Pakistan - Articles

Democracy in Pakistan: Another Short Stint?

Since Pakistan's inception, the nation's judiciary has played an important role by reviewing the legitimacy and curbing the unfettered use of power by various Pakistani governments - both civil and military. However, to prevent any judicial challenges, the governments have also devised ways of keeping the judiciary weak. Normally in a democracy, the judiciary is independent and the government is under the jurisdiction of the law. However, in Pakistan's quest for democracy, the governments and the elites who form it have always been placed above the law.

Pervez Musharraf, the former military dictator and the current civilian president of Pakistan sacked the Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in March 2007 on charges of misconduct and nepotism. Musharraf thereby curbed the powers of an important institution of a democratic society that is supposed to and would have kept a check on the functioning of his government. However, in a major blow to Musharraf, the Supreme Court reinstated Chaudhry in July 2007. This was only temporary, however, as Chaudhry along with dozens of other judges were soon sacked and placed under house arrest during the emergency rule imposed by Musharraf in November 2007. Such a move was seen by analysts as a result of the various legal challenges that Musharraf was facing to his staying on for another term as the head of state.

That a coalition government comprising of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) came to power was a major setback to Musharraf's authority in Pakistan. The government had initially promised to restore the Chief Justice and various other judges sacked by Musharraf in November 2007 within thirty days of the first parliamentary session in March 2008. However, even five weeks after the self-imposed deadline by the government, the sacked judges are not back at their jobs. The delay has been primarily caused due to a petty disagreement between the two coalition partners on the method of reinstating the judges. The PML-N demands that the judges should be restored immediately through a parliamentary resolution followed by an executive order from the Prime Minister. However the PPP headed by late Benazir Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari wants a constitutional package to go along with the parliamentary resolution. This disagreement and the delay in government action have resulted in ministers of the PML-N faction resigning from their posts in May 2008; however the party continues to provide support to the ruling government.

Zardari is possibly refusing to accept the proposal made by the PML-N because restoration of the judges to the Supreme Court might cause them to reopen proceedings on cases regarding corruption charges against him and his wife. These charges had been dropped by the Musharraf government under the National Reconciliation Ordinance which was the result of a power-sharing pact between Bhutto and Musharraf.

The issue of reinstatement of about sixty judges to the Supreme Court and the provincial high courts has become a matter of immense public interest in Pakistan. Due to the delay in government action, hundreds of Pakistani lawyers and other activists launched a cross-country march toward Islamabad on 9 June 2008 to demand the restoration of judges sacked by Musharraf.

The widespread protests by the lawyers and the additional burdens of inflation including rise in food and fuel prices and of the insurgency in North West Frontier Province can be seen by the military as a result of the inefficiency and incapability of the civilian government. The failure of the coalition to keep up with its promise of restoring the judges has also resulted in the local media and many analysts questioning whether the coalition is fracturing. The moment PML-N withdraws its support for the government the current coalition will lose its majority in the parliament.

The return of the anti-government protests raises fears that the army might use street violence and the supposed threats to national security as pretexts for another coup. It employed the same pretext in 1977 when riots erupted in Pakistan over allegations of vote-rigging by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's PPP, thereby giving General Zia the reasons to stage a military coup and depose the elected government.

Today, Pakistan is confronted with serious economic challenges that include a burgeoning current account deficit, stagnant exports, rising inflation, a looming energy crisis and social indicators that are amongst the worst in Asia. Amidst all these challenges, the Pakistan government is playing party politics over petty issues thereby jeopardizing the democratic fabric as well as the development cycle of the country. The inefficiency of the current government in tackling these issues is creating fissures, and the military might step in to seal the political vacuum. The political culture in Pakistan maintains a belief in the use of military coup as a tool for political change. There remains a very good chance, therefore, of another coup in Pakistan - its fifth since attaining independence in 1947.