By Dr Nsungbemo Ezung
The general election of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan held this February 2024 produced a very interesting nature of hung result: a group of independent politicians aligned with Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI), led by highly popular leader and currently jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, had won the largest number of seats by winning 93 seats out of the total 266 seats in the country’s National Assembly. This unique election result in this politically ever-volatile South Asian nation, where independent parliamentarians became the single largest political bloc in the country’s highest seat of government, was necessitated due to the barring of PTI from contesting the election over the issue of party symbol. This means that even if all the 93 newly elected independent parliamentarians come together, they will still need the help of another 41 parliamentarians to stake claim to form a new government in the country.
Although the hung verdict of the general election had once again plunged the nation into a state of uncertainty, which could also lead to turmoil in the coming days, one impressive takeaway of the outcome was the voters’ turnout. Since its founding, the country has been going through a series of political crises/instability, constant conflicts between civilian and military leaderships, threats of terrorism and extremism, both from within and outside, and unfortunate abnormal relations with its neighbor, India. All these should be enough to discourage the people of the country from coming forward and participating in the election process. It’s a mammoth task also to conduct a democratic, peaceful and free and fair election in such a politically turbulent nation.
Surprisingly, it was reported that 47.8 percent out of an estimated 128 million registered voters had turned out on Election Day, held in a single phase, to participate in the electoral process and cast their votes. Pre-poll violence and post-poll allegations of poll rigging marked the whole election process although it did not bring an end to the uncertainty that the country is already facing. The voters’ turnout however shows that all is not lost in Pakistan and that democracy still has a future in the country. If 61 million Pakistanis, in a country with an estimated 230 million population, still have faith in the country’s democratic institution and if they choose to be a party to the country’s democratic process, then the country can count on them in its effort to transform itself for the better, which is possible. The Pakistani political leaderships, cutting across party lines, needs to take cognizance of the participation of the 47.8 percent of Pakistani voters who had defied all the risks and responded positively to the call of the nation to participate in electing a new leader for the nation and ensure that they will not feel that they are let down by their leaders. Pakistan as a nation must reward those 47.8 percent of voters who had voted in the general election by forming a stable civilian government and providing good governance to the people of the country as a whole.
Pakistan as a nation had a troubled beginning. The post-colonial nation-making process of South Asia had left the region, including Pakistan, devastated. The country had to endure three military coups and three major wars with India during its last 76 years of existence which cost the nation dearly. And during its formative years, amidst chaos and conflicts, its founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah, despite earning a notorious reputation in South Asia due to his two-nation theory, envisaged a secular nation and democracy as a political system for Pakistan. With virtually no competitors to compete against him for power at that time, Jinnah could convert the nation he had created into anything that he wanted. He can make himself a dictator or make his country as his family empire where only the generation from his family can rule the country. He also had the option of establishing a political system where only one political party was recognized to rule the country. Yet he rejected all these options and chose multi-party democracy for his country. And this is something that Pakistan can take pride in its founding father. Today, the state of democracy in Pakistan may be far from being perfect. It may be suffering from many internal contradictions. Nevertheless, Pakistan remains a democratic nation at least in form. Pakistan doesn’t need to work to transition itself to democracy; it only needs to strengthen democracy, which is already in place.
In the year 1977, Gen. Zia ul-Haq, the then military ruler under pressure to hold a general election in the country as early as possible, had famously remarked that although he was committed to restoring democracy in the country, he was at the same time not in favor of holding an election for the sake of an election. And that the only election that he desires should be an election that brings out a positive result which will make way for forming a stable political government. Here was a curious case where the message on the true meaning and purpose of conducting an election in a democratic country came from a military ruler who had suppressed democracy in his country and ruled the same for more than a decade.
More than four decades on, Gen. Zia ul-Haq’s message on democracy echoes in the corridors of power in Pakistan and the world. Pakistan’s general election is over. But the big question before us is – will the general election pave the way to what kind of situation develops in the country? The best case scenario for Pakistan at this juncture is for the leaders and newly elected parliamentarians of different political parties to honor the mandate of the people by developing consensus among themselves and forming a stable and desirable civilian government at the earliest. If they fail to do this and if the military has to step in once again to influence the formation of a new government, or even to the extent of installing a puppet government controlled by the military, which will further legitimize the paramount role of the military in the political affairs of the country, then the 2024 Pakistan’s general election will be just another of what Gen. Zia ul-Haq had once famously called “election for the sake of election”.