Mahnoor Mansoor and Rana Eijaz Ahmad
What is ‘political populism’?
This article is going to explain, how institutional overlapping makes a political system dysfunctional and consequently gives rise to ‘political populism.’ For a layman to comprehend political populism is all about people’s narrative against the corrupt elite of a country.
In the literature of political science usually, populism is explained as “the people,” and has been elaborated as a concept with different positive and negative connotations. Gavin Jacobson, a critic, writes,that populism is “the honest, self-sacrificing agent of revolution and modernity.” In this article, the term political populism is introduced to make it more specific that how people have been started thinking in a positive way to stand with their leader when he feels alone and helpless against the selective attitude of the state institutions. In the prevailing political evolution not a revolution in Pakistan, Imran Khan as a statesman is resisting the global actors (USA, India, Israel) to intervene in Pakistan’s affairs, and people are standing behind him. IK claims that his government is toppled in the instance of external intervention and institutional support from within Pakistan.
The sovereignty of the Parliament is in question?
The predominant majority of the people in Pakistan are attending the huge gatherings on the call of ousted prime minister IK. The people believe in their leader’s narrative, that imported government is unacceptable in Pakistan. The millions of tweets are being tweeted with the hashtag, “imported government Namanzoor” (unacceptable). Despite 3.8 years of bad governance and inflation, the outgoing PMIK was not charged for bad governance. The motion of no confidence against the former Prime Minister of Pakistan IK is observed as a blatant foreign intervention. IKallegedly claims, it is a conspiracy against his government. Therefore, he is out in the public and building a narrative, to make his people independent and autonomous the world over. The people believe, the judiciary at the top overrides the sovereignty of the parliament and sets aside the ruling of the deputy speaker Qasim Khan Suri as unconstitutional. Article 69 (1) of Pakistan’s 1973 constitution says, “The validity of any proceedings in [Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)] shall not be called in question on the ground of any irregularity of procedure.” Owing to the Supreme court of Pakistan’s Suo Moto notice against the deputy speaker’s ruling marked a question mark on the sovereignty of the parliament in Pakistan.
The majority of supporters of the PTI started a criticism on Pakistan’s top institutions, referring to the World Justice Project (WJP) issued the WJP Rule of Law Index® in 2021, which assesses rule of law in 139 countries. It states, “Pakistan’s overall rule of law score decreased by less than 1% in this year’s Index. At 130th place out of 139 countries and jurisdictions worldwide, Pakistan remained in the same position in global rank. Pakistan’s score places it at 5 out of 6 countries in the South Asia region* and 30 out of 35 among lower-middle-income** countries.” The report came in the year 2020.It is putting many question marks on the credibility of the top institutions of Pakistan.
Peaceful protest is a fundamental right of the people. It has nothing to do with any form of government. Democracy is a fallacy and Pakistanis are taking lead in getting out of such outdated talk of the town. There is no universal form of government or system that could serve any group of people, country, or state. It is always people who decide how they have to live their lives under any given circumstances. Human beings are not animals who can be guided with one stick or tamed with few skills.
Human beings have complex behaviors and those behaviors are highly unpredictable, therefore harnessing such uncertain behavior requires an efficient body of individuals who could carve out a plan to harmonize people’s behaviors with their desires. An efficient body of individuals gives birth to efficient institutions and they perform their duties to groom people to live in their specific domains. This is how society evolves and works smoothly. Where institutions overlap with other institutions and work for the interests of external groups ignoring the consequences, gives birth to anarchy.
Culture of Dictation
In Pakistan, people have been trained (not groomed usually) to take dictation. From primary to Ph.D. levels of learning based on dictations instead of indulging people in the thinking process. Therefore, we are accustomed to doing whatever the west is doing and we start tocopy the west without any thinking. For example, the west started singing the songs of democracy after the end of the Second World War. The subcontinent was under colonial rule at that time but it was also dictated to have democracy. Since the colonial masters knew how to control the people. The British used to have viceroys and Lords in their colonies to control the slaves. In the UK there were monarchs used to rule.
The colonial masters went back and handed over to rule to the civil servants in these colonies. Those civil servants grabbed the properties in the subcontinents and became masters. Few families were awarded acres of land for remaining loyal to the Britishers. They are known as feudal lords in the subcontinent. The civil servants and feudal lords started ruling over the subcontinent.
The British Councils and American Centers started working in different parts of the world to keep the colonies and other developing areas under the influence of their masters. In the subcontinent, the leadership was also qualified from the west largely from Cambridge and Oxford. Therefore, western values were deep-rooted in the colonies. The local values and western values were living side by side creating confused societies. The civil servants used to live like masters and feudal lords were supposed to live in princely style. The people of the subcontinent were living as per the wishes of these two communities. Two other powerful institutions military and judiciary had also become proactive in Pakistan politics since 1954.
Role of Military and Judiciary in Pakistan Politics
Pakistani leadership fell into conflicts after the demise of Quaid-i-Azam and gave way to the Pakistan army. The first martial law was imposed in Lahore during the anti-Ahmadi riots in 1951. General Azam divided Lahore into six zones. It was the first time when military tasted the power. Meanwhile, the politicians in eastern and western parts of Pakistan were striving for carving out the first constitution of Pakistan and kept changing the Prime Ministers. In Pakistan, there was one C-in-C and seven prime ministers from 1951 to 1957. The institutions like bureaucracy and the military were all in all in their affairs as proper leadership was absent to keep the institutions in their domains. Therefore, bureaucracy and the military used the judiciary for their purposes and started taking control of the country.
When the first assembly dissolved in Pakistan in 1954, it was restored by Sindh Court. The Sindh Court’s decision was challenged in the Federal Court, the Federal Court rejected MaulviTamizzuddin’s petition and gave a decision in the favour of Ghulam Muhammad the then Governor-General. Ayub Khan took over the country and started dictating to the people of Pakistan in the name of national interests. The SCP supported his martial law in 1958. Later Zia’s Martial Law was again supported by the judiciary. The Supreme Court of Pakistan did judicial murder of the Prime minister of Pakistan as the former chief justice Naseem Hassan Shah himself narrated it in a TV interview.
ZAB Popularity in Pakistan
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was an American graduate and the foreign minister of Pakistan during the Ayub Khan government started ruling over the western part known as Pakistan. ZAB was a very sharp, educated, and trained statesman. The military that has tasted the power felt threatened when ZAB started maneuvering at the international level. He called Muslim leaders in Lahore for an Islamic Summit and Pan-Islamism was perceived as a boon for the integration of the Muslim Ummah. It was unacceptable for the ruling bipolar system in the global community. The U.S. and Russia were ruling over the western and eastern parts of the world respectively. The Cold War era was transformed into Detente in the 1970s. After the Indian detonation of the Nuclear device in 1974, Pakistan’s premier promised the people of Pakistan to be nuclear. It worried the west and both America and Russia started administering the region. The U.S. through India and Russia with China and Pakistan kept an eye over the region. In the late seventies, the U.S. put sanctions on Pakistan under the Glenn and Symington amendments. Zia-ul-Haq hanged the elected prime minister of Pakistan and took over, no Suo Moto was taken against him by any court of Pakistan.
Pervaiz Musharraf and Judiciary
Pervaiz Musharraf came into power in a military quo in 1999. The courts never took any Suo Moto against his overthrowing the elected prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharief. Musharraf’s conflict with Judiciary surfaced in 2007 when senior judges of the SCP were kept under house arrest infuriated the judiciary as an institution which later punished him witha life sentence during the Nawaz government.
Asif Ali Zardari and the 18th amendment
After the annulment of article 58 2(b) of the 1973 constitution in 2010, Asif Ali Zardari clipped the powers of the president regarding the dissolution of assemblies and made the parliament sovereign with the 18th amendment in the constitution.
In the 2013 general elections, it was the PMLNthat assumed powers. The PPP and the PMLN both governments used to trade allegations of corruption against each other and registered the cases. It gave a chance to the Pakistan judiciary to intervene and cripple the powers of the parliament.
The military as an institution might decide to stay out of mainstream politics after the SCP decision in 2016 against Musharraf. It decided to perform covertly.
After the end of 58, 2b from the 1973 constitution and the 18thamendment came into action, obliged the establishment to invite the judiciary to interpret the constitution. The SCP dislodges two Prime ministers Yousaf Raza Guillani and Nawaz Sharief respectively by the end of 2016.
The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf and Imran Khan
In 2011, the PTI had an eye-catching gathering at Minare Pakistan Lahore. Imran Khan emerged as a popular leader. It was the time when the establishment started worrying about the idiosyncrasy of Imran Khan. He can mesmerize people on a large scale. Therefore, the establishment kept him in control through different tactics and gave him power in KP after the 2013 GE. In 2018 GE the PTI came into power with a leading party in the parliament. But it needed a coalition of other parties to make the government. It was the tactics of the establishment to keep Imran Khan in control. However, the bad governance of an inexperienced party gave rise to inflation in the country. The pandemic Covid-19 exacerbates the situation and made the country economically worst. The COAS General QamarJaved Bajwa got an extension owing to the regional circumstances, the U.S. has to exit Afghanistan safely. Therefore, the regional and international environments kept the PTI government under extreme pressure. There was no significant opposition in the country,which could expose the bad governance of the PTI.
The Kickoff of Conspiracy against IK
The U.S. wanted to dictate to Pakistan as it had been doing in the past but this time the PMIK of Pakistan denied the U.S. leadership any undue favor and brought the US leadership home that how Pakistan used to assist America in a so-called war on terrorism and lost its economy and innocent people on a large-scale. It annoyed the American administration under Joe Biden. The humiliating exit of the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021 put a question mark on the superpower status of the U.S. The rise of China as an economic giant in the world, the emergence of Russia, and Brexit divided the center of power among top industrialized countries, and the world transformed from bi-polar touni-Multipolar. It was perhaps unacceptable for the U.S. It decides to expand its tentacles from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (an alliance of Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S.) and Australia, United Kingdom, and U.S. (AUKUS) alliances. However, it could not succeed much. Russia had to wage war against Ukraine, to hold its ambition to join NATO. Russia observes it as breaching the agreement byUkraine, that any NATO movement towards the eastern part of Russia would be detrimental to the Russian national interests. Pakistan’s premier Imran Khan’s visit had been planned well before the Russian war with Ukraine. Imran Khan fulfilled his diplomatic pledge with the Russian administration and visited Russia against the wishes of the U.S. It infuriated the US administration. The U.S. decided to dislodge Imran Khan. It exploited the inside actors in Pakistan, however, weak opposition and strong aura of the personality of Imran Khan made him more popular in Pakistan than ever before. It is the U.S., Imran Khan claims which intervened in dislodging the government in Pakistan. It has huge popular support in Pakistan. Imran Khan has successfully mobilized the people and convinced them to live freely and need not accept slavery. The people of Pakistan are standing with the ex-prime minister of Pakistan and protesting against the institutions of Pakistan for overriding the sovereignty of the parliament.
Who is responsible for the ongoing political populism in Pakistan?
The answer is very simple it is institutional overlapping and intervention of non-political institutions in the political process. The people of Pakistan under the charismatic leadership of Imran Khan have launched a populist movement against foreign intervention and regime change in the country.
The predominant majority of the people of Pakistan believe that Pakistani non-political institutions are responsible for the prevailing situation in Pakistan. The political processions of Peshawer, and Karachi gave huge support to the narrative of IK. When non-political institutions outplay law and give rise to selective justice in resolving political issues. It creates a vacuum that is filled with populist movement in Pakistan. People are protesting peacefully. Not a single private or public property has been destroyed so far in any huge public processions against regime change in Pakistan. People are questioning institutions why did the PDM steal the people’s mandate and money? Who did money launder at a huge scale? Who did injustice with people’s choices? Who used institutions for toppling the IK government? The questions are genuine and must be redressed as soon as possible but who will answer the queries? Some specific groups and forums are exaggerating sitting on private TV channels and social media against the people of Pakistan that they are being spoiled. It is the duty of the institutions who are silent when they need to answer popular queries. When they needed to stay calm they started working at midnight against the set rules.
The Way Forward
What will happen after the next general elections? It seems that the same old leaders of Pakistan politics would make the next government in Pakistan. whosoever assumes power after the next general elections, the ruling party needs to perform with reforms immediately. Unfortunately, whenever the specific party comes to power, starts enjoying the status instead of performing duties. IK did the same mistake, and did no reforms, making an excuse of no two-third majority in the parliament. He needs to come up with reforms so that he could tell people that he had the reforms but such and such people did not support the reforms in public welfare. It would have been a great support to IK. Bad governance is a direct corollary of the absence of good opposition. The big question mark would be on the outcome of the upcoming general elections, if IK comes into power with a majority, the opposition would be the same. Therefore, Today Pakistan needs another option for better opposition to keep the government on track. The institutions need to work in their constitutional domains. The sovereignty of the parliament can be ensured by passing an act of the parliament that no PM can be dismantled before the completion of his 5 years term. The children of the parliamentarians, judges, bureaucracy, military brigadier, and above cannot go abroad for education or business before completion of graduation in Pakistan. Any public servant grade 17 and above and parliamentarians cannot do any investment abroad in any form. Such reforms are the call of the day to develop Pakistan on strong footings.
— Mahnoor Mansoor is editor of Pakistan Political Science Review and visiting faculty member at the Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab Lahore. Professor Rana Eijaz Ahmad is Host Director Confucius Institute Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab Lahore. He can be reached at [email protected]
This disclaimer informs readers that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the authors, and not to lahoremirror.com
