Kamran Khamiso Khowaja
September 15 marks the international day of democracy to raise awareness regarding its importance in the political structure of the world. Different Ideologists, authors, and political scientists have explained it according to their understanding and observation of the society in which we live. Aristotle, the most influential and prolific political philosopher of his era views democracy as a threat to rule of law, according to his opinion the one who possesses all the abilities of a ruler must be preferred over an aristocrat who is inept to run the affairs of the Government. Another Political Philosopher of repute Plato, alike his student Aristotle did not view democracy as an identical form of governance and presented democracy as the tyranny of the majority The prime mover of the french revolution J.J Russow termed democracy as the only suitable form of government. His book Social contract flung opened the door of democracy and guided French people to scrap Kingship. ime went by and philosophers kept giving new ideas and theories about democracy and during that period democracy continued to flourish even though ideological giants Like Aristotle and Plato rejected it as an ideal form of government. 215 the year when for the first time in modern human history, significant and substantial headway was made towards democracy. Magna Carta the charter of democracy guaranteed the rights of people and king John delegated his powers thus that event made the U.K the mother of Democracy. That historical achievement also made the successful fusion of Kingship and a democratically elected government that continues yet. However, that combination also proved Aristotle wrong by successfully conserving the rule of law across their territorial jurisdictions under democratically elected governments.
Although the President of he USA is contemplated as the most powerful elected representative of the world and it does not corroborate the principle quite essential for the existence of democracy laid down by john At-con who propounded that “absolute power corrupts absolutely”, but despite that technically polished political infrastructure of USA has effectively managed to uphold the banderole of democracy and the secret behind that is the successful implementation of the doctrine of separation power and prevalence of the system checks and balances which puts that powerful President on his feet and he keeps delivering during his tenure ndia that has been arrogantly claiming itself as a democratic and secular state has failed to give protection to its minorities. It seems that they have completely misunderstood the actual concept and purpose of democracy. The beheading of innocent Kashmiris and Muslim genocide across the country shows that India has attempted to achieve its fallacious political aims and is promoting the agenda of fanatic Religious Organisation RSS in the garb of Democracy. emocracy in Pakistan has always been at the receiving end, its journey here has always been curbed by the imprecation of totalitarianism in different phases of history. Whenever we talk of democracy in Pakistan we refer to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto the first democratically elected Prime minister of Pakistan who is credited for creating political awareness among the poor masses of this country. e told them that they were the real strength and notion of power in this country. After he had laid down his life for the endurance of democracy a strong movement for the revival of democracy (MRD) commenced. Stalwart Sindhi Politician Rassol Bux Palijo who was an essential character of that movement said in his interview that; Though MRD was not as successful as it should have been but it managed to develop cracks in the rugged wall of Dictatorship. Though Mr. Bhutto,s Democracy was a selected sort of democracy but perhaps it was still far better than what we had experienced before him he Role of Benazir Bhutto for the revival of democracy in Pakistan can also never be forsaken; she followed the footings of his father and eventually met the same destiny. It can be said that the existence of Democracy in Today’s Pakistan is the result of countless sacrifices. Today more than a decade has passed of we being enjoying an uninterrupted flow of democracy but still we should ponder over the Discharge of the Rule of Law so democracy could stay here for Long.
(-The writer is a Law Student and Columnist based in Sujawal with a special interest in Socio- Political Issues. )
