Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality , and anarchy as progress.
-- Boomerang: The Biggest Bust, Michael Lewis
A country which in some way or the other makes itself prominent across the global arena more often because of events which shun its image and bring it into the limelight.
Land of the pure, has recurrently surfaced in the form of news that people of the world do not have pleasant memories of.
Yet, the rulers or the rank and file of the state do not let go of any chance to make it to small screens worldwide. This time around it is not terrorism which has unfortunately become synonymous with Pakistan, but at present practitioners of "pure" democracy have hooked the public inside the nation and have arose curiosity in the global stage not because of this misconception.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) are two political parties which started off with a long march to end the corrupt practices of the current government. August 14 was chosen for the commencement of the march as it is the National Day of Pakistan.
A day and date having so much background to it was chosen to further create history, Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan, the leaders of PAT and PTI respectively advanced towards Islamabad, the state capital to demand the Premier to give up his office. PAT declared the Prime Minister and Chief Minister of Punjab, the largest province in Pakistan to step down because of the tragedy their party workers faced. Fourteen workers of PAT were killed in Lahore on June 17, 2014.and PAT demands for the First Information Report (FIR) to be filed against the Chief Minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif.
The public in general, having tried the present government run under Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PMLN) for about a year and a half, are of the belief that the ruling class is nothing but a bunch of corrupt leaders plundering the state's treasury.
This lead to the announcement of Civil Disobedience by Imran Khan which is mostly carried out in the form of economic disobedience. This act has been in practice without having to be announced with many public leaders who generally do not pay taxes. The citizenry will now simply follow suit.
Turbulent times such as these which regrettably Pakistan is prone to are always accompanied by mysterious characters which stay in the minds of the multitude for let's say a few months. This time around, Afzal Khan, former Additional Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan appeared on a local television program declaring the elections of May 2013 to be massively rigged.
What was different this time was that Mr. Revealer, was talked about on social and conventional media for a day or two and was soon forgotten.
The everyday events are unfolding at such unprecedented pace with having so much to talk about, thus Afzal Khan and his revelations seem to have been forgotten (for now maybe).
With each day starting and ending with deadlines, and media covering each and every bit of the unnecessary details, it brings to light the gruesome state of affairs of the standard of democracy we, the citizens are accustomed to.
The past 14 days have been highly sensitive for the people of the country. Since the day the march began, conspiracy theories have evolved that the nation will be subjected to another military coup.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif seems to be adamant and is not willing to step down saying it is his democratic right to stay in the office. The right to stay by rigging elections and that in the name of democracy? Let time decide that.
Land of the pure fails to brush away the impurities.
Be it Imran, Qadri or Nawaz, whoever gets to run the nation of a massive population of 18 billion, may the deserving get their rights without any further violation. May this nation return to its purity which the founding leaders once dreamt of.