered, at best, a middling democracy, was ranked just about that, described as one of the world’s “weak and mid-performing democracies that are making slow but steady progress”, an improvement over last year’s report which described several forms of democratic decline taking place in the country under the previous government. Pakistan ranked highly in terms of holding elections and inclusive suffrage but was subpar on measures for clean elections, judicial independence, media integrity, civil liberties and several fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of movements.

Still, while this year’s report only mentioned Pakistan in passing, its criticism of anti-democratic movements worldwide should also open eyes here. “Large mobilizations questioning the legitimacy and authority of governments” coupled with baseless accusations of electoral fraud or other conspiracies are being thrown about to weaken governments. Indeed, one of the reasons Pakistan’s recent decline looks less pronounced is that, among our neighbours, India and Iran have both seen democracy backsliding in big ways, Afghanistan’s semi-democratic government has been toppled, and China never was a democracy. We need to think bigger and ensure that transfers of power remain constitutional, and the legitimacy of the electoral process is respected.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2022.

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