Tag: democracy

  • PM thinks election every five years is a ‘tragedy’

    PM thinks election every five years is a ‘tragedy’

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that no nation could move forward without long-term planning and it was tragic that governments in Pakistan could not do so due to the general election being held every five years.

    According to The News, the premier, while addressing a function in connection with documentary-drama ‘Paani Ke Pankh‘ on Thursday, termed the 10 years of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) governments from 2008 through 2018 the “decade of darkness, marred by massive corruption, political expediency and inefficiency”.

    “When criminals become country heads, then no country can develop. So, one has to have faith in oneself. There are talented Pakistanis in every field outside Pakistan. The country’s system has to be fixed,” he said.

    “It takes a little time; people should not worry that the change has not come yet. It takes time to change the mindset. It’s tragic that in our country elections are held every five years due to which we do not have a long-term plan,” he continued.

    He said dams were built with a long-term plan and cited China as a country that is becoming the world’s fastest growing economic power and superpower because of long-term planning.

    “When we visited China, they told us what they were going to do in the next 10 to 20 years. No nation can move forward unless it has a long-term plan and thinks ahead. Unfortunately, we have a period of five years. We try to accomplish everything in five years, spend billions of rupees on advertisements and then fight elections on it,” he pointed out.

    Imran believed that this handicap had done a lot of damage to Pakistan.

  • ‘IG kidnapping’: Fawad mocks Bilawal for approaching Gen Bajwa instead of PM

    ‘IG kidnapping’: Fawad mocks Bilawal for approaching Gen Bajwa instead of PM

    Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry has criticised Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for seeking the intervention of army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa over the alleged involvement of the Sindh Rangers in the “kidnapping” of the provincial police chief, Mushtaq Mahar.

    In a Geo News show with Shahzeb Khanzada, the federal minister said the PPP chief talks about civilian supremacy all the time, but instead of approaching the prime minister — the chief executive of the country — Bilawal approached the military chief with his reservations.

    The minister said the appeal to the army chief was in contrast to the views propagated by the PPP chief. “If you are such a champion of democracy, then you shouldn’t drag state institutions in politics,” Fawad said.

    When asked whether the federal government would help the provincial government in the matter, Fawad said it was an “internal matter” of the Sindh government, but the Centre would be more than willing to help if approached.

    Earlier,  Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had requested Gen Bajwa take notice of the treatment meted out to the Sindh police chief by the Rangers. Bilawal said that every police officer in Sindh, from a station house officer to senior police officers, were wondering who had “surrounded IG Sindh Mushtaq Mahar’s office at 2am on Sunday night”. “Who were the two persons who went inside the IG’s house at 2am and where was our IG taken at 4am in the morning?” he asked.

    Subsequently, Gen Bajwa ordered a probe into the alleged abduction of IG Mahar. According to a statement shared by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Gen Bajwa has directed Karachi Corps commander to “immediately inquire into the circumstances to determine the facts and report back as soon as possible”.

  • A must read for all: How Democracies Die

    A must read for all: How Democracies Die

    On World Democracy day, (and even if it wasn’t) the one book that every Pakistani should read is How Democracies Die by two Harvard professors, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.

    Even though the book refers primarily to the Trump administration and how the United States is starting to kill its own democracy, it has got pages and chapters which are so starkly similar to our past and present, that it will shock you.

    Donald Trump going to the White House after being elected President

    The book, written in 2018, talks about how countries that are democratic have systems in place to do ‘democracy checks’. These systems, some unofficial, make sure that countries do not elect individuals, or parties that go against the core belief of their country’s value system. And if there are times when people with power arise to challenge this system, ruling parties and oppositions, stick together for the greater good to keep them out.

    They discuss the rise of authoritarian regimes and how they played the game to get into power, the rise and selection of Hitler and then focus on how America, a country that has historically managed to keep true to its system, is now deteriorating.

    Adolf Hitler of Germany

    The book is simply written and easy to understand. It explains, very simply, how democracies start to rot and then slowly die, as elected officials and people in power ask citizens to stand up against democratically-elected governments, the media is censored and also indulges in self-censorship and then rules are changed to suit the will of a few than the hope of many.

    The book is a must read for everyone who wants to understand how countries evolve and devolve. The book says that, ” History doesn’t repeat itself. But it rhymes.,” and the reason why we need to read it is to know that when that is happening. “The promise of history is that we can find the rhymes before it is too late”.