Democracy and freedom deficit

The politicians, the power brokers and the people of Pakistan, though peripherally, have been engaged since independence in a procrastinated and vain struggle to define, fashion and custom-operate the attributes and features of a system of democratic governance and freedom in the country. The oft-repeated rationale or apologia in terms of the historical legacy of colonial sufferings and servitude, which we inherited, a widely pervasive socio-structural exclusionary mindset and the elite's self-arrogated belief of institutional superiority and custodianship of "national interest" no longer offer a sufficiently convincing logic for democratic deficit and recurrent praetorian episodes in the country.

Paradoxically, however, despotic constitutional amendments to bestow a veneer of legality, asymmetrical power distribution, deliberate erosion of state institutions and manipulative fragmentation of the already fragile pluralist entities continue to reinforce and strengthen the clutches of the ruling clique. The right of the people to freely exercise their rights remains an elusive dream. They constantly oscillate between hope and despair amidst interminable entrapment in poverty, disenfranchisement and deprivation.

The unending sagas of failure of democratic systems, perennial economic instability, perpetual rule of mutually symbiotic politico-military nexus and rampant corruption characterise the meandering journey and erratic endowment of today's Pakistan. It is indeed lamentable that the country ranks 124 out of 160 countries surveyed on the Democracy Index 2024 and is classified as an "authoritarian regime".

The Global Peace Index 2025 places Pakistan at number 144 out of 163 countries due to the frequency of political upheavals and governance dysfunction. The country has slid back 2 spots from 133 in 2023 to 135 in 2024 out of 180 countries, according to the latest Transparency International Corruption Index. The Washington-based Freedom House, which tracks people's access to political rights and civil liberties in 208 countries and territories, in its 2025 report, placed Pakistan among the countries with the steepest 10-year decline in freedom.

To add to the gravity of the situation, the World Justice Report of 2025 relegated Pakistan to 130th rank out of 143 countries on the Rule of Law Index due to repressive and authoritarian practices. The deplorable dereliction of the state to ensure ethnic, minority and fundamental rights to the people was the primary determinant for this indictment. On the international front also, though the seated rulers of a country of more than 255 million people assiduously swagger and swank of Pakistan being a "sovereign state", the acrimonious reality is that, based on 2025-26 data, the country is rated as highly susceptible to external political and economic pressures

The predicament is that the institutionalised alliance of egocentric and incompetent self-seekers continues to consolidate, multiply and deepen the tentacles of its power structure through a multitude of coercive means and weaponisation of ill-got advantage of money and might sans accountability. In the process, they have severely subverted the autonomy of the institutions, including parliament, judiciary, executive and the media. Totally oblivious and insensitive to the plight of the people, they mercilessly personalise the policy process and squander huge resources on their perks and privileges.

According to a UNDP report, Pakistan has to allocate a huge chunk of $17.4 billion annually to secure its luxurious and ostentatious lifestyle. The purchase of a Gulfstream jet in Punjab at a cost of Rs11 billion recently is a palpable manifestation of their venality and criminality, where approximately 10 million children are out of school, and around 70 per cent of the rural population relies on expensive private healthcare due to systemic infrastructure shortfalls and a shortage of essential medicines.

What honour and prestige is left to us as a nation in this highly globalised and interconnected world to find a dignified space among the community of nations!

It is indeed absolutely imperative to carry out a serious introspection and conduct an all-inclusive dialogue involving the major stakeholders, e.g. citizens, politicians, bureaucrats, judiciary, media, and the establishment, to hammer out an agreed framework of action to come out of this abyss. A shared vision and collective identity need to be articulated to galvanise a strong national will; glue the ethnic diversity, cultural heterogeneity and parochial insularities into oneness; and move forward imbued with "Pride in Pakistan" societal ethos.

People's empowerment is the ultimate panacea to sustain national unity and create much-needed state-citizen synergy to resuscitate a loyal and patriotic national disposition. The fundamental prerequisite, however, is to establish a conducive and credible environment for the people to: a) express their political, economic, social and cultural preferences; and b) exercise their right to choose their leaders as well as constitutional and governance frameworks. This, a priori, warrants holding free and fair elections, respecting people's mandate and safeguarding the sanctity of democracy.

The major issues and challenges to be addressed upfront are: how to rid the country of praetorian-pluralist swing and sway; what needs to be done to facilitate a systemic societal transformation from a confrontational mindset to constructive engagement; how to shun the anachronistic command-obedience governance model and institute good governance; and above all, how to unlearn the historically-parroted and ill-founded narratives of existential threat, traitor-renegade indictment and oft-inflicted doctrines of necessities, exceptionalities and manipulative security interventionism.

Authoritarian democracy, based on coercive denial of civil liberties, can never generate national strength or a strong national will to emerge as a dignified sovereign state. Apart from the bourgeoning domestic challenges, we have to deal with the geo-strategic, geo-economic and geo-political dictates in the increasingly uncertain, ambiguous, complex and intensely polarised global and regional arenas to safeguard our interests.

Democracy, freedom, inclusivity and integration are the only way forward for us to survive and prosper. We have to wake up and acknowledge that the elite-rule of avaricious incompetents imposed through machination, might, and ploys is no more than a toxic, illusory and delusive narcissism. It is being mocked and ridiculed ad infinitum and ad nauseam all around both domestically and internationally. The sooner we realise this critical truth, the better for us.