Hiding behind the cloak of democracy

With a vanquished judiciary via the 26th Amendment, the conquest of democracy is nearing its culmination. The path traversed in reaching this point may have been relatively simple, but the path unfurling ahead seems littered with potholes, some deep enough to suck the perpetrators in. Having arrived at a crossroads of sorts, the ill-conceived project is transmitting alarm signals which can be heard far and wide.

Starting with dismantling Imran Khan’s government by using a sequence of tactics to instil fear, offering lucrative inducements and convening a market for people to receive payment for selling their pound of flesh, the entire gambit has smelt of putridity which has never stopped spreading its pungent smell. The environment is so deeply soaked in this rancid stock that one can barely breathe. Mere survival makes for a persistent laborious struggle.

Let’s concede that democracy never quite took root in the country. From early on, it was the victim of intrigues from within the government and outside, meant to destabilise the nascent democratic edifice till, in 1958, came the first martial law. There really has been no looking back at that grave of dashed hopes and egalitarian aspirations rooted in the birth of the new country. Pakistan has since been a hapless victim of elite capture, which has remained ascendant wearing different masks, each matching the need of the times. The pushback, if any at all, has been too weak to make a difference.

Experiencing military rules to hybrid concoctions, the people of the country have continued to languish in the hope of salvation. In the process, the stock of their miseries has swelled, turning life into a harrowing tale to tell. But there is no one with time to listen to their miseries and how they are being continually cheated out of the very prospect of life.

Increasingly, the national spectrum has been denuded of the concept of rights which now belong to the rulers alone while their captives, the plebians, the ordinary mortals, are at their disposal to be used and dispensed with at the altar of their bloated egos and sickly whims. This relationship, if one may still refer to it in that fashion, between the ‘rulers’ and the ‘ruled’, has never ceased to assume alarmingly weird forms of lopsidedness to the virtual demise of the latter commodity. The overriding belief is that since they don’t matter in any equation except as morsels to be fed to vultures, they need to exist on the margin alone.

Thus, a system which is supposed to provide everyone with equal rights and opportunities has degraded to defending only the privileges of the ones loaded with power and pelf. From being a country for the uplift of its impoverished class, Pakistan today has been reduced to being a role model of greed and graft. In the words of Faiz Sahib, “This is the moment to mourn time”: “No longer is any traveller engrossed/ In continuing the journey./ At this meeting point/ Of day and night,/ The link is broken somewhere./ This is the moment to mourn time.”

Like in previous similar experiments, this latest one also does not seem to be working as it gets enveloped in an increasing crescendo of problems, both inside the country and internationally. This emanates from multiple sources relating to the demise of the constitution and rule of law leading to denial of justice. The visit of the IMF team and their meetings with various state functionaries, most notably the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), has sparked a spate of rumours. But then, such an extraordinary engagement is bound to generate speculations, some credible while others not so.

What has made the meeting even more significant is the subsequent talk the CJP had with media people wherein he spoke of the independence of the judiciary. Facts, however, speak to the contrary. After taking no notice of Imran Khan’s letter addressed to him for some time, the CJP has now referred it to the head of the constitutional bench to be fixed for hearing. Whether that happens or not is a different matter, but the fact that the letter has been taken note of reflects, if nothing else, a high quotient of both pressure and unease.

The release of Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan from the case regarding the attack on Jinnah House is another indicator that a concerted effort, after all, may be afoot to assuage the concerns of the visiting IMF delegation.

What is important is that, at this critical stage, Pakistan is a virtual economic captive and desperately in need of IMF assistance to continue flowing. Any interruption therein can generate a major challenge with debilitating consequences.

Other indicators also reflect growing uncertainty within the power echelons. The rupture within the ruling coalition, with threats hurled by one party to jump out, indicates a state of unrest which may propel a sequence of events during the coming weeks and months.

Understandably, the concoction put in place, comprising established criminals, is busy making merry as the state of health of the country deteriorates and the dream of an economic resurgence is busted. The same old wine in new bottles has failed to deliver and there may be some thinking as to the options available at this stage to restart the recovery process all over again.

It is never easy to pick up pieces from the debris and put them in place to become functional again. Bruising and battering leave their marks, some of which may be indelible, thus gravely impacting the machine. Such seems to be the state of the country. Far too many experiments have been conducted, rendering it weak and consistently dependent on outside help for sustenance. With diminishing resources, where from and how that help is going to keep coming remains an enigma.

Here is a potpourri of concerns and expectations: concerns within the ruling echelons and expectations of those the authorities have tried to suppress and subjugate since toppling the Imran Khan government. Not having succeeded in their core objective, and with murmurings growing louder within and outside, the coming days hold a bouquet of permutations and combinations with the potential to change the national political and strategic landscape dramatically.

It is time to stop hiding autocratic tidings behind the cloak of democracy. The cloak is in tatters for the world to see what lies inside. This pretence cannot work any longer. The sagacious thing would be to let the facade unravel, leading to a sustainable structure that would be in keeping with the mandate, aspirations and spirit of the people.

The writer is a political and security strategist and the founder of the Regional Peace Institute. He is a former special assistant to former PM Imran Khan and heads the PTI’s policy think-tank. He tweets @RaoofHasan