Make-up Post : Inter party democracy in Pakistan (continued)

This blog is a continuation of a previous blog I wrote on Inter-party democracy in Pakistan ( http://pol100spring2015lums.blogspot.com/2015/02/session-7-how-democratic-are-pakistans.html)

After analyzing the three biggest political parties in Pakistan namely the PML-N , PPP and PTI, we move on to the smaller parties.

The Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM):                                                                     

                                                  The MQM like all the parties reviewed previously has a constitution. The constitution is not very exhaustive, with only 19 articles. Other than government officials, any citizen of Pakistan can become a member of the party.The constitution explicitly mentions Altaf Hussan as the founder and ideologue of the party and remains the the main source of executive power within the party. Inter-party elections are supposed to happen every four years according to the constitution, with the last two elections happening in 2002 and 2012. The elections of 2012 were held under an independent commission and elections were contested for the posts of Central Coordination (Rabita) Committee (CCC)', Sectors, Units, Zones, Provinces and Districts. All members of the Rabita committee are elected.There seem to be no visible signs of promotion of dynastic leadership in the party. Altaf Hussain has led the party party ever since its inception and there has never been a standout number 2. Dissent is not tolerated in the party, with notable examples being Mustafa Kamal and Imran Farooq. According to the Pildat report MQM is the 5th most democratic party out of the 8 main parties in Pakistan.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI): 

                             The JI has a fairly comprehensive constitution of 95 pages. Membership to the party is based on a very strict criteria in which every new member has to show that his ideology is inline with that of the Jamaat’s, The ‘Amir’ who is the party head has a tenure of 5 years while the provincial and district heads have a tenure of 3 and 2 years respectively. The last intra party elections were held in 2012 and the election for the Amir was held in 2014. Election campaigns were not allowed in the election as per the directives of the constitution. The two main bodies in the party are the Central Council and the CEC with the Central Council consisting of elected members and the CEC consisting of nominated members. Presently the CEC has 15 members. There are no signs of dynastic leadership in the party and the party leadership has changed pretty frequently over the years.The Amir makes policy and takes important decisions in consultation with the Central Consultation Council and the members of the Jamaat have the full right to criticize the party leadership and its decisions, provided that it does not do so in public.Out of the 8 major parties of Pakistan , JI is the most democratic according to the Pildat report.

The Awami National Party (ANP):

                                                       The ANP has a brief constitution of just 8 pages with membership being open to all citizens of Pakistan above the age of 18. The president is the head of the party and the 2nd and 3rd in command are the Secretary General and Vice President respectively but their roles are not clearly laid out in the constitution. Intra- party elections are supposed to be held every 4 years , with the last elections being held in 2010 and 2014. The party has 3 main bodies namely the Central Council, Central Executive Council, and Central Cabinet. All party office bearers are elected and the CEC also consists of exclusively elected members. The CEC has a total of 80 members with 15 from each province . Dynastic leadership is promoted in the party as Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan) was the founder of the party and his son Mr. Abdul Wali Khan headed the party and later Mr. Wali Khan's son Mr. Asfandyar Wali Khan became the party president. According to the Pildat report the ANP is the third most democratic party in Pakistan.


*All statistics and data in the blog is based on the Pildat report titled "Assessing Internal Democracy of major political parties of Pakistan"