Democracy plays an essential role in the smooth running of the state. It ensures justice and equality, free and fair elections, freedom of speech, religion, opinion, no discrimination, and all other fundamental rights to every citizen of the state. In a democracy, people are governed by their own elected representatives.
Pakistan is known as the largest Islamic democratic country but unfortunately that democracy is ineffective. From the beginning, Pakistan has been trying to achieve an effective democracy but could not be achieved due to some defects in the political system. The main causes of the failure of democracy in Pakistan are manipulation of elections, lack of constitutionalism, martial laws, negative attitude of political parties, and role of government institutions.
Jinnah and his companions established the country based on democracy in 1947, but for the democracy, it was necessary to frame a constitution immediately and Pakistan got its first constitution after 9 years of independence in 1956 with parliamentary form, unfortunately, it was broken after two years and martial law was imposed.
After the martial law regime, Pakistan framed its second constitution in 1962 in which Pakistan experienced a presidential form of government to achieve democracy but it was also broken and martial law was imposed in 1969. After that in 1970, the general elections were held based on a party system to get Pakistan on the track to democracy, but due to political instability and the undemocratic attitude of political leaders, Pakistan faced the darkest chapter of history, as a resultant war of 1971 was held and Pakistan was divided into two parts.
After partition, a new third constitution of 1973 was implemented and it was amended and reviewed according to the needs of the country because it is only the constitution that controls the government and other institutions but due to political instability, in 1977, again general elections were held which were unfair. People came out on the roads for their rights and many lost their lives for the sake of their rights.
The country was going into civil war but third martial law was imposed in 1977 by General Ziaul Haq. After the death of General Zia ul Haq in 1988, the general elections were held and again democracy failed due to the feudal attitude of two prime ministers i.e.Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, they did not work for the country but they amend the constitution for their comfort zone.
The failure of democracy in Pakistan can be observed from the agreed fact that among all prime ministers, elected by Parliament, no single one has completed his tenure of office and three martial laws were imposed. The political leaders come into the public and get votes by flattering them and once they come into power, they avoid common citizens. Moreover, the results of elections are also manipulated as the number of votes is more than the number of people casting vote and political leaders blame each. For instance, in 2013 the elections Imran Khan blamed PML-N for manipulating the elections in reply PML-N blamed Imran Khan for manipulating the elections.
The constitution plays an essential role in democracy in any government, Pakistan’s constitution is ineffective as (article 25) of the constitution tells about equality of citizens but practically there is favoritism and discrimination. The contempt of court (article 204) somehow violaqtes the democracy that no one can even comment on a judgment. About every day they are illegally detained which is also a violation of (article 10) of the constitution. Moreover, many fundamental rights are being violated like freedom of speech, expression, and religion.
Another important issue regarding the failure of democracy is the role of government institutions. According to the law reform commission, the police station is the main platform of corruption. A case is not registered until and unless the complainant gives a handsome gratification to the officer of thestation. There is also the use of favoritism and nepotism in such an office. Due to ineffective rule of law and justice delayed people also do not approach the court.
Above all, we concluded that the democracy of Pakistan is not bad at all but is ineffective from the day of independence due to political instability, lack of constitutionalism, martial laws, rule of law, the negative role of government institutions, and manipulation of elections. Pakistan can become the best democratic country by enacting some laws through parliament and amending some provisions of the constitution.
For the smooth running of elections, there shall be electronic machines. There should be proper check and balance on subordinate officers to diminish corruption, favoritism, nepotism, and discrimination and there should be a proper rule of law.