Session 7-Is Pakistan a true democratic state?

Abraham Lincoln describes democracy in following words “government of, by and for the people”. True democracy provides legitimacy of rules, freedom of speech, fair distribution of rights and opportunities, independent institutions and protection to minorities.  However, in Pakistan the notion of democracy is losses its true essence because of several reasons.

Firstly, in Pakistan, power is concentrated in few hands. Military and bureaucracy plays key role in politics and governance of the state. Since independence, these entities are either directly or indirectly involved in politics and country matters. Thus notion of public consensus is greatly minimized.  

 Furthermore, in Pakistani politics the idea of rule of people is just restrict to certain classes and families. Since 1970s, excluding military regimes, the power is transited either to Nawaz or Bhutto families and parliaments lacks representation from the common people.

True democracy provides the freedom of speech however, in Pakistani history media was not completely free. The media faced serious challenges and hardships even in the democratic governments. Sometimes, journalists were banned and sometimes television channels had faced brutality of PEMRA as we can see the most recent example of punishing Geo TV in Nawaz government.

Thus it is difficult to say Pakistan have true democracy or not because it is manipulated in several meanings in Pakistani politics.