The basic responsibility of a government is to maintain peace and stability, make laws, and provide basic necessities of life to citizens without discrimination. Democratic system ensures that any steps taken by the government align with their preferences and needs as people elect the government. However, our leaders tend to do whatever suits them. They tend to initiate projects that help them financially in terms of bribes and commissions. White elephants such as metros in various cities and steel mills are a few examples. This self-serving behavior stems from the fact that democracy has lost its meaning in our country. Our leaders act as dictators doing whatever pleases them and not what is necessary and urgent for masses. Maybe, we need to send our elected members of assembly to 10 Downing Street to observe how a better democracy works. Edmund Burke said the government which fails to provide basic necessities of life to citizens seizes its right to govern. I believe our leaders have lost their right to govern and must learn the basic principles of democracy, otherwise their slogans for upholding democracy in the country would be meaningless.

On face we are a pretty big democracy with hundreds of parties registered with the election commission of Pakistan. However, the real players in the past were PPPP and the PMLN and now PTI. Unfortunately, all the parties have deviated from their real manifesto. The founders of PPP and PML were visionary, but their successor’s policies seem to be shrinking to province and region level. None of our main political parties are democratic in nature internally. They want power in name of democracy to forward their personal agendas. What matter most in the present system is that citizens and state are less important than the self-imposed heads of parties. None of the main parties including the PTI are following their manifesto in the true sense. Members of these parties are handpicked and so they are more concerned with pleasing the heads of the party than anything else. No matter what happens, PPP defends Zardari and now Bilawal, PMLN the Sharif family and PTI Mr. Khan. To me this is a pure tyranny in guise of democracy.

RAJA SHAFAATULLAH,

Islamabad, January 31.