Monday, March 9, 2015

Democracy within Political Parties

We see political parties battle it out every election season for the highest seats of power. These parties, in a way, keep the spirit of democracy alive in a country. However, in a Pakistani context, political parties have become a family dynasty. Shouldn't the parties that fight for democracy, practice it themselves within the party structure.

In the United States, a two party system exists, the Democratic and Republican parties. These parties hold elections within their party structures so as to pick the man/ woman fit for the job of the face of the party in the Presidential Elections. There are inter- party elections to decide who "The Leadership" of the party would be. The candidate from each party is decided through a process of country wide primaries (like Mini-Elections) and Caucasus (where those who support a particular candidate move to specific part of a room, then the numbers of each side are counted, thus a winner is announced). By holding these Mini Elections, the problem of bias from within the party is removed and the best candidate is chosen.

On the other hand, in Pakistan, you move up the "political" ladder because of your connections and not based on your merit. Parties like the PMLN and PPP chose their leadership on grounds of if the person belongs to a particular family. Bilawal Zardari was appointed the Chairman of the PPP, but at the time of his appointment he had no merit on the basis of which could have been chosen. It was obvious he was chairman because of the fact that he was the son of Benazir Bhutto. Therefore if connections are more important than merit than people who are not fit for the job will take up roles of leadership, thereby making poor choices and leaving an adverse effect on the country dynamic. 

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