It's a Start...I Guess?

The Pakistani courts today decided that a law that's been on the books since the creation of the constitution is unconstitutional. I'm a little confused by this since I was under the impression that the judges still weren't reappointed, but whatever - apprently there's some sort of interim agreement I'm unaware of. Anyways, the law was that you had to have a B.A. or higher in order to hold an elected position in the government. Obviously, this should have been ridiculous to begin with considering that less than 5% of Pakistanis hold such a privileged degree, but the reasoning behind the decision is that "no other democracy in the world has such a law on the books and we shouldn't either."

Well, ok...I guess that's good, right? Yea, they got rid of an elitist law that prevented almost all of Pakistan from participating in their government, but for the right reasons I wonder? I mean, under that line of reasoning there are tons of laws on Pakistan's books that don't appear in any liberal democracy.

For example, what about the blaspheme law? Under this law, you can be jailed for saying anything blasphemous either about the Muslim faith or about a muslim government. There was a case last year where a guy posted his book online that was critical of Pakistan's religious law. He was jailed for over a year even though he removed the book. Apparently he was a bad prisoner though because he ended up being shot in the head by the warden. Obviously, this educated author was a hardened criminal causing tons of problems in prison huh?

I think Pakistan should be careful what the reasoning is for overturning a law. If they really wanted to show a concern for human rights then they should be overturning these rights based on the belief that everyone has a right to participate in their government or everyone has a right to free speech - not because other democracys do it. There is a subtle difference, but this is the key difference between a liberal democracy and a democracy in function only. I hope changes like this will continue to happen in Pakistan though, however, they should be done so carefully. The changes happening now will set a very important precedent for the future of Pakistan.