The past year saw wide swept advances by populist and nationalist political forces across the globe with staggering events such as Brexit and the election of Donald Trump marking a shift in the existing global political and economic landscape that has been in place for the past two decades. The Freedom in the World 2017 report aptly titled Populists and Autocrats: The Dual Threat to Global Democracy assesses the threats posed to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in the wake of this paradigm shift where populists and autocrats are increasingly calling the shots.
Accordingly, this led to 2016 being the eleventh consecutive year of decline in global freedom with impediments in political rights and civil liberties in a host of countries rated Free by the report including the America, Spain, France and Brazil amongst others. The report rated 87 (45 percent) counties rated as Free whereas 59 (30 percent) were Partly Free and 49 (25 percent) Not Free out of a total of 195 nations. Unsurprisingly, given the political turmoil and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region had the worst ratings in 2016.
However, the really anxiety stems from the rise of right-wing nationalist parties across Europe coupled with exogenous factors such as Russian influence and the immigration crisis. The report correctly highlights that in the wake of such developments internal strain within Europe exposed vulnerabilities that were previously hidden and ignored. This leads to the unfortunate conclusion that Europe can no longer be taken for granted as a bastion of democratic stability.
In addition, Trumps election has had its own set of deeply unsettling measures including the presidential order to ban entry to citizens from seven Muslim majority states, which has been suspended by the judiciary. However, the threat still looms and with extreme vetting of refugees and immigrants also on the cards, the biggest champion of freedom has its own house out of order. Naturally then the apprehensions raised by the World Freedom House in its publication demand serious attention by policymakers across the world.
As for South Asia, Pakistan has been awarded an aggregate score of 43 out of a total of 100 and a freedom status of Partly Free with low freedom of political rights and civil liberties behind the poor ranking. Even though this is an improvement upon last year's score of 41 it still lags behind India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. India has been awarded a score of 77 with high freedom of political rights and civil liberties behind the good score. This translates into a freedom status of "Free" for India whereas Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka all have a "Partly Free" status.
From a macro perspective, the report confirms the rapidly changing dynamics of the existing global political landscape and as such calls for attention from policymakers back home to start thinking about the implications it would have for Pakistan.
Comments
Comments are closed.