KARACHI, Dec 18: Economy and democracy will flourish in the days to come, says PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Husain. Looking at the medium-term, one can share his optimism on a robust economic growth, but the future outlook on democracy appears to be murky.
Much needs to be done to make economic growth socially sustainable for the long-term. The balancing of competing interests in the economy and society is weak. The outcomes are unpredictable.
Official efforts to move towards an "inclusive society" are on the fringes of the economic and social mainstream. Poverty is a risk to social stability as is militancy and extremism it gives rise to. Fire-fighting in the tribal territories of Balochistan and NWFP is far removed from the efforts to modernize a backward economy, outdated politics and antiquated cultural practices.
Besides rhetoric about rules of the political game and national reconciliation, no serious move has been made so far to pull the country out of political quagmire.
A game of divide and rule is preferred to national unity which is the most powerful tool in the economic and social progress. The extra-constitutional forces do not subscribe to the normal political give and take in order to push the political process forward. And while the mainstream political parties may appear to be weak, they create an environment that impacts on government efficiency.
Since the unanimously approved 1973 Constitution and the land reforms of the early 1970s, the country has not seen any social progress. And in the absence of federal democracy, Pakistan's economic potential has not fully realized. The only exception has been the creation of district governments which, however, lack fiscal and administrative autonomy. It has been accompanied by further weakening of the provincial autonomy.
The local authorities have also failed to mobilize the relevant communities to speed up socio-economic progress.
"Pakistan's political institutions, never robust, have been hollowed by years of military governments," says the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The social progress, solely lacking for the past 30 years, depends on both government and non-government institutions to set up and sustain schools and on their ability to scale down the inertia so powerfully reinforced in feudal-dominated rural areas, says the CSIS.
The empowerment of the citizens through education and upgrading of skills is moving at a snail's peace.
The CSIS goes on to emphasise that "rebuilding institutions is the first and foremost fundamental step towards restoring vitality and creditability of the Pakistani state."
Democracy depends on the vitality of political institutions like the parliament, political parties and the Election Commission. Political stability, constitutional writ and sanctity of commercial contracts are vital to move towards a democratic order without which no egalitarian economic system can be evolved. Market economy and pluralism go together. But it is democracy that imparts egalitarianism to any national economy.
As a first step, the present military-civilian partnership (excluding major secular parties) must lead to supremacy of the constitution and the parliament. It would create the political space for the common man to exercise his sovereign right to rule through representatives and improve the quality of his life step by step. Democracy is about the mandate of the electorate on policies and programmes and the tenure of an elected government. Democracy does not become functional unless the voter's mandate are respected and carried out. Any other arrangement would not create an "inclusive society".
