Amidst Democracy

Political stability | Lets take the first step...

by: Hadeed Sher

Military dictators of Pakistan

Pakistan is a country that has suffered a long time dictatorship in the form of military rulers. This has infected the whole political culture and more or less every party has dictatorial practices when it comes to criticism. Be it Javed Hashmi of PTI or Lateef Khosa of PMLN, Faisal Raza Abadi of PPP or the Naheed Khan based small faction of PPP. Every party supporters love their main leadership, that marks a big question about our democratic standings. When people are asked about their democracy they mean to have their star sitting on the premier chair. This behavior is indeed an infected democratic practice. Lets take three examples of three different parties

Case I : Pakistan Peoples Party

PPP is a leftist party and has its vote bank on the name of Roti, Kapra aur Makan besides the ALIVE BHUTTOISM. After the Raymond Davis episode the party member Shah Mehmood Qureshi left PPP and joined PTI. He was slammed by the Federal information minister Firdos Ashiq Awan publicly for ditching the PPP. PPP followers too followed their leadership in this regard and used humiliated remarks against him on social media sites like facebook and twitter.

Case II : Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf

This party is famous for using bawdy language for its opponents. The cult is so powerful that even before someone announce to leave the party or hibernate for a while they make filthy trends not only about that person but about the siblings and close relatives, that are mostly females.  Examples are Fozia Qasoori and Shireen Mazari. Shireen Mazari daughter even wrote a blog on how PTI clan abused her just because her mother was not happy with how PTI chairman ditched her in Rajanpur public gathering. They like to worship their leader, not the party. That is why they use hashtagg like #ForMePTIisIK whenever someone try to leave or raise his/her voice inside the party, classic worshipers huh. The latest of this example is the departure of seasoned anti establishment politician Javed Hashmi. Javed Hashmi tried to raise his voice inside the party meetings regarding the unconstitutional and law breaking AZADI march but his voice was not rejected on the consent of the chief dictator of the party aka chairman PTI. He resigned from the party as well as from the NA and contested in the bye elections but was defeated. The point to mention is the jingoistic behavior of PTI on his statements. Extremist slogans like "Baghi ko marna sawab ka kam hay" (To kill the rebel is a good deed) were displayed publicly on the occasion of Multan public gathering. The supporters behavior was disgusting, abusive and was a non sense.

Case III : Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz

PMLN  supporters are mostly calm as seen when JH left the party back in December 2011. Not even a single point of abuse was witnessed on the social media supporters. However, the party know how to sideline those who speaks publicly about the improvements. Examples are Sir Injam Khan from KPK, Khosas from Punjab and Ghoas Ali Shah in Sindh.

Looking at these three cases following things comes in mind.

1. Why political parties in Pakistan are based on personalities.
2. Which political party has dedicated authority of party heads over the administrative heads like ministers.
3. Why the politics based on like and dislike is prevailing?

In Pakistan you can not be among the leadership unless you provide hefty amounts for workers and party. You will be considered loyal worker but certainly not a leader. 

In democratic countries, party head position is considered more stronger than the premier post. That is why Sonia Gandhi nominated Manmohan Singh as PM. BJP president Rajnath Singh nominated Narender Modi as the PM and later took oath in his cabinet as minister of Home affairs (Rajnath resigned as party head after oath). It happens when you have democratic structures working properly where an ordinary worker can dream of reaching the premier seat without being afraid of being sidelined by the party head. However, in Pakistan people go for the party positions while party is in opposition, but love to grab the ministerial positions when party forms a government. Therefore, my request is to raise your voice for the reforms in the party structure without pin pointing the shady areas of anyone who criticize the party. I mean whats wrong if someone from the party comes on the TV because for the past 2 years party has not called its general meeting of workers. Because, the party structure in Punjab is controlled by a full time chief minister who has no time to look into the party affairs. The party supporters should consider positive criticism to rectify the issues. The age of mudslinging and character assassination has gone long time, PTI is a living example of this particular mindset. If you don't allow people to speak their hearts at the right platform they will certainly look for the alternatives. The political parties in Pakistan should give us a mechanism where the party stays strong, independent of the personalities. When it will happen that will be the first step towards the political stability in Pakistan.