How we define Democracy?

I think we can all agree that the most mystical and misleading word used in Pakistan these days is "Democracy". People are dropping this word causally on tv shows, in newspapers and in daily coversations with out realising how much weight it actually carries? Do we all actually understand the definition of this word?  How much power it has to effects and shapes a nation? When will we be ready to have a serious debate on what it is and what it should be?
According to dictionary definition "democracy is a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections ". If we are being more precise then its "rule of people" or "power of majority". In democracy we have to bear things for the greater good.

Then I wonder how come people of Pakistan started to see democracy as "rule of individual" or "Power of I". Why are we bluring the differene between dictatorship and democracy. More importantly we have isolated democracy from civil society. Democracy is not revealed from skys. People struggle hard to build it and then struggle even more harder to maintain it. But its impossible to accomplish without fully understanding the different aspects of democracy and vital role civil society plays in it.
I will try cover these aspect in next posts to my best of knowledge.

Asking right question........

Last night I heard a political candidate saying something about providing the missing facilities in his constituency and improving the living standard of his people. Which made me wonder if everybody's concern are confined to his/her locality then who is thinking about our National issues. Foreign Policy, Ecomonic Policy, Business Industry, Energy Crisis are few of the gigantic national issues.
It almost feels like all political parties have some kind of consensus on ignoring them as long as possible and we the people Pakistan also never regarded them as issues, may be except for Energy Crisis . So the queston still remain the same. WHO??????
 

Moving Forward

Its elections season in Pakistan. With it comes alot of promises and claims. Every political party has their "Manifesto" which they are thumping down our throats with the promise of fulfilling each and every word of it. Political talk shows are all the rage these days. They have even replaced prime time dramas. Everybody is guessing what will happen next. Few gunius among us also smell conspiracy theory every now and than. Each day brings new breaking news which makes us  wonder about the futur and whole new cycle of guessing beging with it again.
But with all this going on things are moving forward every day, which is good in my point of view.
We Pakistanis are very unlucky in the department of moving forward. Alot of things have happend in the past and alot of people held the very powerful positions but nothing changed. Atleast nothing changed for good. We can debate all about the ethics and what should or shouldn't have done. But truth is that Money hold the power in this game of Power. Whoever has it more, has the power to shape the reality as they want. Unfortualty Mango people like us serves as bate in these power games. Proof of which is the bomb blasts and drone attacks. Common factor in both are the inoccent people being killed to prove some point.
Then again I am glad with this little achievment of  this country. Right or wrong an elected government completed its tenure. Although during their term we all are pushed towards much harsher conditions than anybody anticipated. But then again people among us elected tham.
Well, Part of moving forward is to learn something from the bad decisions. Becasue we are the ones who has to live with our bad choices for the next five years. All Pakistanis has the first hand experience of bearing the bad decision for five years.
Lets hope that we all have learned something and wouldn't make the same mistake again.

SERIOUSLY.........

Bus was moving slowly because of rush and sort of traffic jam. Its always like this here. Rush, traffic jam and alot of voices. I was sitting in the front of bus opposite to driver's side. Listening to  music and thinking about my day at work. It was a slow day. Luckly the road in front of us started to clear but before the driver could move the bus suddenly a White Corolla came in front by over taking the bus and stopped. Driver also pressed the breaks and now once again we were stopped but this time everybody was looking towards the car with a what-is-wrong-with-it look.
After waiting for few moments, conductor stepped out and went to ask if there was any problem. He came back second later and told the driver that man driving the car want to talk to you. Driver hesitated for a moment but he stepped down and went toward the car.
He was halrdy by the car's door when suddenly it sprung open making him jump a little. A man came out of car wearing all white cotton shalwar kameez and a big frown on his face. He slapped the driver on the face. It was all so suddent that I couldn't believe my eye what I just saw. A loud.....OYE came out of my mouth and I paused the music playing in my ears. Even more suprise was on the face of bus driver. It took a minute for everybody to understand what has happened and then they rushed towards them. By then the man had slapped him again and now he was gesturing him to say sorry. Driver looked in shock and confused which is why he didnt resist back. Now other people also have started to gather around the car and they were all asking what is going on. The man kept on insisting to say sorry when the driver refused to do so. He slapped him again and this time driver resisted back. He grabbed the collar of his white kameez. People broke them apart after a little effort.
Now someone asked the car driver again about what-is going-on? He replied this time and I could clearly see suprise on that man's face. He turn and walked towards the bus driver . He said something to him and people around the bus driver had the same kind of surprised look on their faces too. A minute later driver started to walk back towards the bus and the man tried to stop him. But this time the people around him didnt let him do so. He came back to bus and so did the conductor and other passengers.
Inside the bus was complete silence and everybody was looking at the them with same question What-the-hell-was-that? But nobody was daring to ask and driver was choosing not to look up to anyone.  That silence was broken by the sound of a middle aged man cursing the police. I turn around to look at him. He was sitting two seats behind me. It seemd like he understood the question in everbody's eyes which is why he told what happend without even asking. He said
The man in the car was DSP of the nearby police station. He was in a hurry and wanted to cross the bus. But bus driver didn't pay attention and didn't gave him way to over take the bus.
I looked outside again on the man in white suit in disbelief. My mind went blank and the only words came in it was..............SERIOUSLY.
I saw a man gesturing the bus driver to get out of here. Slowly the bus sprung around the car move forward leaving the suprise crown behind.

Baby Steps

I am way to much over thinking about the first post. I continued to stared at the cursor for like 30 minutes before evening type the first word. Its not because I didn't have anything to say. I wanted to write an imprssive first post to lure people out there to read and show interest. So the first word I came up with was "Well".
I gave up three times while writing and then in fourth try ask Google for help:) Its amazing how a simple website became answer to every question. Among friends we used to joke about putting Google as reference in assignments rather than a long list of references.
So I was saying about searching topic about my first post. I found some quite interesting topics during my research. Like "The Art of Getting What You Want ". Regardless, writing something is difficult even when you have alot to say. I thought writing about social and political issues but then I thought "Keep it simple, Walk before you could run". So I end up writing this post.
Hey....you got to start from somewhere. So this is my SOMEWHERE!!!!!!!!!!