What Qadri is really against

Let us not derail the democratic process in search of a utopia, which has been sought many times unsuccessfully.

By the time this article is read, Dr Tahirul Qadri would have made his dramatic entry into Islamabad at the head of his Long March and probably some interesting things would have happened too. While Dr Qadri has been tight-lipped about his whole agenda, he has made it clear that he wants elections in strict adherence of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution and wants dissolution of the Election Commission of Pakistan. Just these demands should alarm us.

Both Articles 62 and 63 cover qualification and disqualification of members of parliament. Common sense tells me that Dr Qadri is probably not gung-ho about implementation of its clauses on age and nationality, but is concerned with sections ‘d’ to ‘g’ of Article 62 especially, which cover the ‘moral’ dimension of the parliamentarians. While, ideally, it might be good to have a parliamentarian who is “of good character and is not commonly known as one who violates Islamic Injunctions”, has “adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings and practises obligatory duties prescribed by Islam as well as abstains from major sins”, “is sagacious, righteous and non-profligate, honest and amin” and “has not, after the establishment of Pakistan, worked against the integrity of the country or opposed the ideology of Pakistan” — in practice — it is almost impossible to find a person who fulfils all (or even most) of the injunctions above. Simply, how can one practically measure the moral character of anyone? How can one even quantify concepts like ‘sagacious’, ‘righteous’, ‘honest and amin’ to begin with? A person might be wise in some dealings and not in others and a person might follow some Islamic injunctions closely while being lukewarm about others, for example. Literal implementation of these clauses can, therefore, only bring confusion and rifts and ultimately, violence, since people who think they fulfil all these clauses will inevitably launch an attack — first a verbal and then a physical one — on parliamentarians who are not fulfilling these requirements.

The insertion of sections ‘d’ to ‘g’ in the Constitution by PO No 14 of General Ziaul Haq in 1985 and the current insistence of implementing the same by Dr Qadri, has the same main reason behind it: deep distrust of the institution of democracy itself.

From its inception, various rulers in Pakistan have had distrust of what they called ‘the Western model of democracy’. Wary of giving the uneducated and ill-informed populace the right to choose representatives who might also be uneducated and ill-informed, and worse still, not ‘good’ Muslims (in whosoever’s definition) was something they wanted to prevent. Major General Iskandar Mirza, our last governor-general and first president was vocal that modern democracy was unsuited to Pakistan and, therefore, refused to call general elections. General Ayub Khan, too, did not think that Pakistanis were ready for full democracy and so basic democracy, guided by the military and bureaucracy, was a pre-requisite. General Ziaul Haq followed suit and initially even did away with any form of elections and simply appointed his ‘council of the learned’ — the Majlis-e-Shoora. Zia was so distrustful of democracy that he even officially renamed parliament Majlis-e-Shoora, so that even conceptually, the election of the house might become optional.

Despite all its problems, and there are many, democracy remains the best form of representative government in the modern world. Democracy ensures that people are ruled over by their peers, not by some super humans or angels, but by people who are the same as the electorate. So, the elected representatives reflect the good and bad aspects of the society they represent — all struggle to make things better together. Only in a dictatorship and monarchy do the rulers claim to be ‘better’ than the population, and hence, justify their usurpation of power.

Pakistan’s democracy is still fragile and we are only just about to complete one full term of a democratic government. Let us not derail that process in search of a utopia, which has been sought many times unsuccessfully and has further destroyed Pakistan in the process. Let us put our trust in democracy and make it work.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2013.