Democracy under 1973 constitution which was further amended by democratically elected Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Mian Nawaz Sharif, military dictators General Zia and Parvez Musharaf from 1973 onwards is still functional in Pakistan and comparatively in a better way then any other third world country. Genetic inheritance of our people having the imprints of hundreds of years kingship and long periods of military rule will gradually transform into democratic mod of behavior of our people provided they can experience the true freedoms guaranteed by our constitution.
Our present leaders in power and in opposition are quite experienced and freedom loving people, all of them had spent long and short durations of time in European democracies for one reason or another, normally political leadership and political parties educate the masses and create consciousness among them regarding their constitutional rights and duties, level of consciousness among masses determines future of democracy, and high degree of consciousness hampers the way of adventurers bent upon imposing one man rule over them. The knowledge and experience gained by our formerly exiled and self exiled political leadership if disseminate itself into masses, democracy will be further strengthened in Pakistan.
Pakistan does not need new constitution or a social contract but the anomalies present in the present constitution hampering existence of truly independent judiciary having ample checks on it, shall be dealt with through parliament, and any further initiatives required to get rid of two executive heads in shape of President and Prime Minister, our democratically elected parliament has to opt for Presidential or Parliamentary form of government, US presidential system is best suited for a federation and Pakistan too is a federation.
At the same time our ruling and opposition leaders shall upgrade and modify existing government institutions to make their role compatible with constitutional guarantees regarding fundamental rights of the people. Up gradation of our security and intelligence agencies is also need of the hour. Disciplined and better equipped armed forces willing to work under constitutional rulers will further strengthened the democracy, all necessary measures to ensure the constitutional role of armed forces shall be taken and political leadership shall abstain from involving armed forces into politics, it shall concentrate on winning the masses by making appropriate and popular measures to win popular support for their rule through ballot, in the past certain leaders of small political parties having no backing in the masses were found guilty of writing letters to Army officers inviting them to stage a coup against popularly elected prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Such practices were resulted in dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971, leadership at all levels shall understand that military dictatorship brings armed forces into conflict with people of Pakistan and such phenomena is real threat to existence of our federation.
Submitted by
Abdur Raziq
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