Liberal Democracy in Pakistan: Scope and Challenges
Liberal Democracy in Pakistan, Scope and Challenges
By Shafqat Aziz
Almost a quarter century has been passed since the death of Gen. Zia, the ruthless military dictator occurred in a plane crash near Bahawalpur, a town in the southern part of Pakistan’s Punjab province. Today, apparently no mainstream political party in Pakistan owns (at least publically) him. However, the question arises here that does this fact make this notorious character irrelevant in the social and political life of Pakistan? The answer is not only plain ‘no’ with an additional note that the presence and impact of Gen. Zia in every sphere of life in Pakistan has become much more stronger and prevalent now as compare to the era when he was alive and everything was tightly under the control of his unlawful regime.
During the eleven dark years of Gen. Zia, majority of the Pakistanis exhibited a remarkable resilience against the so-called Islamization imposed by the military dictator. Except his toady politicians, some mullahs and power hungry bureaucrats and ‘sarkari babus’, the society in general did not change its liberal outlook. It was so because the generation that was facing the tyranny of Zia directly was actually a product of relatively progressive socio-political environment as well as religiously tolerant discourse. However, apart from this resilience shown by society in general, it was the era when ‘Allah Hafiz’ was taking place the earlier ‘Khuda Hafiz” in a systematic manner and resultantly, the later was sent in ‘’exile’ for the good.
The unholy project of corrupting text books with intolerant and hateful material, excessive and obsessive promotion of religious clichés through state owned media and patronage of various religious groups having violent tendencies and philosophies was at work with full zest and vigor. This project started boring fruit in early nineties when the first ‘zombie generation’ entered in the practical arenas of life after completing poisonous
By Shafqat Aziz
Almost a quarter century has been passed since the death of Gen. Zia, the ruthless military dictator occurred in a plane crash near Bahawalpur, a town in the southern part of Pakistan’s Punjab province. Today, apparently no mainstream political party in Pakistan owns (at least publically) him. However, the question arises here that does this fact make this notorious character irrelevant in the social and political life of Pakistan? The answer is not only plain ‘no’ with an additional note that the presence and impact of Gen. Zia in every sphere of life in Pakistan has become much more stronger and prevalent now as compare to the era when he was alive and everything was tightly under the control of his unlawful regime.
During the eleven dark years of Gen. Zia, majority of the Pakistanis exhibited a remarkable resilience against the so-called Islamization imposed by the military dictator. Except his toady politicians, some mullahs and power hungry bureaucrats and ‘sarkari babus’, the society in general did not change its liberal outlook. It was so because the generation that was facing the tyranny of Zia directly was actually a product of relatively progressive socio-political environment as well as religiously tolerant discourse. However, apart from this resilience shown by society in general, it was the era when ‘Allah Hafiz’ was taking place the earlier ‘Khuda Hafiz” in a systematic manner and resultantly, the later was sent in ‘’exile’ for the good.
The unholy project of corrupting text books with intolerant and hateful material, excessive and obsessive promotion of religious clichés through state owned media and patronage of various religious groups having violent tendencies and philosophies was at work with full zest and vigor. This project started boring fruit in early nineties when the first ‘zombie generation’ entered in the practical arenas of life after completing poisonous