Democracy in Muslim World and Pakistan essential to avert dangers
John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
February 6, 2007
Islamabad February 7, 2007: Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto has said that democracy in Pakistan and the Muslim world at large was crucial at this point of time to avert the dangers posed to its future by terrorism and sectarianism.
She was addressing the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in the US Tuesday afternoon on “Pakistan: Politically at the Cross roads”.
The democratization of Pakistan is important to the war against terror, to the interpretation of Islam as a message of freedom and enlightenment as well as to the empowerment of the people of Pakistan, she said.
She said there was an opportunity this year for the restoration of democracy because of the general elections. Free and fair elections were critical for the restoration of democracy and that is why the PPP had prepared a paper which she said must be adopted by the rulers if they were really committed to holding free and fair polls as claimed by it. She said that the Party was still waiting to hear from the Chief Election commissioner to whom a copy of the paper had already been sent.
The best exit route for the Musharraf’s military regime was to adopt the ARD demand that a national government be formed to hold fair and free elections with election reforms as suggested by the Opposition.
It has become vital to save the federation from disintegration, terrorism and poverty and this could be done through holding a free, fair and transparent elections under an impartial and independent Election Commission. She asked the Chief Election Commission to take notice of pre-rigging efforts of the government party including the
campaign by General Musharraf in favour of the King’s Party. She said that the nation needed and deserved free and transparent elections.
She said that the Opposition believes that the elections cannot be free and fair under an army Chief occupying the office of the President. She said that the assemblies elected for five years terms couldn’t elect a President twice giving him ten years as President. She said that the government should read the writing on the wall as international analysts are of the view that holding free and fair elections may result in the victory for the Pakistan Peoples Party.
She said that by acquiescing to the Musharaf dictatorship, the west has empowered him to defy the world and cooperate with the forces of terror.
Unfortunately, we do not always view the world — its peoples, its cultures and its religions — with a single moral standard, she said adding that the West chooses to apply human rights standards when politically expedient, not as a central and universal principle of policy.
By supporting military dictatorship the west was inadvertently supporting militancy and terrorism, she said.
Regarding her achievement during the two tenures in the government she said that revolution in information technology, integration into the global economy, attracting over 20 billion dollars in foreign investments, particularly in power generation, eradication of polio and dramatic reduction in infant mortality were some of the achievements. Outlawing domestic violence, establishing special women’s police forces to protect and defend the women and appointment of women judges to our nation’s benches for the first time in its history were the achievements of PPP governments under her leadership.
Debunking the claim of moderation she said, “We cannot claim to believe in moderate enlightenment if we do not fight for it in our own homelands. We cannot say Islamabad respects human rights. While elected Prime Ministers are forced into exile, we cannot say Pakistan has human rights. While NAB finds corruption only in the opposition and not in the ruling party, we cannot say Pakistan has Justice”.
She said that international support for the military dictatorship in Pakistan for short-term strategic reasons was a mistake. Afghanistan was a tragic case in point of how retreating from the principles of human rights and democracy can have the most tragic unanticipated consequences.
The goal of the international community’s foreign policy agenda must also be to simultaneously promote stability and to strengthen democratic values — not selectively but universally, not just because it is convenient but also because it is right, she said.
About the political situation in Pakistan she said that military dictatorship has resulted in the domination of the country’s political, financial and social class by the military. Twenty five years of military rule since 1977 had led to the rise of extremist religious
parties, militancy, poverty, hunger, unemployment, conflict and sectarianism she said, adding, “only by the restoration of civilian control and supremacy the tide could be reversed”.
On relations with India she said that the PPP supported peaceful and negotiated settlement of all disputes between India and Pakistan.
It was during the PPP government that extraordinary progress was made with the fist nuclear confidence building treaty not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities. Borders were reopened to travel and tourism, and a South Asian preferential tariff agreement that established a free-trade zone between Pakistan, India and the other nations of the
region was adopted. She said that the PPP government also called upon all the nations of the region to declare the sub-continent a nuclear free zone.
The PPP government she said was making dramatic progress in relations with India and with containing terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan but moderation and progress is not what supporters of military dictatorship tolerate.
A democratic and stable Pakistan, gaining strength economically and moving forward socially under a popular government was their threat. The PPP government was eliminated and every attempt made to eliminate the Party and its leadership, she said.
She said that restoration of democracy in Pakistan was lined with stability in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In this context she said that the peace treaty with elements in the Waziristan had failed because act of terrorism both in Pakistan and Afghanistan not only continued to take place but were even stepped up in intensity. She said that the poor and the middle classes could prosper only in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity in which the people were not held hostage to militancy.
The former Prime Minister also called upon the moderate forces in both the Muslim and the Non Muslim world to cooperate to promote equality and religious tolerance. “We can do this only if we adhere to the values of democracy, equality and development on a non discriminatory and non-selective basis”.
She said that the Charter of Democracy signed by the majority of the Opposition is a document, which strengthens the federation, guarantees justice for all and peace and development for the people of Pakistan.
The lesson of the history is that democracy and development go together. Democracy gives the country honour and pride whereas dictatorship leads to neglect of peoples problems, undermining of the armed forces and culmination of conflicts of several types.
She said that through freedom and the rule of law Pakistan can return to the path of progress and development.
It is time to get our priorities right and putting country’s resources into education, health and providing the necessities of life to the people, she said.