Elections Pakistan: Democratizing the Parties

Posted on August 10, 2007
Filed Under >Aqil Sajjad, Politics
21 Comments
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Aqil Sajjad

Pakistan Elections 2007We are all aware of how our political parties are run by a few personalities without any regard for democratic principles. We also know how this seriously weakens the parties and impacts their ability to address the issues of the people and stand up to the establishment where needed.

Even now, while most of the party workers of PPP are against any deal, BB is having talks with Musharraf in sheer disregard of the majority opinion in her party. Many opportunistic politicians are holding negotiations for tickets with more than one party without any commitment to any ideology or manifesto. All this naturally undermines the political process and prevents it from having much relevance to the people at the grass roots level.

Pakistan Elections 2007Pakistan Elections 2007Pakistan Elections 2007

While the events of the last few years have convinced many that military rule is not a solution to Pakistan’s problems, it is equally true that the political system, as it stands, is in need of a major overhaul. Most Pakistanis feel a complete disconnect between politics and how it impacts their lives. They are either indifferent or jubilant when the military takes over, hoping that perhaps the new ruler will turn out to be better. If the people are to have confidence in the political process, it must give them a genuine sense of participation.

It is not enough to say that the system will automatically sort itself out if allowed enough time sans interference from the military. This view is like the trickle down theory of economics, which says that given enough time, the benefits of economic growth will automatically filter down to the masses. While both trickle down theories may be strictly correct and good for a drawing room discussion, the suffering people can not and should not be made to wait so long. They can not be expected to come out in protest against a military coup when all the political system has to offer them is a vague promise of a trickle down effect some time in the far future.

Concrete steps are needed for making the political process reach out to the people at the grass roots level if the system is to function without any threat of derailment by the military. This should include steps for democratizing the party structure, genuine devolution of power to the lower level, free electronic media in the form of local radio and TV stations for openly debating grass roots issues, holding live debates on the manifestos of political parties rather than focusing on personalities, and putting in place solid checks and balances to prevent nepotism and corruption. Once such steps are taken, the political culture can start to change for the better in a noticeable way and the people can appreciate why the democratic process under the constitution is relevant to their well being.

Unfortunately, the political parties are not interested in such reforms. Even the much hyped charter of democracy, (which did contain some constructive proposals on the independence of the judiciary, the election commission and the national accountability bureau) was lacking in any useful points on the above mentioned issues. And with Benazir’s negotiations with Musharraf for a deal, even this somewhat limited charter of democracy is now effectively dead.

It is therefore left to the media and civil society to raise their voices for badly needed reforms aimed at making the political system genuinely participatory for the people. There are many issues worth struggling for, but as the polls approach, the focus for the next few months should be directed at reforms relating to the election process. In addition to the independence of the election commission, it is also very important to demand solid steps aimed at making the voters more aware and interested in manifestos rather than empty slogans on personalities (here and here), and having the parties put in place democratic and transparent processes for selecting their candidates.

With that in mind, a campaign is being started for generating pressure on political parties to democratize the process for deciding party tickets. A set of suggestions has been drafted on how the process for party tickets can be made democratic and transparent and can be read here. The whole article is located here.

We are hoping to collect a large number of signatures from interested Pakistanis and gather their valuable input on improving these suggestions by Sunday, Aug 12.

After that, the resolution will be finalized and sent to political parties. This will be followed by aggressive marketing of the ideas to build pressure.

Your help is needed in the following four ways:

1. Leave a message of endorsement on the web page here.

2. Provide your valuable input to improve the suggested points or the campaign strategy by posting your comments on the above link.

3. Spread the word around and urge others to support the campaign.

4. Write letters to political parties, media and civil society groups on the subject and keep track of the issue by following up. Make sure that the issue is not allowed to go in the background over time.

It is about time that there was a serious effort to reform the political process to make personality politics, dictatorship within parties, and lotacracy obsolete. It is going to be a long struggle for the media and civil society to make that happen, but we need to start by raising our voices for appropriate reforms, and repeating them again, again and again in unison until it becomes impossible for vested interests to ignore them.

21 responses to “Elections Pakistan: Democratizing the Parties”

  1. Pasha says:

    Actually, there is a measure of democracy in who gets the ticket… it is clear in most onstituencies wh can win.. its just taht they keep changing parties… if tehre is someone who is a sure winner in an area one party or other will always coopt that person

  2. WASIM ARIF / OTHER PAKISTAN says:

    What is wrong with a government of national unity comprising of members of civil socierty, principled politicians, experts and so on. If we as a nation push for it then it will get a mandate, if we play the game as the orthodoxy wants us to play then we pigeon hole ourselves as supporters of Mush or BB or anti mullah, when the choice is much more open than that should we desire it, but only if we articulate it openly and win the national debate on it.

    Lets start it here at ATP and see http://www.otherpakistan.org and http://www.otherpakistan.org/today2.html for how we can together create an alternative Pakistan.

    Feimanallah

    Wasim
    http://www.otherpakistan.org

  3. dawa-i-dil says:

    Nawaz Sharif zindaabd will come into power…

  4. pakistani says:

    The fact is that Musharaf now needs BB and vice versa. The only thing that troubles me is that if these two dont get together, who will come into power? It’ll mostl likely to be a Mulla backed party which will be a disaster for Pakistan.So i guess I would be willing to live with Musharaf and BB partenrship (even if not ideal) instead of a Mulla backed leadership.

  5. dawa-i-dil says:

    ARY ..GEO ..AAJ…Royal..Indus are doing thier jobs well…

    BB is virtual Dictator…

    Nawaz is moderate….

    Imran is super man…..

    Maulvi are usual hypocrites….(fazlur rahman)

    Altaf is terrorist…

    etc etc…

    all 16 crore people fully know that as they have seen all them in shows live on all above mentiod channels….

    * Ali Ahmed Kurd boiling Baloch blood in Oratory..as balochs are famous for bravery ..and ghairat…

    * Munir A malik excellent judical points on the case….

    * Tariq Mahmood vigorous arguments in GEO and ARY ONE…

    * Iethezaz Ehsan blasting the whole “Dhanda”..which government started on 9th march….

    * Lahore recent trip of CJ with millions of people..welcomming….

    * the moments of 4 :17 pm of 20 july…when SC declared the refence “totally wrong and illegal” by 10 and 3 majority….whatwas the scene at SC gate ..and how much was noise…

    * the interview of Shabaz Sharif to Faiza Dawood of ARY ONE…

    * the interview of Khawja Saad Rafeeq(PML N) to P J MIR of ARY ONE….

    * Bhangarai in whole Pakistan ..specially Lahore..a woman of 80 years dancing on GPO Chowk,Lahore as GEO showed…

    *About the shortage of chum chum and ghulab jamuun…in Lahore on 20 and 21 july….

    * millions of SMS scattered in airs of pakistan after the decison….

    * excellent interview of honurable Fakhurrudin J Ibrahim on 20 July night with Kamran Khan…

    * the funny and excellent way all case conducted by Justice Ramdai…

    * Hamid Meer program on 20 july with Tariq mahmood(CJ Lawyer)..Abdul Qayyum(Federation lawyer) and NEWS editor….

    See..these all the events of the grestest war of 60 years..when atlast Establishments and Biaghairat generals ..which are selling thier people to USA for $5000 per person by ISI..as in case of Lost people revealed….are punched down by judiacary….

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