Plato has said that the rule of law can never be properly executed in democracy as when the elections are held then several parties contest and the majority party who has won the elections they form the government and now the sovereignty of the country is in the hands of wining party and once they are in power then the party members start hovering around the ministers and other influential members of the assembly and in most of the cases their demands and requirements are not mostly within the country’s law or even the traditions but most of the people who come with these demands can not be easily ignored because they have certain influence on a group of voters who has supported the ruling party during election times and to keep them satisfied is quite necessary so somehow or the other they have got to be accommodated and most of the time the party has got to circumvent the rules in the best capability as to justify their actions.
Though even in the highly educated and enlighten society human nature of selfish motives also expect the same attitude, however even if they are accommodated but in a very subtle manner not like it happens in under developed countries where the party member are accommodated in a blatant and crude manner.
Though the champions of democracy claim that inspite of democracy’s handicaps and misuse in certain countries and societies it remains to be the best known system, however some of the western thinkers and intellectuals consider that democracy without education can be very dangerous way of governess now, considering the above opinions we have to judge that how best and with what amendments.
We can use this institution in our country Pakistan, we have a great handicap in bringing the real democracy in practice because mostly our country is an agriculture based economy and the agriculture in our country is controlled by very influential and large zamidars and jagidars and their families who own the thousands of acres of land, and the haris are treated like slaves because the land they are tiling belongs to these jagidars or zamidars and the fate of the haris is entirely in the hands of his masters as even the house he lives in is on the land of the jagidars and so everything in his house including his clothes are not his own. So he had no option but to do as he is dictated by his masters including to vote during election times to the person he is told to. So these jagidars on the votes of their haris or slaves (whatever you may call them) get elected and are sitting in the assemblies controlling the fate of every individual and the country. The only thing while sitting in the assemblies these jagidars and zamidars are doing only one thing and that is forming such laws which are only for the benefit of their interest instead of doing anything for their voters by and large the common people of the country.
So with the system of one man one vote the assembly consist entirely of the same class of people who are there not only to safeguard their existing wealth rather they continuously keep forming laws which can be helpful in creating more and more opportunities to increase their wealth and this is going on from generation to generation. They are working and making laws which gives them immense power that is why all the foreign aids and loans which are received by the country most of it ultimately lands in the Swiss account of these ministers MNA’s and MP’s and the country and its people are completely deprived of the benefits which could be obtained by investing this money and in the country’s development programs, otherwise with all our mineral resources and agricultural projects our country should be reasonably affluent and the people of the country should be reasonably well to do.
Inspite of the fact that the country is very rich in mineral resources and its agriculture has the capability of becoming one of the most advanced agricultural country’s production wise by investing these foreign loans and aids in improving their productivity using latest techniques and so the magnitude of its agriculture products would improve continuously with the latest inventions, as Pakistan is a very suitable country for the following cash crops, cotton, rice and sugarcane and crops of such products like edible oil, seeds e.g. sunflower, cotton seeds and there are other seeds which can be grown in our tropical climate and by growing these seeds we can save a substantial amount of foreign exchange which we spend on import of edible oil like palm oil.
But unfortunately these foreign aids and loans which are acquired for the improvement of industrialization and agricultural projects then hardly a friction of it, is spent in the name of the projects they are acquired for and most of it is again usurped by these people.
Now the worst part is that even some of the industrialists after making the fortune by all sorts of means have started realizing that the real power is not in the hands of industrialist but in the lands. So by all their ill-gotten money they have started acquiring huge tracks of lands and have entered the elite club of jagidars and now they not only control the man power of haris but also of the labourers which work in their industrial projects. So now in Pakistan a new elite club is emerging who have both agriculture and industrial power in their control, so this new club is siphoning the country’s resources from both industrial and agricultural projects and are fattening their foreign accounts.
Now some of our intellectuals and economist are suggesting and insisting that agriculture income should be taxed but they forget that first of all its very difficult to devise a formula where you can really assess the agriculture income and suppose you are able to do it then who is going to “bell the cat” as what to say of going to the villages and asking for the taxes nobody without the permission of these people can even enter their village as far as law enforcing agencies are concerned we should not forget that these people with their influence resources and official status as MP’s or ministers these poor employees of law enforcing agencies are treated by them as their personal servants.
So under the circumstances can we expect any recoveries in taxes or even in improving the rule of law or any achievement under the said circumstances.
So our only hope is urban middle class and economists and intellectuals but in what way they can help us then certain people are talking about the revolution but people like Lenin and Trotsky, Mao Ze Dong and Zhou Enlai are not born everyday and everywhere moreover for revolution it is necessary that the majority of the population should be on the same wave length but in Pakistan we have so many splinter groups who do not even see eye to eye and their ideologies strongly differ with each other. Even to the extent that a very strong group who fully justify the ideology of terrorists and their actions of suicide bombing and killing thousands of people.
Now there could be a very strong medium of putting the country on the right track and that is we being Muslims if our religious leaders could lead us on the right and genuine Islamic philosophy then it would have been a different case but the worst thing which has happened in Pakistan that our religion is so badly distorted by these people who have the lust for power that they always used the religious argument for their means to get whatever suits them even by distorting their own faith and religion and its teaching so all the killings and financial discrepancies are done in the name of religion and the most interesting thing is that a murderer and the murdered both are done in the name of religion.
And the most interesting thing is the military dictatorships in the country which has ruled more than half the life of Pakistan. These dictators when they took over from the corrupt civilians at that time most of them sincerely believed that they will put the things on the right track but once they start tasting power then they decided to stay on and seriously started thinking that they are the saviors of the country and have really generated a popular image amongst the masses so they start making experiments like basic democracy or controlled democracy or even Islamic democracy and they also start believing that instead of being a dictator they are running a democratic government and they are themselves democrats. In case of exit of the dictator even a civilian should have seen the dictators enjoying their power without fear of any objection from any quarters also feel like doing the same and then ultimately they start behaving and acting in a dictatorial manner though popularly elected members as they are.
Now the unfortunate part is that whenever dictators came into power as mentioned above they tried to give impression as a popularly elected democratic leader while when the popularly elected people came into power they started behaving and acting like a dictator.
The gist of the whole thing is that nobody was ever bothered or sincere to the country or its masses rather each one of them whatever they did was for the purposes of their personal glory and benefits. Now the only thing apart from good luck to Pakistan we wish that we may get a ruler like Mahathir Muhammad of Malaysia or Leekuon Yew of Singapore.
Now the question is that under the above mentioned circumstances what is the solution? As even when the army comes into power to keep their rule safe from any civil commotion or even to keep the law & order and the country they look towards these influential jagidars and zamidars.
So in everyway that elite club remains in power rather the army rulers also try to enter this elite club.
So how we can do it? I don’t know but the only way for Pakistan is to have a respectable place in the international community and a viable economy and a perfect law and order the only way seems to be to bring land reforms on Indian style.
Though however, there had been land reforms in Pakistan twice but it was done in such away that the system remains the same, though however the ceiling of holding was fixed maximum at 50 acres but the catch was that we have a law which is called law of Benami and under that law anything belonging to anybody can be distributed in different names and keep a proof of that, that land or whatever it is actually belongs to you but for certain reasons you have transferred it in another name but if and when you want you can transfer it back by your own name.
So together with land reforms we will have to abolish the law of Benami for the land reforms to be really effective.
Though however to bring these land reforms is the only respectable way of survival for Pakistan but now when these jagidars and business tycoons cum jagidars are so well entranched that they cannot be removed from power and as bringing revolution in Pakistan seems to be so difficult or even impossible as reasons mentioned above then what is the solution?
So our only hope is in urban middle class who can produce the leadership who can solve these problems, so good luck to Pakistan and expect the best from Almighty to save us and our country.
