Pakistan, June 11 -- Democracy, as once imagined, was never truly born in the way its idealists had hoped. It arrived not as a promise fulfilled, but as a compromise negotiated, partial, flawed and vulnerable. We envisioned it as a system that would guarantee dignity, equality, and the rule of law for all, instead, it has often served as a fragile facade, propped up by power structures that resist accountability.

Today, even that imperfect model appears to be in retreat. What little progress had been made is now backsliding, quietly, steadily. The language of freedom is still spoken but hollowed of substance. Democratic institutions exist but are increasingly captured, corroded from within by authoritarian tendencies, populist manipulati...