Challenges to Parliamentary Democracy in Pakistan

Parliamentary democracy in Pakistan has been facing huge odds since its inception. Pakistan had to suffer from dictatorial regimes for 35 out of its 64 years of life. Crises of confidence, governance,, legitimacy and accountability have been putting its existence in jeopardy. However, it is heartening that the nascent democracy in Pakistan seems to have been working so far. The political parties have joined their hands together to save the system. PAC’s chairmanship has been handed over to the leader of opposition which has done an amazing job regarding transparency and accountability. However, the democracy is fragile and it has a long way to go to attain independence and sustainability.

These thoughts were expressed by Dr. Fahmida Mirza, speaker National Assembly of Pakistan in the seminar ‘ The challenges to parliamentary democracy in Pakistan’ organised by Forum for International Relations Development (FIRD) today.

The panel consisted of Dr. Fahmida Mirza, Mr Toaha Qureshi MBE, Chairman FIRD, Arif Malik, Programme Director FIRD, Khalid Mahmood MP , journalist Elaina Cohen , Catriona Robertson, convener London Borough of Faith Networks, and senior research fellow at FIRD, Philip Lingard.

Arif Malik introduced the event and provided his view of the current state of international relations giving some historical perspectives and relating this to the changing fate of democracy worldwide. Philip Lingard mentioned that after WW2 almost all of Europe elected Christian Democratic parties to rebuild their countries and so it was logical to assume that following the recent events in North Africa and the Middle East that religion could also play a positive role in rebuilding nations.

Elaina Cohen noted that Europe appeared to doing the reverse. Countries like Italy and Greece were deselecting democratically elected officials and were replacing them with a technocracy.

Toaha Qureshi referred to Prof Niall Ferguson of Harvard University, who in his latest book asserted that the predominance of the western world after the 16t century (which had been based on the rise of democracy) was now likely to be challenged by Asia, where various countries had developed new ways to govern and organise in the 21st century, most notably Turkey and China. He also condemned NATO airstrike and drone attacks and asserted that these attacks were undermining the democracy in Pakistan. He drew comparison of Arab Spring vis a vis Europe Autumn.

Khalid Mahmood MP warned that although many had applauded the ‘Arab Spring’, which had been a logical result of populations rejecting tyranny. There was still some doubt as to whether democratic principles would triumph.

Toaha Qureshi MBE announced scholarships worth £120,000 for talented but underprivileged students in Pakistan.

The event was held in the Arnold Toynbee Hall at the Forum for International Relations Development Secretariat in Cheam, Surrey. The event was heavily attended by policy analysts, strategists and academics. Nafees Zakariya, Deputy High Commissioner represented Pakistan High Commission in the seminar.