LAHORE, March 18: Speakers at a seminar organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) termed democracy the best system to move Pakistan into right direction through involvement of people in the process at grass-root level.

The seminar, ‘The Challenges to Democracy, was held here at HRCP’s Durab Patel Auditorium on Sunday.

“Though HRCP strongly considers democracy is the best system for the uplift of the country as well as the people, we don’t want to see the so-called democracy introduced by the former military dictator Pervaiz Musharraf in the form of local government system in the country. The main objective of Mr Musharraf behind launching the local government system was to place his men to run the whole system. This style of governance weakened democracy rather than strengthening it,” eminent rights activist and lawyer Ms Asma Jahangir said on the occasion.

She said the people of Pakistan would have to decide finally which type of country they actually wanted. “Whether they want a country that could build good relations with its neighbours and ensure law and order or they want a country ruled like a kingdom or military dictatorship or they want a country to be ruled by the representatives they send to parliament after electing them,” she said.

She said democracy didn’t mean just elections, as it actually worked through ensuring the rule of people right from top to bottom without involvement of any state institution. She believed that real democracy didn’t allow plundering of state exchequer and people had the right to check such wrongs democratically by not voting for the corrupt in the next election.

She said democracy in Pakistan was in transitional phase, adding that real democratic system ensures justice to everyone.

“At present the superior judiciary led by the Chief Justice of Pakistan is very proactive. So I will request the CJP to select judges keeping in view their ability to understand law, honesty and character in order to ensure provision of justice to all,” she said.

National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) former chairman Danyal Aziz termed the present “so-called democracy” a big threat to “real democracy” in Pakistan.

He said though the people were of the view that after passage of 18th Amendment the provinces would have complete autonomy, but the idea badly failed as various groups started demanding creation of more provinces such as Seraki, Hazara, Pothohar etc, while in Balochistan certain elements were even demanding freedom.

“This happened actually due to incompetence of the committee led by Senator Raza Rabbani that didn’t address the issue that how the provinces would actually get autonomy. He said under the 18th Amendment, every provincial government was to hold local bodies’ elections at its earliest but no province bothered to conduct the exercise.

“Punjab government remained on top in delaying the local government elections, as it is continuously seeking extensions from the Lahore High Court on the pretext of security issues in this regard,” Mr Aziz said. He termed the local government system the best tool to ensure the rule of people in a democratic setup.

Prof Muhammad Ejaz Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said the country was passing through transitional period.

“Actually in our country the rulers always tried to use democracy for their vested interests. They always tried to mislead their voters by portraying Hindus as their enemies in their speeches,” he deplored.

He said the biggest challenge to democracy in Pakistan was terrorism and extremism as being witnessed in KP.

“It is also a challenge to democracy that the Federally Administered Tribal Areas were never included in KP. Had the government included Fata in KP, it would have not only strengthened democracy but also averted many incidents of terrorism there,” he said.

He said the parents in KP considered education as the most important issue so they were sending their children, including girls, to schools, colleges and universities despite terrorism threat. This trend, he hoped, would help the KP government in increasing literacy rate in the province.

Naveed Shinwari from Fata demanded the government should either declare the tribal areas an independent province or include them in KP to introduce democracy there. He also urged the apex court to establish Supreme Court and high court benches in Fata to end brutal culture of holding Jirgas to decide the people’s fate.

Arif Hassan from Sindh said the poor in Karachi were being victimised by the elite. “The rich people were consuming the slum areas land by developing posh localities there. This attitude is creating a sense of deprivation among the poor, leading to deterioration in law and order and resulting in incidents of extortion and violence,” he said. He quoted a recent example in which around 13,000 acres were handed over to DHA for developing posh residential schemes.

Dr Muhammad Waseem said India that got freedom a day after Pakistan had succeeded in establishing a sustainable democratic system, deploring that our country failed to do so. He said in Pakistan the military and bureaucracy always ruled the country by setting aside the powers of parliament.

Prof Ali Cheema said the basic challenge to democracy was public’s lack of trust in the elected representatives.

“If people lose their trust in their representatives, the democracy can never be strengthened,” he said, adding the public representatives should build their capacity to serve the masses.

Earlier, HRCP Co-chairperson Mr Kamran gave an overview of various challenges faced by the democratic system in Pakistan while the rights activist Zaman Khan informed the participants about seminar’s objectives.

HRCP secretary general I.A Rehman, eminent rights activists and representatives of various civil society organisations affiliated with the commission also attended the seminar.