Democracy is the best revenge – but from whom?

Democracy is the best revenge – but from whom?

After being a victim of forced exile at the hands of a dictatorial regime, when Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister and chairperson Pakistan People’s Party returned to Pakistan, she was expected to mobilize masses against the then president Pervaiz
Musharraf and to struggle for ousting him to restore democracy in the country. However, covered by an under-the-table deal with her tyrant, instead of doing what was expected of her, she coined the slogan which was to be learnt by the entire nation rather
a hard way – Democracy is the best revenge.

Instead of ousting the dictator, the PPP agreed to contest elections while having Musharraf in the presidential saddle, and to give a shut-up call to the critics, it was said that since the democracy is being restored in the country, it perhaps is the best
revenge from the dictatorial forces in the country.

However, after her unfortunate assassination, this slogan has not only been misused, rather abused. On demands of an improvement in law and order situation, provision of necessities of life including power, gas, jobs and eatables from the masses, they were
constantly told that instead of looking over the negative sides of the government, they should celebrate the fact that democracy is restored in the country.

And in the name of democracy, the present regime has inflicted hitherto unknown tyrannies on this poor nation. It has been ruthlessly looting the precious resources, has almost doubled the internal and external debts and has delivered nothing countable to
the people. Every time question was raised on the inefficiency and corruption of the ruling alliance, a hue and cry flooded media claiming that ‘democracy’ was put into danger and that the ‘democratic forces’ are not being allowed to work in the country.

Now, the government is trying to use same slogan to embark upon the higher judiciary that is bent upon recovering the black money of President Asif Ali Zardari which is currently kept in the Swiss Banks. In order to curtail the court’s powers the government
has also tried to make and implement a new contempt of court law, which has been stricken down by the apex court, and now, the PPP led ruling alliance is busy in knitting new stories that may reign in the judges who have committed to serve justice to this
nation hard bitten by the ‘democracy’.

In the present situation and after looking over the history of the present ruling lot, one only wonders that if democracy really is a revenge, who are the ones from whom this revenge is being taken. Aren’t these the same people who elected these so called
representatives for themselves and now they are paying the price of their whim to have a ‘democratic’ government in the country.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=31218

Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Aug 18 2012. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry