President’s address

There is some hope that perhaps, finally, democracy may be taking root in Pakistan.

The government has made much of the fact that President Asif Ali Zardari is the first president to address a fifth joint session of parliament, the implication being that the party managed to stay in power for the duration of its term. That, indeed, is cause for some celebration since we have seen time and again that democratically-elected governments have not been allowed to finish their term in office, mostly because of military interventions. That this has not happened this time around, or is likely to be the case, is in itself cause for some hope that perhaps, finally, democracy may be taking root in Pakistan.

As for the contents of the speech itself, there are some points that one would agree with, such as the passage of the Eighteenth and Twentieth Amendments, the constitution of a new National Finance Commission Award, and the passage of legislation on safeguarding the rights of women in society, and, in particular, in the workplace. However, there are many points in the speech which one would disagree with. For instance, the president said that the government had done much on Balochistan and one is not sure if this claim would be received with any degree of credence by many people in the country, even outside the province. The abduction of people from the province — many of whom are later found on roadsides as mutilated corpses — is continuing and instead of tackling this issue with the priority it demands, we are being told that this is the work of some foreign agency.

There was also the claim that the current government has done many things in line with the image of the founder of the country, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and in that regard, we are not sure how much to agree with Mr Zardari. The plight of minorities — the Hindu and the Ahmadi community in particular — is far from good and the state seems to have taken a back seat in ensuring that they live a safe existence, free to practice their faith without fear of harassment (or much worse). Furthermore, the perception that the current government is mired in corruption has in fact been reinforced over time.  To that end, one would have to agree to a considerable degree with what the leader of the opposition said in response to the president’s speech: that which country was Mr Zardari talking about in his speech.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2012.