All take a deep breath

For our democracy to mature it needs support, room to grow rather than endless rallies taking sitting govt to task.

There is a distinct sense that the political environment is getting somewhat overheated, and the greenhouse gases being generated on the streets and in the various assemblies, both provincial and national, are contributing to a rise in the political sea-level as well as the temperature. The leader of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, on June 12, delivered a stentorian blast in the National Assembly, within which lay a warning that democracy in Pakistan is ‘under threat’. He very correctly urged the leaders of the various parties to join hands in order to stave off this latest threat to the unity of the state — an event as likely as wolves taking up knitting for a living. Democracy in Pakistan is still something of a work in progress, and slow progress at that, and is currently working through a phase of elective feudalism interwoven with Pharoahonic dynasticism. Functional representative democracy remains over the event horizon.

The political system as it stands, as well as any move forward politically in the broader sense is ill-served by endless (and expensive) rallies that achieve nothing beyond some extremely tedious TV viewing. Achakzai also rightly took Dr Tahirul Qadri to task for asking that the army take control of the airport on the day of his return. The later commands nothing in terms of the military resources of the state and beyond a pronounced ability to create massive traffic-jams wherever he parks his caravan, has achieved little beyond adding to the strata of hot air mentioned above. The MPs thumped their desks in appreciation of the Achakzai speech, which was equally appreciated by the prime minister, though how the prime minister may feel about the convening of a joint session of parliament is as yet unknown. It was a classic piece of parliamentary theatre, a series of umbilically connected sound bites. But the message it conveyed was simple and much needed. For our democracy to mature it needs support and room to grow rather than endless rallies taking the sitting government to task. With a little luck and restraint (and no intervention), democracy in the country will hopefully mature into something that has the sweet smell of the future about it — rather than a rancid past.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2014.

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