Election time in Pakistan’s abnormal democracy
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif is gone, disqualified for life by the Islamabad High Court. His undoing was an “iqama” (a residency and work permit in the UAE) and failing to disclose his UAE employment and salary in his nomination papers while an election candidate in 2013.
Given the precedent set by de facto PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification last year in the Panama Papers verdict, Asif’s debarring comes as no surprise. What was surprising was an almost regretful portion of the judgment. Despite Asif’s “willful” nondisclosure, the judges observed in their ruling that it would have been preferable had the petitioner opted to use parliament as an initial forum before turning to the courts. The petitioner was Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Usman Dar, Asif’s arch-rival, who had run against him in 2013 and lost, before challenging the validity of the election and losing again.
The ruling went on to say: “We have handed down this judgment with a heavy heart, not only because a seasoned and accomplished political figure stands disqualified, but more so because the dreams and aspirations of 342,125 registered voters have suffered a setback.” What is not clear is whether the heavy heart is because of Asif’s dishonesty, Dar’s choice of forum or some other reason not made clear in the judgment. Perhaps regret is too fuzzy an emotion for the cold facts of the law.
Is it a question of dishonesty or corruption? And who might be next in line after this decimation of the PML-N top tier? Potential candidates include Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, who also has a work permit; Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, who is currently contending with a probe into a housing scam; Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry or Privatization Minister Daniyal Aziz, facing contempt of court proceedings; and Maryam Nawaz, who, along with her father Sharif and husband Safdar Awan, is on trial in an accountability court in the Avenfield properties case, which will likely see Sharif jailed.
For months now, several political pundits have been predicting a hung parliament in the upcoming general elections. Not because the current ruling party might be plagued by its incumbency or because other political parties have gained momentum where it matters. At this point, it’s not even the numbers relating to which party gets which seats that matter. These are normal political calculations in a normal democracy, but Pakistan is not a normal democracy. Various words have been used to describe it, mostly along the lines of transitional or dysfunctional. In a normal democracy, people can not only freely choose who will govern them, but are informed by civil liberties such as freedom of expression and organization.
Sharif and the PML-N’s battle for survival after his disqualification by the Supreme Court is playing out as the country has steadily changed since its last experiment with democracy in the 1990s.
Amber Rahim Shamsi
A few months before the elections, the media is being censored on several fronts: Two news channels more critical of the system than others have been intermittently taken off air in different parts of the country, while recent speeches of former Prime Minister Sharif have been muted while he was speaking live.
In a recent article on Sharif’s trial in the Wall Street Journal, president of think tank the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, questioned the credibility of the elections in light of what he described as judicial overreach and the military’s alleged maneuvering.
Every general election in Pakistan is a unique event — unpredictable and unprecedented.
The 2008 elections followed the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a decade of military dictatorship and Pakistan’s deep involvement in the US’ War on Terror. Two political parties boycotted the election, including the PTI.
By the time the 2013 elections were held, Pakistan’s economy was tanking and its people traumatized by an escalation in terrorist attacks, even as two major political parties — the ruling Pakistan People’s Party among them — were unable to freely campaign due to serious security threats.
This year’s vote will be held at another important juncture in the country’s history and will be only the second time one elected civilian government hands over power to another.
Sharif and the PML-N’s battle for survival after his disqualification by the Supreme Court is playing out as the country has steadily changed since its last experiment with democracy in the 1990s.
Pakistan has 100 million registered voters, more than 50 million active social media users, and a burgeoning middle class made fat on a diet of TV news and current affairs shows and consumer capitalism. The only problem is, while the artificial manipulation of the democratic system might get rid of short-term problems, in the long term it only leads to greater political instability and even more unpredictability.
— Amber Rahim Shamsi is an award-winning multimedia journalist. She has worked with the BBC World Service as a bilingual reporter, presenter and producer. She has also written research reports on women in media, as well as conducted numerous journalism workshops for working journalists and students of journalism.
Twitter: @AmberRShamsi
