On polls’ prospects

Pakistan’s feeble democracy may get another chance at revival this summer. Recent attempts at electoral sabotage seem to have failed. While there’s still many a slip between the cup and the lip, it seems that Senate elections will take place in March, national and provincial assemblies will fulfill their constitutional terms by early June, and general elections will take place on schedule a couple of months later.

Some folks question the utility of elections, given that the last decade of continuous electoral rule hasn’t really solidified democratic norms in the country. It is obvious that non-political entities didn’t tire of throwing a spanner in the works. But elected rulers, lacking a coherent strategy, didn’t do much to further the democratic project.

Still, polls seem the only credible way out of the current confusion. But to make the exercise more meaningful, politicos need to engage in some soul-searching. Barring the landmark 18th Amendment, the parliament hasn’t introduced political reforms. Political parties themselves remain largely un-democratic. Conflicts of interest mar political appointments. Pro-business agendas prevail at the expense of workers’ rights.

Given the complexities involved, it may be a stretch to expect some democratic renaissance in the near future. But even the symbolic act of an electoral process chugging along gives hope, for a couple of reasons.

One, a fresh political mandate will be a big improvement over the governance morass seen in Islamabad these days. Only free and fair elections can help usher in a government which, through vision, can decisively tackle long-running internal issues like institutional disharmony and fight against extremism and external issues like foreign policy recalibration. The current polarized environment, where the ruling party’s legitimacy is questioned by partisans on a daily basis, isn’t conducive to resolving those issues. And two, electorates’ rising expectations can prod the politicians to think differently and do better.

Pakistan is arguably a different place today compared to 2013. Back then, power outages and terrorism were among major issues facing the public. Those issues have largely been contained in the recent past. But the PML-N mustn’t grow complacent into making Sharif disqualification a campaign issue. The electorate, which is by no means a monolith, may come up with new demands in the 2018 election cycle.
Since all politics is essentially local, it’s unclear what campaign issues may dominate this cycle. There are quite a few: unemployment, corruption, health & education, access to justice, poverty & inequality, civilian supremacy, etc.

The three major political parties will likely write about many of those issues in their upcoming manifestos. But the interesting bit is that the public can better judge those promises against what these parties’ respective provincial governments have done in the last five years.