Abstract
The demise of Zia was the beginning of a new era and the dawn of democracy after a long interval. The partial democracy established in during Zia regime was a paradox. It suppressed rather than solving problems thus maintaining a status quo. The decade long authoritarian rule had damaged the fabric of the democracy. A new democratic era 1988-99 started with a hope that it will bring prosperity to the people and will strengthen democratic machinery but was not up to the mark of people. With the fast changing governments, corruption, unstable political parties and high presidential powers of the president democracy does not flourish its roots. During the era 1988-1999 the army played the role of a silent spectator. They got benefit of the weaknesses of successive governments and ultimately appeared on the sky of democratic set up in the shape of a bloodless coup in 1999. This paper is an attempt to highlight the performance of democratic rule, its problems and prospects and causes of its failure.