Pakistan and the art of making dictatorship look like democracy
With Islamabad heading for a third consecutive elected government, a long history of military rule appears to be in the past. So why do some fear a ‘creeping coup’ has entered its final stages?
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi says the country’s forthcoming general election will be conducted by “aliens”, rather than by the election commission. His predecessor Nawaz Sharif, ousted last July by a Supreme Court ruling, is also convinced the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party will contest the polls not against the two major opposition parties, but against extraterrestrials.
Sharif and Abbasi are referring to is a series of political events that since 2014 have undermined the authority of the government. Commentators say they have rendered Pakistan’s democracy an elaborate facade – one where a supposedly civilian government is in place, but the reins of power are held by the military.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. Photo: AFP
But apparently democracy is flourishing in Pakistan like never before. At the end of this month, a second consecutive elected government will complete its five-year term and is on track to hand over power to a third after a general election in July. This is unprecedented in the country’s 71-year history.
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Pakistan’s military, having directly ruled the country for 31 of the 61 years before the restoration of democracy in 2008, is now publicly committed to upholding the democratic constitution. And the judiciary, having previously found legal grounds to justify military takeovers, now regularly warns it will not permit further disruptions to the constitutional democratic process.
But the kind of ET that Sharif and Abbasi have been talking about struck last Sunday with an assassination attempt on interior minister Ahsan Iqbal, who is the point man for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project linking Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea with Xinjiang. The shooter had links to the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasool-Allah (TLY), an Islamist party that has held the federal and Punjab provincial governments to ransom since last year.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal arrives in Lahore after being shot in the arm in a suspected assassination attempt. Photo: AFP
The TLY blocked a major access point to Islamabad for 22 days in November to force the withdrawal of an amendment to the language of an oath that Muslim members of parliament must swear. A minister was forced to step down. It blockaded Lahore for 10 days in April, backing off only when a Punjab government leader secretly “begged forgiveness” from its leader, according to commentator Nusrat Javeed.
