Defining democracy (DAWN- March 29, 2007)
IN a television appearance President Musharraf said that the West needs to know that democracy has a different definition and implications here in Pakistan. I ask the president why this is so. Democracy is and should be same universally. It cannot be made a subjective term.
Now the complicated question is: Is there democracy in Pakistan? I think the answer should be that we are experiencing a mixture of dictatorship and democracy. After all, what we are experiencing today is not a true democracy since the head of state is a president in uniform. Also, we are not experiencing complete dictatorship thanks to the one most talked about attribute of democracy, namely the freedom of speech.
There may be two reasons to allow that particular attribute of democracy. One is to avoid complete dictatorship. And the other may be clever thinking on the part of government that even if they didn’t wish to allow the freedom of speech, it would have happened anyway because of the increased use of Internet and cable networks by the general public after the year 2000.
IN a television appearance President Musharraf said that the West needs to know that democracy has a different definition and implications here in Pakistan. I ask the president why this is so. Democracy is and should be same universally. It cannot be made a subjective term.
Now the complicated question is: Is there democracy in Pakistan? I think the answer should be that we are experiencing a mixture of dictatorship and democracy. After all, what we are experiencing today is not a true democracy since the head of state is a president in uniform. Also, we are not experiencing complete dictatorship thanks to the one most talked about attribute of democracy, namely the freedom of speech.
There may be two reasons to allow that particular attribute of democracy. One is to avoid complete dictatorship. And the other may be clever thinking on the part of government that even if they didn’t wish to allow the freedom of speech, it would have happened anyway because of the increased use of Internet and cable networks by the general public after the year 2000.
AMIR IKRAM
Lahore
Lahore
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