PAKISTAN could be the only faux-democracy that holds general elections yet learns nothing from each experience.
Many in Pakistan remember the general elections of December 1970 – the first (and some say only) free and fair elections in our history. The electoral mood then bordered on the euphoric. President Ayub Khan’s ham-fisted experiments with Basic Democracy had been relegated to oblivion. His renegade ex-foreign minister, Z.A. Bhutto, had launched his party, the PPP. He crisscrossed the country, mustering support for his home brand of social democracy.
