Has Democracy Failed to Deliver in Pakistan?

It was not too long, after humanity learnt to live in groups and they developed
principles to govern themselves. Even the earliest communities demonstrated the practice of
choosing a leader amongst them to follow. This simple idea evolved into an array of complex
systems of governance and leadership. Democracy, the most widely accepted system can be
defined in the famous words of Abraham Lincoln as “Government of the people, by the
people for the people.” The core idea behind democracy is the will of the people and its key
ingredients include provision of basic needs to masses, free and fair elections, protection of
basic human rights, freedom of speech, rule of law, women empowerment and independence
of the judicial system. As for as Pakistan is concerned, it has had a chequered history of
democracy since it came into existence, from which it can be deduced that the system has
failed to deliver in Pakistan. A major piece of evidence is that majority of her population does
not access to clean water and food. The country is still enable to conduct free and fair
elections due to widespread interference and rigging observed by everyone. Democratic
government has compromised on the supremacy of the constitution many times which is
against the very essence of democracy. However military intervention alone cannot be
blamed as the state institutions have failed to deliver even under civilian rule. They have
been involved in many evils that include the menace of corruption and nepotism that have
infiltrated the social fabric of society. Rule of law is missing in many parts of the country that
reject democracy and this gives rise to many conflicts in the shape of sectarianism and
terrorism. Lack of a strong judiciary also handicaps the democratic process and results in
many evidences of human rights abuses all over the country. On the other hand, those who
disagree with the failures of democracy, argue that many of the problems faced today are
much deeper rooted and date back even before creation of Pakistan. Therefore democracy
can not be entirely blamed in Pakistan where it is still ever young. Although there is truth to
this; however, they have forgotten that nations younger than Pakistan - these created after
the disintegration of USSR and few others - have weeded out their shortcomings using the
tool of democracy. Hence it can be deduced that in Pakistan, democracy has failed to deliver
the prosperity it promised.