On their road to supposedly fix the democratic setup, Imran Khan and his party members of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) have often made gaffes that tend to undermine their struggle. PTI leaders regularly resort to bad-mouthing the democratic system – incidentally the same system the party formed a provincial government under. On Saturday, Pervaiz Khattak, the Chief Minister of KPK, decided to speak in favour of dictatorship instead of democracy, since the latter is devoid of accountability.

The arguments against dictatorships and for democracy are few and far between. They are theories of enforced order, command economies, fascism, and ethic, cultural, political and religious uniformity. The PTI leaders obviously do not research the principles they claim to stand behind. Even a child could rationalise that absolute power leaves more room for corruption, which is PTI’s favourite word to bandy about. Accountability, another PTI favourite, will be inherently compromised in an absolute system.

As a politician of a supposedly democratic party, Pervaiz Khattak is being disingenuous by supporting a system that brought him to his current post. The system is flawed, yes, but no more so than a dictatorship.

Politicians can be corrupt within a system, but that does not make the the democratic system itself corrupt. Research proves that nascent democracies see vast amounts of corruption, not because it didn’t exist during dictatorship, but because in a democracy it is more noticeable due to the politics of the opposition, free media, and people gaining the right to free speech. Research also suggests that the more time passes since democratisation, the more stable the system becomes, as after a tumultuous period, legislators are able to enact anti-corruption and legislative representation and debate makes leaders more accountable and open to criticism. How will this happen if PTI legislators are out on the streets wanting to overthrow the system, rather than in parliament attacking the ruling party for its alleged corruption?

These politicians have committed themselves to the democratic setup; they must abide by it as the law of the land. If the PTI wants a system with accountability, they will be hard pressed to find a system where a dictator was accountable to the people, or tolerated any political opposition. And if Pervaiz Khattak didn’t mean to encourage a coup, and was only comparing a bad time with a worse one, then he should be more politically astute and not give off-the-cuff statements that contradict the mandate of his party and the sanctity of his office.