By: Muhammad Hammad Ahmed
Pakistan is facing multifaceted difficulties in setting up of true democracy and good governance as it is the country with lowest voters’ turnout among South Asian countries.
Free, fair and transparent elections are the core and the mandatory aspect of democracy and good governance as without free elections, democracy cannot flourish in a country. To ensure the norms and the values of the democracy, it is essential for the administrative and legal institutions to have a regular assessment of the election bodies and their modifications. These institutions should conduct the elections in an appropriate and balanced way without any chance of ambiguity. Their main purpose should be the ensuring of human rights by protecting their choice and the apparent acquisition of power for the proper functioning of democracy as functional democracy guarantees the transparent electorate and the transfer of power from one elected government to another in a systematic way. In the absence of free, fair and transparent elections, a chaotic situation can be created in the country which can lead to political instability and un-orderly change of government due to ambiguous elections as witnessed by the history in Syria and Libya.
Pakistan is the country which has been facing political instability and violence in the domestic arena due to the very issue since the advent of it on the world’s map. History has showed that Pakistan has experienced multifaceted issues in developing of political institutions required for the political stability and for the conducting of free and fair elections. These issues include; ethnic-nationalism conflict, martial law and the dictatorship, the dysfunctional civil-military relation, lack of pluralism and the influence of elites on the institutional building. Pakistan has had very an atypical administration history where military ruled for the longest part of the history (1958 to 1971, 1977 to 1988, and 1999 to 2008) followed by the weak democratic government (1988 to 1999, and 2008 to date) controlled by the groups in the power. Despite the fact, Pakistan has seen third peaceful transition of democratic government in 2018 elections which has showed signs of strengthening norms of democracy, but still democracy has not taken foundation into the roots of it as every election of it has been alleged of rigging and manipulation due to ambiguous process and result of elections which has reduced the confidence and the trust of the people. For this, military alone cannot be accused as many scholars have pointed out that the presence of other influential groups such as politicians, bureaucrats and media are also responsible in making the electorate of Pakistan ambiguous. According to Erica Chenoweth, the process and results of the elections can be used by strong influential groups to make them ambiguous and doubtful, when the institutions in the democratic country are weak and instable.
Pakistan is facing multifaceted difficulties in setting up of true democracy and good governance as it is the country with lowest voters’ turnout among South Asian countries. It has also failed to throw off that pose serious obstacles to a successful single free and fair election, especially the influence of military, politicians, bureaucracy and media in the outcomes of the electoral process. Not only different masses but large number of people in the country believed that every government that came into power in an illegitimate way after every electoral process are accountable to the people of the state for their fair selection They should also be held accountable for dealing with people for the personal gains as well.
The writer is Mphil student at National Defence University, Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected]
The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the ‘The Dayspring’