It has been over 74 years since the
founder of our nation Mr Jinnah gave the formative address to the newly
constituted assembly of Pakistan. In this historic speech, he made clear to the
members of the house that their duty first and foremost was to “maintain law
and order so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are
fully protected by the State. And that he would always be guided by the
principles of “justice and complete impartiality”.
In this time, we have gone through
numerous setbacks and are still seeking to develop a cohesive and effective
system of governance. The tragedy of the failings of our current system of
governance has meant that the nation’s progress has largely stalled and we are
struggling to provide a better tomorrow for our common man. In this regard, it
cannot be said we have lived up to Mr. Jinnah’s decree. After partition as a
nation, we are still struggling for our independence and sovereignty; the life
of the common man is plagued by fear, fear of being unable to afford basic
needs, fear of a law-and-order situation that is deteriorating, and fear that
their children will not have a future better than their own. Poverty is rampant
in life away from the busy cities and in the outskirts of our provinces, and at
a level that is scarcely imaginable. The common man’s plights are dictated by a
group of elites who have little regard or interest in their betterment and they
are called the electables and they rule law, rather than the law ruling them.
The false promise cycle continues every year, with every administration
becoming more detached from performance and delivery and instead increasingly
interested in how they may keep their positions of power. It seems there is
little chance to act on the voice of the poor common man. We need and honest
and open discourse with respect to our systemic governmental failures.
Our system is that of parliamentary democracy, where the right to be elected, and to make decisions is no longer available to the common man but rather only those of an elite political class who have bought their way through ill-gotten money and influence and seek to perpetuate this system as it works for those few and not the many. No longer can we afford to continue ignoring our populace, no longer can we continue to prop up a system that is failing us and pushing our country to darkness, leaving little chance for our future generations.
We have not seen a single election
where results have not been called into question, where they have not been
heavily disputed by whatever party of movement has lost. If we are unable to
discharge the most basic and centric principles of our democracy, then who in
the positions of power can ever claim they have fulfilled their duties under
the constitution? The parliament is because of the constitution and the
parliament is the weakest institution as its decisions are not mandatory for
the government to implement.
A decision maker has to give
thought to whether it is really a sustainable and equitable way to govern our
people when the members of these parties can only be selected according to
standards set in dark rooms by a select few. The common man asks questions from
the Election Commission as to how this system can continue to endure, where
members are brought to assemblies by political parties who hand over their
resignations in advance, having little regard for public offices, to be used as
and when required by their political masters.
The eyes of the common man still
look towards these ‘Shahi’ families and some mafia members who feed certain
politicians for their protection, and the common man remains a slave in the
hands of the powerful, which reminds one of the Stone Age and not the present
century. There is a need for reform in our system ensuring that political
parties adhere to the same standards that are befitting a functioning
progressive democracy. A manner in which this could be accomplished is to
ensure that intra-party elections are carried out in the same manner that they
are in European democracies to ensure fair and proper representation. It is
with these measures that we can restore confidence and credibility in our
system and restore the confidence of Pakistani masses which are under stress
due to multiple miseries created by the present ‘Shahi’ democratic system.
Unfortunately, our political parties get funding from various sources including millions of dollars from single and multiple sources including foreign countries; I plan to conduct proper research and will produce unchallengeable documents and to the annoyance of many. We want leaders who do not have ulterior motives and a large burden of deals and compromises. Further, our political parties’ and elections’ expenditures have never been investigated seriously. Let the decision maker know that the public is watching the incompetency and endless corruption very closely.
The words of our founder once again
ring eerily prophetic in nature, in his historic opening address he had said:
“Black marketing is another curse. Well, I know that black marketers are
frequently caught and punished. Judicial sentences are passed or sometimes
fines only are imposed. Now you have to tackle this monster, which today is a
colossal crime against society, in our distressed conditions, when we
constantly face a shortage of food and other essential commodities of life. A
citizen who does black-marketing commits, I think, a greater crime than the
biggest and most grievous of crimes. These black-marketers are really knowing,
intelligent and ordinarily responsible people, and when they indulge in
black-marketing, I think they ought to be very severely punished, because the
entire system of control and regulation of foodstuffs and essential
commodities, and cause wholesale starvation and want and even death.”
How true is this now when long
queues are seen to buy a kilo of sugar and wheat for hungry families. The day
is not far when the public may react to this “Shahi parliamentary democratic
system”—close to the monarchy—and successive undemocratic elections for want of
their rights. The miseries of the common man are adding to distress and
dissatisfaction on a daily basis. The price hike is forcing an already
disenfranchised populace into more dire straits, indeed there has been some credibly
reporting of the poorest being forced to take their own lives as the harsh
reality they face every day is so appalling. There seems to be no plausible
route for the common man to enter into the ‘hallowed’ chambers of our
democracy, never has it been more difficult and financially impossible for a
common man to fight an election campaign, to beat the near-insurmountable odds
and pressure from money men. Growth of leadership from the lower and middle
class is not emerging as it has become way too expensive to be a leader of any
level in our country.
The procedures and system should
give opportunities to everyone in the party to contest elections, whereas the
common man still cannot contest elections in our country unless he has
considerable backing, and of course should this happen, then there is no
guarantee that such a person would still be able to fulfill their oath and do
their duty to the people. 74 years since becoming independent but we still need
to move on from the feudal mindset and get rid of the prevailing mafia system
to march towards a more democratic mindset with equality. Also people in our
country are overwhelmingly supporting this “modern Shahi parliamentary System”
where they vote for their mighty lords while the lords do not speak for them in
the parliament for their betterment to improve their lives. This is the reason
why we have seen such a systemic breakdown of law and order across the country,
it is why we are seeing disenfranchisement from the most vulnerable in our
populace causing them to turn to more extreme viewpoints as the centre, the
traditional democratic bastions of power will not heed their call. As such the
question must be asked; how long can the masses endure this? Can this system of
buying and selling votes, of elected officials being incredibly compromised or
in some cases inherently dishonest subsist?
The ‘success’ of the present “Shahi
parliamentary democracy” can be seen from the increasing number of homeless
people on the roadsides, beggars around your cars, corruption in government
offices, the rate of commission in the contracts, the power of land, petrol and
drug mafias and daily suicides by poor people, unable to feed their children.
Respect and honour are visibly on sale out of sheer poverty in front of the big
malls and the back dark streets of the markets. It is time to mourn this “Shahi
parliamentary democratic system” of governance which is unable to provide
protection and respect to our country and its peoples. It has not provided the
space for our people to even breathe with honour. I appeal to the
parliamentarians and the decision-makers of my country to look objectively at
the needs of the common man and fix priority to it before it is too late and
the crushed masses may take their fate into their own hands. The common may
take revenge from this growing heartless society crushing them and pushing them
into the corner.
The Article was published in The Nation on April 20, 2021, Link to the original article is https://nation.com.pk/20-Apr-2021/crushed-common-man-and-the-failed-parliamentary-system
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