ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: The role of state institutions will be undermined in a democratic setup wherein the military plays a pre-dominant role.

These were the views of the participants of the 5th Sustainable Development Conference on South Asia held here on Friday.

The participants expressed their apprehensions about the version of democracy being introduced by the present government.

They were also unanimous on the point that it was only the middle class that could effectively thwart the ruining of democratic institutions by actively participating in the process.

Prof Mohammad Waseem of Quaid-i-Azam University said, unfortunately, eversince the inception of this country, civil and military bureaucracy remained busy in undermining democratic forces.

He said according to the new scheme being worked out by the government following 2002 elections, a new parliamentary system would be introduced whereby elected parliamentarians would work in subordination to the un-elected president and would be bound to continue with his past policies.

“If they resist doing it, they will have to face the hanging sword of article 58-2(b) of the Constitution,” Prof Waseem said, adding that victory of religious forces was the direct result of government policies.

Chandrika Parmar, who has come from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, India, said the essence of real democracy was being threatened by the contemporary democratic practices wherein public participation was rapidly decreasing all over the world.

She called for encouraging the middle class to strengthen democratic traditions in future, adding, it was this class which could successfully throw unwanted elements away.

Dr Farzana Bari of Quaid-i-Azam University said democracy and politics had become a joyride for the influential and the ruling class.

She said the kind of democracy being introduced in the country was fast disfranchising and disempowering the poor, as a result a gap between the poor and the rich was widening.

She was of the view that the local government system could not break the traditional power structure rather it strengthened it.

Renowned development journalist Ammara Durrani said issue-based politics was not being given importance, rather state- sponsored politics was being projected in the media.

She said since there was no change in power politics, people did not feel any positive change in their lives. She regretted that multinational corporations manipulated the media and social issues were being under-focussed in media.

Investigative journalist Jami Chandio said there was a need to encourage scientific research in journalism. He said development media could bridge the gap between people and policy- makers by objectively reporting public issues.

Talking on “Violence and the Recovery of Alternatives: Partition and Memory in the Indian Subcontinent”, Dr Lubna Chaudhry of SDPI said violence which erupted at the time of partition not only had political factors behind it but also economic and social dimensions.

In “Peace and Education” session, the speakers — Dr Tariq Rehman, Zarina Salamat on behalf of Krishna Kumar, Dr Nayyar, Ahmad Salim and Dr Inayatullah — were of the view that the states controlled education systems and curriculum and used it for their interest.

They came to this point on the basis of an empirical research on curriculum and textbooks available in India and Pakistan. They said peace was not possible as the existing curriculum and textbooks of both the countries portrayed each other as enemies.

In ‘Labour Policies’ session, the federal labour minister, Owais Ghani, said Omar Asghar Khan had done a lot to introduce labour policy, 2002 and he supplemented his efforts in this regard. He hoped the new government would continue to develop pro-labour policies.

Karamat Ali, another speaker, said though a number of issues had been addressed in the labour policy, much more needed to be done in future.

Dr Saba said women in the labour market were not necessarily empowered. Radhika Balakrishnan said macro-economy led to flexibility of labour and gender issues.

Monis Ahmer of Karachi University, in his paper on “Civil Society of Bangladesh and Challenges to Peace: Lessons for Pakistan”, primarily focused on the political intolerance prevalent in the civil society of Bangladesh and emphasized the fact that threats to peace in the Bangladeshi society were more from internal factors.

Haider Nazamani of SDPI mainly focused on the discourses of peace in India and Pakistan. He drew a comparison of political and peace movements in these two countries and gave references from the history.

Dr Pervez Hassan, while opening the session “Regulating Industrial Pollution”, paid rich tributes to late Omar Asghar Khan’s initiatives concerning efforts to develop pollution control strategies in Pakistan.