South Asian Studies, Vol 25, No 1 (2010)

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Paradox of Our Political Parties

Omar Farooq Zain

Abstract


Almost all present day societies, democratic, semi-democratic and despotic, have political parties that link citizens to the government. Occasionally, military dictators – such as Franco in Spain, Pinochet in Chile, Irshad in Bangladesh, Musharraf in Pakistan or generals in the developing countries try to dispense with political parties and blame them for the country’s political, economic and social ills. But even these despotic rulers set up pliant parties to bolster their rule, and after the dictators depart, free-flouting parties are exposed almost immediately. Whether one likes or dislikes them, most countries seem unable to do without political parties. To use a “system’s phrase”, political parties are a major “inputing” device, allowing citizens to get their needs and wishes heard by the government. Of course, without political parties, individuals would stand alone and be ignored by the government. Therefore, at the very least, parties give people the feeling that they are not utterly powerless. In Pakistan, however, political parties have become such a commodity that is readily available to the unconstitutional military rulers and non-representative elites for political maneuverings and extending their political legitimacy. The result is obvious ---- increasing disenchantment with political parties and decreasing trust on the “leaders”. A striking contradiction in political parties of Pakistan is their internal deficiencies and undemocratic structures and practices, even though the same parties fight for or seem to struggle for democracy in the country. Socio-political and socio-economic development, therefore, have turned into a “false dawn” and Pakistanis by and large have realized that their freedom meant little and no more than a change of masters. This paper focuses on the trend of declining faith in political parties and underlines the problem areas from the point of view of initiating the reforms in political parties, ranging from democratization within to evolving an issue-oriented political course of action. 

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