By: Asfand Ozaan
While talking about the future of democracy Steven Levitsky in his book, How Democracies Die, says: “One of the great ironies of how democracies die is that the very defense of democracy is often used as a pretext for its subversion. Would-be autocrats often use economic crises, natural disasters, and especially security threats—wars, armed insurgencies, or terrorist attacks—to justify anti-democratic measures.” Linking these words of the author to developing societies depict that the plethora of problems in modern societies is because of a lack of sustainable development planning. Democracy and sustainability intertwine with each other in every phase. Democracy is considered to be the most active and socially friendly form of governance, albeit the fact that today’s developing societies are faced with multiple issues of poor governance. This clearly explains the presence of myopic democratic planning. For a society to be truly democratic, in the modern era, it must be focused on those norms which promote prosperity and sustainability. Pakistan, being a developing country, is also faced with these challenges.
Democratic societies transfer power and resources to the lower tiers. They do so for better division of power and resources because local administration or governing bodies can plan, divide and implement their strategies in a better manner than those of provincial or central authorities. It has been noticed in Pakistan that dictators tend to implement local governance systems for sustainable development and the rebuilding of their soft political image. However, the political leaders, the ones who got votes in elections, are hesitant in doing so. This, in turn, gives rise to a lack of trust in the general public which boosts poor governance and mala fide democratic norms. One of the most recent examples of this is the current status of local government and sustainable development planning in Karachi and other big cities of the country. Both Karachi and Lahore are in a poor status of sustainability on all global indexes. It is so because the people in power corridors never focused on how to envisage a plan for these both cities and how to improve the living standards of both these cities. Owing to the negligence of people in power corridors and lack of power coordination, there arise certain hiccups, including the gender gap in the workplace.
One of the key factors which democratic and sustainable societies promote is equal gender participation in the workplace. According to World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report 2022 Pakistan, placed at 145th out of 146 states, has been the second worst country when it comes to gender parity. Moreover, the UN International Women’s Day theme for this year was also focused on the use of digital innovations for gender equality. In South Asian societies, particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan, gender equality is still a hurdle. The reasons are diverse including patriarchal and societal norms, lack of literacy, and many more. Patriarchal societies also prefer educating male members over females. This is because females are considered to be housewives, controlling matters of the house. According to a UN report, almost sixty-four percent of Pakistan’s female population is below the age of thirty. To be a prosperous and sustainable-oriented society, Pakistan needs to focus on bridging gender equality with market demands. It can be done by promotion of technical as well as vocational education for females. As per Food and Agricultural Organization, “72 percent of women are associated with the agriculture sector out of the total women labor force in Pakistan.” Training these labor forces and equipping them with modern techniques would help in the promotion of a sustainable, skilled, and democratic society. Additionally, a quality education system is one of the most important areas where democratic and sustainable societies bring transformations.
Most of the civilized and sustainable states of the world focus on the education of their youth. A productive and quality education system is key to the sustainability of a society. It tends to transform society. Democratic nations with a focus on sustainable goals of society keep a proper check on their education system and its productive outcome. For instance, evaluations are done on regular basis by the Government of Singapore about the outcomes of their higher education institutes. Moreover, recommendations are also being given by their educational experts for more fruitful results. Results are in front of us. Globally, Singapore’s education system is considered to be one of the most organized and successful. Pakistan, if wants to be a truly democratic and sustainable nation, must invest in its education system. There is a need for sufficient budget allocation for research and development in different domains. Apart from that appointment of competent faculty, with a soothing environment for academic nourishment, in higher education needs to be taken into consideration. Take the example of Saudi Arabia, where the government has hired foreign (Western) graduates and researchers to booming the country’s academia; nevertheless, the results up to some extent are futile. Because there is no sustainable environment there. Therefore, the sustainable pitch is of prior importance for a society like Pakistan for gearing-up education system. It can be so if our governance system is citizen-centric and focused on sustainable development.
Pakistan, being a mixed and diverse society, has a variety of norms and rules, based on the tribal system. Bring up democratically nourished sustainable development projects need to be as per the customs of its inhabitants. It can be implemented if the policymakers, along with the general public, envisage their preferences and provide a roadmap for those preferential plans. Hard and soft narratives are circulating in the media, about the possible default of the country. Here lies a very resembling example of Sweden before the 1930s for us. There was a complete economic downfall and corrupt monopoly in the Baltic state. However, in today’s skyrocketed economy a sustainable boom in Sweden is possible after its statesmen grafted their plans. All those plans were based on democratic norms and sustainability. The outcomes are clear enough. Democracy enlightens sustainable development. We have to keep it on our checklist before moving ahead.
The writer is Monitoring officer at KP Directorate of Education. He can be reached at asfandozaan@gmail.com