Session 12 - Are Political Parties always beneficial?

Political parties are essentially groups of people with a similar ideology organized together in an effort to seize government power. They are primarily meant to represent the people and are thus seen as an integral part of a democratic system. They are also important in organization of the government. However, how far they carry out these tasks is debatable. 

More often than not party systems tend to be divisive. Instead of collectively representing the interests of the people, the political parties often only take into account their own interests. This is more evident in the case of multi-party systems such as Pakistan. Taking into account the various political parties in Pakistan, one can see one of the major causes of the political instability prevailing in the country. Not only do these parties have selfish interests, their varying interests are indeed divisive and harmful to the running of a country. For example, MQM's stronghold in the city of Karachi results in countless strikes and thus causes a significant amount of economic loss to the country. 

In my opinion, therefore, political parties are not always beneficial, especially in the case of multi-party systems. The type of party system that prevails has an important effect on the way the political parties within the nation exercise power. However, they are important step forward in mass representation, when the interests of the people are actually projected through the party.