Pakistan downgraded to "authoritarian regime", records greatest deterioration in Asia, Australia: Report
Pakistan becomes the only Asian country to be downgraded to an «authoritarian regime», registering the greatest deterioration of any country in the region classified as "Australia and Asia", according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Democracy Index 2023 report.
It has been reclassified from a "hybrid regime" to an «authoritarian regime», Geo News reported, citing the report.
The EIU Democracy Index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy in 165 independent states and two territories.
Out of the 28 countries in the region that are included in the index, 15 recorded a decline in their score, and only eight registered an improvement.
Notably, Pakistan's score on the EIU Democracy Index fell by 0.88 to 3.25, resulting in a fall of 11 places in the global ranking table, to 118th, according to Geo News.
Additionally, the report highlighted that along with the intervention in the electoral process and government dysfunction, the independence of the judiciary has been severely curtailed in Pakistan.
Since 2008, the country's score on the democracy index remained a little over 4, however, for the first time in 2023, its score fell to 3.25 during the coalition government primarily comprising of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamait Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F).
Moreover, Pakistan's 2-23 score on the democracy index is even worse than in 2006 (3.92) when military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf was in a
