KARACHI: Pakistan’s political landscape has changed since 2006 when the Charter of Democracy (CoD) was signed by the then leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

It went from a two-party to a multi-party system with the emergence of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) as an important political party since the 2013 elections.

The launching ceremony of the Charter of Democracy and Beyond: The Way Forward for Institutional Reforms at a local hotel on Tuesday had the guests discuss the political bonhomie that the two traditional political parties had been able to cultivate between 2008 and 2018 that has already reverted to the polarised politics of the 1990s.

The lack of broad-based support among the political players poses a new hurdle in the way of fully implementing the Charter of Democracy (CoD).

Fresh approach to resolving political differences stressed at panel discussion

The significantly changed political landscape demands a fresher approach to resolve political differences as well as achieving consensus around legislative and administrative reform agenda.

The book is written by Nazeer Mahar, Tarik Malik and Usama Bakhtiar and it is published by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Pakistan in both Urdu and English.

The book does a detailed stocktaking of the successes and failures of the Charter.

It also highlights the need to realign the CoD with the altered political reality that is significantly different from 2006 when the accord was signed.

The study has also attempted to explore the causes of the failures, as well as highlight the successes, and gaps and challenges in the implementation of the charter.

There was a vociferous debate among the panellists and the participants during the launch.

While most of the panellists sounded optimistic about democracy in Pakistan, others in the audience showed their disappointment with the recent political developments terming them detrimental to developing bipartisan political consensus.

Presiding over the session, Pakistan Peoples Party ex-senator Taj Haider said: “The Charter of Democracy is a historic document. It was a tryst with democracy. We have fulfilled that tryst. Not fully but quite substantially.”

Recognising that Pakistan was at a critical juncture, he added that there were genuine concerns over whether the country was losing democratic gains made so far. “Yet there are positive signs that offer a more democratic future to the people of Pakistan. Economy is a major challenge for Pakistan at the moment. However, the current political consensus among the allies in the government has the potential to meet this challenge,” he said.

Dr Huma Baqai disagreed with Senator Haider’s optimism as she felt that democratic order was in danger as being seen after the latest precarious political crisis in Pakistan. “Toxicity is unprecedented in today’s political discourse,” she said.

Journalist Mazhar Abbas also did not agree with the optimism expressed by Senator Haider along with the other speakers and said that political parties need a charter of politics before a Charter of Democracy as political leaders had made many compromises that negated the utility of Charter of Democracy like documents. He referred to the awarding of the medal of democracy to a military chief in 1988 and later compromising with General Musharraf by the PPP.

Earlier, FES Programme Coordinator Abdullah Dayo welcomed the participants on behalf of his organisation.

While presenting the salient features of their book, Nazeer Mahar, the co-author of the research study, explained to the audience the context under which the Charter of Democracy was signed.

Elaborating the key achievements from the Charter, Mahar said that the third consecutive democratic transfer of power between elected governments, the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment, provincial autonomy and fiscal decentralisation were ‘major successes’ in the post charter era.

“Continued civil-military imbalance, lack of parliamentary oversight of judicial appointments and lack of true decentralisation to the lowest tier of governance are major achievement deficits,” conceded Mahar. “Fifteen years after the Charter of Democracy was signed, the role of civilian government vis-à-vis the armed forces is still not in alignment with the institutional architecture framed in the Constitution,” Mahar added.

Jeay Sindh Mahaz Chairman Abdul Khaliq Junejo said it was unfortunate that the Charter of Democracy did not consider the perspective of federating units. Also the charter failed to achieve its set targets.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan leader Mohammad Hussain Khan blamed the political parties for failure in strengthening democracy by failing to ensure fundamental rights outlined in the Constitution of Pakistan.

The launch was attended by a large number of political representatives of various political parties, lawyers, civil society activists and leaders of student organisations.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2022