Democracy is Rated 0%

According to the January 2017 Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Authority and Technology (PILDAT)'s report, “Assessment of the Quality of Democracy in Pakistan” Pakistan scored 46 percent in 2016, sliding down from 50 percent in 2015. Eleven parameters were considered which the report stated as being, “Pakistan Parliament and Provincial Legislatures, Performance of National and Provincial Governments, Performance of the Unelected Executive, Performance of the Judiciary and Access to Justice, Performance of the Media, Institution of Local Governments, Constitutional Framework, Democratic Oversight of the Security Sector and Rule of Law, Electoral Process and Management, Performance of Political Parties vis-à-vis Democracy Within as well as Outside, Civil Society.”

This report completely overlooks the needs of the people and deliberately disregards the miseries people face on a daily basis. It does not care how much food an average family puts on its table, whether their fridges are empty or full. It does not consider how people survive the heat in summer or the cold in winter, whether they live or die, or how the people make their ends meet, with staggering unemployment rates hovering over their heads, leading to increased suicides through sheer frustration. There is no deliberation on how insecure parents expand half of their salaries on fruitless rote learning education, only to spend even more on shabby tuition centers. It does not even look on the roads to see how a family of six or seven are “democratically” loaded upon a small 70cc motorbike, at risk of life and limb, as they do not have the means to afford public transport. It pays no attention to how our honor, morals and beliefs are being trampled upon by the regime's “liberalization” policy.

Certainly, this assessment does not consider the people or their needs, rather this superficial assessment is focused only on the efficiency of government institutions and political parties to determine the “success” of Democracy. Should not the quality of any system be based upon how well it looks after the affairs of the people? This assessment has overlooked the wretched state of our affairs in order to put a veil on the inherent flaws of this corrupt system. The current rulers raise the claim that democracy is of the people, by the people and for the people. In reality it is rule of the capitalists, by the capitalists and for the capitalists. And in case of Pakistan, it is the rule of a select elite that secure their own vested interests whilst striving to secure the interests of their colonialist masters, even though this is burning Pakistan in the fires of chaos and insecurity.

Moreover, the basis of Democracy is that the limited human mind decides the rights and the wrongs, lawful and unlawful, and the fate of the entire nation rests upon the whims and desires of elected rulers. These elected rulers are selected, groomed and promoted by the actual masters of the affairs of the country, the colonialists. The colonialists seek the strengthening of Democracy's institutions in order to force the people to submit to their Kufr laws and agendas. So today, the Muslims of Pakistan are demanding the ruling by the Deen of Haq and that the Quran and the Sunnah only that determines the lawful and unlawful, whereas the institutions are deployed to forcefully suppress Islam, through abductions, arrests and torture.

Even if we were to accept the given parameters used to produce such a report, it is evident to all that the sincere Muslims of Pakistan hate their rulers and have no trust in their institutions. They cannot see a glimpse of justice and everyone knows that approaching law enforcement and the judiciary is just adding to their burdens. There is no justice because the judiciary does not rule by Islam. So, known criminals such as the Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, are able to ensure their Panama corruption cases are left hanging for months, whilst advocates of the Khilafah "Caliphate" languish in prison for years with no verdict on their trails. Justice is a myth in Democracy a system that fools the people by allowing them to elect their rulers so that they submit to their whims for next five years.

Democracy's rating by all parameters that matter is 0%. The Muslims of Pakistan have rejected Democracy as a tool of the colonialists. They are aware that this system has no semblance to their Deen they hold dearly. The grass root debate has reached such a height that the rulers are forced to justify this corrupt system by publicizing such reports. They know well that this oppressive system is close to the grave and soon the return of the Khilafah "Caliphate" state will bury it forever. Ahmed narrated that RasulAllah (saw) said ,«ثُمَّ تَكُونُ مُلْكًا جَبْرِيَّةً فَتَكُونُ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ أَنْ تَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ ثُمَّ سَكَتَ» “Then there will be rule of force, and it will remain as long as Allah will it to remain. Then Allah will end it when He wills. Then there will be a Khilafah "Caliphate" on the Way of the Prophetood.” Then he fell silent.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Saad Jagranvi – Pakistan