September 12: Pakistan’s democracy is proverbially between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand is the perceived expanding role of the unelected elements in politics and their support and control in facilitating election results and giving direction to elected governments. On the other hand is the real and potent threat of return to fascism as sometimes practiced in the past by elected representatives in Pakistan, where elected civilian governments turned into dictatorships.

As we approach the International Day of Democracy on September 15, 2024, there are no doubts in the national collective understanding that Pakistan’s democracy is where it is because it has continuously been tampered with and controlled by institutions that have or have had no constitutional rights and responsibilities to do so.

That has been and remains Pakistan’s enduring dilemma. Does the polity continue to accept, albeit begrudgingly, and accede to the extra-constitutional control and interference in democratic governance? Or, should all stakeholders take the difficult yet much-needed path of course-correction and attempt to adhere to their constitutional roles? The grim reality is that despite the belief that more of the same approach cannot work in governing Pakistan, none of the actors are willing to find a workable solution through an inter-institutional dialogue.

From International Day of Democracy 2023 to 2024, Pakistan’s democracy has seen many developments – though without any real progress. A delayed general election in February 2024 was found wanting on fairness and level playing field for all contestants. Legislatures elected through that have failed to utilize their clout to find real solutions to crises of governance. Elected governments in the centre and provinces look to their higher backers to help them deliver. Citizens’ freedoms, as those of media, are facing newer and stricter curbs. The centralised role given to the establishment in facilitating all things economy appears slow in bearing fruit. Lazy and damningly unimaginative taxation and budgets have the citizens reeling from unprecedented economic woes. Challenges to internal security have intensified through the rise in cases of insurgency while issues of regional security and relations with Pakistan’s neighbours have only become more fraught with strain.

Political polarisation inside the country also has shown no signs of improvement. In fact, the near-rupture in inter-institutional relations threatens a likely showdown between institutions. Such a showdown may become too costly for even this system that only weakly resembles democracy, where the largest province of the country and the federal capital area remain without elected local governments for the last many years with dim prospects of their revival in the near future.

All, however, is not bad news. Political awareness in citizens, especially in young people, has placed ultimate political power in the hands of the multitude who demand freedom in exercise of their right to choose who governs them as well as a share in democratic governance. This was especially evident in youth voter turnout which surged to its highest ever - 48% - in 2024, recording a substantial rise of 11 percentage points from 37% in 2018.

With doors of traditional political participation in governance firmly shut for them, more and more young people have turned to social media for expression of their views and opinions. Citizens’ online engagement, however, is unfortunately also being used as a front for dangerous populist opportunism. Sadly, this has given another excuse to the ruling group to crack down on use of all social media in Pakistan by branding it as ‘digital terrorism’. The use of terms like 5^th generation warfare and digital terrorism also points to a painful tendency in the ruling elite to view citizens from the lens of ‘us versus them,’ with any hint of divergence from their preferred and well-curated viewpoint being seen as a threat. However, engagement instead of condemnation may offer better chances of success in overcoming populism.

In a civilised society, a strategic dialogue aimed at determining rules of the game for democratic governance is the only way forward. PILDAT believes that such a dialogue, already delayed to the detriment of democratic governance, must be initiated urgently amongst all institutions and stakeholders for the greater good of Pakistan, its fragile democracy and its ever-resilient people.