Political Ideologies Non Existent in Pakistan? -Session 12

It will only be fair to assume that in Pakistan today, winning an election on the basis of your own merit and credibility will be terribly hard if not impossible. Therefore, the smart thing to do would be to join hands with a renowned political party to secure increasing support. 

This reasoning has become all too common amidst our politicians today.

To support this argument will be the hike in the number of people joining PTI after Imran Khan’s popular December 2011 Lahore Jalsa. It would be hard to believe that all of a sudden, because a hundred thousand people attended Khan saab’s jalsa, a lot of politicians have realised their true ideologies and have begun to strive for ‘Naya Pakistan’.

I mean to say, it is important to understand that it is very unlikely for a politician whose goal would normally be to reach parliament, to prioritise any certain ideology above their personal gains. So, for people with pre set ulterior motives, I believe a certain ideology is not exactly important unless it subtracts their vote bank.

Now, these very politicians together constitute their own respective parties. Their goals all aligned together build towards forming the party’s direction. 

Now, if a party’s core principle is to ‘consider merit before everything’, will it stick to this constituent of its said ideology while distributing tickets, or will it consider other things such as the candidates financial strength and power? 

Imran Khan might be able to answer as he recently just elected Chaudhry Sarwar as the president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Or Nawaz Sharif, whose cabinet is crowded with his relatives?

Ofcourse, decisions reliant on one person are rarely ever made in the light of a certain ideology. Surely, if the PTI and PML-N were more decentralised, and decisions revolved around the party’s core ideas, one could say ideologies do matter. However, if senate tickets and symbolic positions are bestowed as a gift by one person possessing all authority, the ideology just remains to be a useless piece of paper.