Democracy lovers were displeased with the Supreme Court objecting to the imposition of 'carbon' tax, terming it an intervention in the affairs of a 'sovereign' parliament. More recently, NWFP's senior minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour advised the judges to stop issuing "political statements."
Indeed, technically, it amounts to interference. Like most others, I too feel that judges, including those occupying the benches of the Supreme Court are humans with all the in-built frailties that make them 'bashar', but so are those occupying the 'sovereign' parliament. Judges don't take suo moto notices for fun's sake; unchecked malfunctioning of the state machinery obliges them to do so.
A minority in the media induces politicians to find faults elsewhere rather than look inside their own shirts. According to a Lahore-based English daily "the cruel fact is that judicial interference through suo moto action doesn't always lead to solutions, especially if these are embedded in the 'restricted' sovereignty of the state" although in Pakistan, if there is one institution that exercises unbounded sovereignty it is the state.
Pakistanis don't relish the unceremonious exit of elected governments. Beginning 1958, all elected regimes were dislodged on charges of corruption and political intolerance. Yet, every time democracy was revived, the election-winning parties behaved as if they had conquered Pakistan via the ballot-box because, once in power, they used their majority as the raison deter for indulging in blatant fascism, only to erode their popularity.
This on-going phenomenon proves only one thing: nations with a corrupt feudal class and high illiteracy level implying the electorate's ignorance about the power of the vote are unfit for governance through a democratic set up in which power revolves within a close circle of the powerful and the corrupt. Politicians turn legislation into a weapon for settling their personal scores violating in the process the sanctity of the mandate they receive.
Aside from the manipulations that created Bangladesh, and indebtedness and impoverishment of Pakistan, the most dangerous development has been amnesty for traitors on the pretext that it was done before as well. The most shameful part is that this convoluted philosophy has now been given legislative sanction in the shape of NRO on the strength of the argument that a 'sovereign' parliament can sanction just about anything.
There are politicians within the ranks of the ruling party and its coalition members (except one) who plead that General Musharuff can be tried only if you try Generals Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Zia-ul-Haq. Great stuff, isn't it? They want skeletons of these three to be dug out of their graves and held to account. Only the members of a Pakistan-style 'sovereign' parliament can come up with this awe inspiring proposition.
This huge lot of parliamentarians is seemingly (but certainly not really) unaware of the mindset this logic has developed ie clearly establish the fact that, when in power, parliamentarians can do exactly as they please because they are the 'sovereigns', without the slightest concern for being held accountable, ever. By turns they can keep coming in and having their share of every pleasure at the expense of the citizens of Pakistan.
The 'sovereign' parliament is under no obligation to ensure supremacy of the law, increase social equality, make taxation fairer, plug the gaps in the social and physical infrastructures of the country by the most visionary, lasting, economical, and expeditious development effort, stabilise trade flows and exchange and interest rates, and consistently try to make the country ever more self-sufficient by reducing its external debt.
That's a long list of expectations to be met by parliamentarians who are not required to have the acumen that comes with studying the past, current and expected trends in history, economics, management and social sciences and, above all, civil and criminal law. The parliament's decision to do away with the requirement for the parliamentarians to hold even a bachelor's college degree implies that parliamentarians are virtually born with this entire knowledgebase. Great stuff again!
The most devastating failure of democracy has been in countries with claims to being having the "mother of all parliaments" (Britain) or being the most powerful (the US) or the largest democracy (India) in the world. For the mess that they find themselves in the culprit is their elected leadership; to cover up its failures it used democracy as new route to re-colonisation of the world. The examples: Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yet, these countries are quoted as examples of how democracy brings out the best in a nation. They all have 'sovereign' parliaments, well-defined constitutions, strong judiciaries and law enforcement outfits. Why then are these 'sovereign' democracies so worse off in almost every way? Why is it that the biggest problem they face is terrorism that is deeply rooted in deprivation, denial and poverty?
Why is it that businesses now tend to own governments? Isn't it because they finance political campaigns? Why is it that instead of offering its traditional 'development' loans, IMF and the World Bank now extend loans for 'poverty alleviation'? Why are poverty and unemployment the biggest of the problems of virtually every democratic country? Why don't the all-knowing parliamentarians solve their peoples' problems?
The greed injected into the system by powerful industrialist lobbies made their trade policies self-serving. These were then imposed globally via WTO, which brought economic instability to this planet; the irony is that, later, the West itself became their target. What applies to them applies to the computers - garbage in, garbage out, or the saying that 'what you sow so shall you reap'. Trampling cosmic values leads nowhere else.
Greed and injustice, cleverly shrouded in a smokescreen of propaganda about 'freeing' the markets caused this unmanageable global chaos. The most painful legacy of the recent past is the failure of the state, almost everywhere, in delivering an equitable and stable socio-economic environment, in spite of the tall but hollow claims of the politicians and bureaucrats claims that insult the citizens' intelligence every day.
Disillusionment with democracy is reaching astonishing proportions. People now see a direct link between democracy and bad governance because corrupt and incompetent lawmakers (usually funded by corrupt businesses) have failed consistently to resolve their people's problems - a reality manifested by the lack of voter turnout at recent elections everywhere. Anarchy is on the rise that sovereign parliaments can't see.
Pakistanis got a raw deal during the last 'decade' of democracy as proved beyond doubt by the low turnout at the last elections warning the politicians to mend their ways. That signal was completely ignored by the ruling party and its coalition partners. They had a chance to make-up for their past blunders; tragically, they opted for making hay while the sun shines; how long this 'while' lasts isn't hard to guess.