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Democracy In Pakistan Is Indeed
An International Matter
During
her recent surprise stopover in Pakistan US Secretary of State
Condi Rice remarked she expected general Musharraf will fulfill
his promise to hold free and fair elections next year.
First, Foreign Office spokesperson angrily
reacted to US State Secretary’s remarks and said, “On the
democratic processes in Pakistan, we do not require advice from
outside as these matters essentially concern the people of
Pakistan,” Then, general Musharraf himself reiterated same
position and said democracy was flourishing in Pakistan
according to its conditions.
Democracy in Pakistan is not necessarily
Pakistan’s internal matter. If regional and international forces
are concerned about the state of democracy in Pakistan, their
concerns are genuine and real and need serious attention.
Pakistan is a country of one hundred and
sixty million people. One hundred and sixty million people are a
lot of people. Keeping them deprived of all of their social,
cultural, political and economic rights for sixty years is a
serious matter.
The consequences of this deprivation are
imminently visible within Pakistan and around the globe.
Today, Pakistan is an instable country. It is
a failed state. It has gone through the process of dismemberment
before, and once again, identical scenarios are present in the
country. Two major territories are under military operation. One
hundred and sixty million people are forced to live a life of
despair and alienation while unrepresentative actors are dancing
on the national scene.
This drama is not new. This drama is going on
in Pakistan for the last sixty years. Sixty years is a long
period in any peoples’ history. Still there is no end in sight.
The non representative actors want to continue their satanic
play indefinitely. This drama did not give any thing to the
people of Pakistan. All it gave to the people is 1965, 1971
wars, fractured state of Pakistan, insurmountable miseries,
poverty, hunger, despair, economic deprivation, lawlessness,
rampant crime and mafia culture.
If Pakistanis ended up with listed above
gifts because of absence of democracy in Pakistan, the region
and international world got drugs, violence, human trafficking,
unwanted immigrants, 9/11, Kashmir, Afghanistan and Iraq.
All these issues are related to the issue of
democracy in Pakistan. A deeper analysis relates all these
issues to military dictatorships in Pakistan. If Pakistan were a
democratic country, the world would not have faced all these
issues.
Therefore, when a general comes on Pakistan
tv with a satanic smile on his face and says Pakistan’s
democracy is an internal matter, he lies. He does not want to
tell the truth to his people and people of the world at large.
A peaceful, stable and modern Pakistan is a
key to regional and internal peace and stability. And Pakistan’s
peace and stability is associated with democracy, and free and
fair elections.
Therefore, democracy is not Pakistan’s
internal matter it is as well an international matter. Regional
and international forces’ concerns about Pakistan’s democracy
are genuine and real and need serious attention.
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