Democracy in Pakistan – Episode 8

DEMOCRACY IN PAKISTAN Prog 8 The Decade in Focus from serendipfilms on Vimeo.
Serendip Productions specializes in producing documentaries on diverse subjects. It has now produced a documentary series on the political history of democracy in Pakistan.

“Democracy in Pakistan” is a huge topic. How can democracy be categorized in Pakistan? Has Pakistan’s democracy been sabotaged by its Constitutions? Do democratic norms clash with Islamic culture and why has democracy always been subservient to military regimes? Clearly, Pakistan’s story of democracy is fragile. Extensive research, historical footage of major national events, parliamentary sessions and political speeches along with milestone newspaper headlines tell this fascinating story of trial and error. Interviews of key players including politicians, journalists, bureaucrats and ex military officers have been conducted, and the opinion of Pakistan’s citizens on democracy have also been reflected. The series provides an objective and unbiased account of Pakistan’s democratic history, and an insight into its future.

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Democracy (Urdu: جمہوریت‎; pronounced jamhooriat) is one of the ideologies and systems upon which Pakistan was sought to be established in 1947 as a nation-state, as envisaged by the leader and founding father of the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Pakistan constitutionally is a democratic parliamentary republic with its political system based on an elected form of governance. However, in past history there have been deviations from democracy in the form of military coups and political uncertainty. As of current status, Pakistan is also the largest non-liberal democracy in the world.

History

The concept of democracy in the South Asia region has historical roots. Indus Valley Civilization, which thrived in modern-day Pakistan, was one of the earliest and largest ancient human civilizations alongside Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley, Anatoliaand ancient China, known for its highly developed, sophisticated and urbanized culture. Historians and social scientists studying the civilizations’ social structure observe that the Indus Valley had an organized planning system, including standard architecture, civic controls, consistent grid layouts and uniformed sanitary facilities. This well-disciplined lifestyle and a common rule of law extending throughout a large area leads a few historians to believe and suggest the Indus Valley of Pakistan as possibly the earliest cradle and model of democracy; one which was based on a “rule by the people” and one that could even predate Greece.

Political system

Democracy failed exceptionally quickly after independence because Pakistan possessed a weak and fragmented political party that was unable to resolve key governing conflicts. In the wake of intensifying political instability, the civilian bureaucracy and military assumed governing power in 1958. Since its independence, Pakistan’s democratic system has fluctuated between civilian and military governments at various times throughout its political history, mainly due to political instability, civil-military conflicts, political corruption, and the periodic coup d’états by the military establishment against weak civilian governments, resulting in the enforcement of martial law across the country (occurring in 1958, 1977 and 1999, and led by chief martial law administrator-generals Ayub Khan, Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf respectively). Democracy in Pakistan, however, imperfect has never been allowed to function. Until 2013, Pakistan did not experience even one democratic transfer of power from one democratically elected government that had completed its tenure to another. All of its previous democratic transitions have been aborted by military coup .