[🇵🇰] Hina Jilani Warns of Pakistan’s Unstable Future

[Old School]

Source : https://time.com/6695374/pakistan-election-hina-jilani/

Hina Jilani, a leading human rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist from Pakistan, acutely recognizes the power of the military in deciding the fate of her country’s elections. “The military has the unique tendency of not doing the right thing by interfering in politics,” she tells TIME. Still, this year’s results have managed to surprise everyone, including Jilani. “It’s strange for me to say this, but I don't think the Pakistani public has ever played a strong role in enforcing democracy in this country,” she says. “Yes, there have been very brave, courageous people who have waged some kind of opposition or resistance, but we have not seen a public uprising against the military takeover of political space in this country.”
It’s for this reason that PTI’s surprise win has also been so exceptional, Jilani says: “Despite the constraints imposed and attempts made by the military establishment to deter or discourage the voters from voting, there was still a huge number of people who did come out and vote.”
What PTI-affiliated independents do next also matters greatly. “They may choose to join a different party,” Jilani speculates. “On the other hand, the PTI has lost the status of a party, so they will have to find legal ways under the Constitution to declare themselves as a single party and form a government.” Read more here