Session 12 : Interdependence of Political Parties in Pakistan

In the reading by Heywood about political parties, he talks about how these political parties are formed, what are the basic functions of these political parties and the different type of political parties that exist in the system; He distinguishes different political parties through the objectives and representations of their ideologies, such as cadre and mass parties, representative and integrative parties and constitutional and revolutionary parties.

One of the most interesting that I found out after going through all the reading was the quote that was written in the very start of the reading which said “In politics, shared hatred is almost always the basis of friendship”. This quote got my attention because I thought this sentence was quite similar to the conditions of political parties in Pakistan. In Pakistan, politics and political parties hold special positions in the daily life of a common man. There are a large number of political parties competing with one and other in order to get the majority of seats in the assemblies and a chance to take control of the governance. Each party with its very own so called mandate and its own people who are the candidates from different places all over the country.

Multiparty system exists in Pakistan where parties compete with one and other and there are more than two parties reducing the chances of single party government and increasing the chances of coalitions. This can simply be seen from the fact that in the past 65 years the hardly a couple of governments have been able to take an overwhelming majority in the national assembly, while others have to work with different coalitions. Loyalty of followers towards their political parties is to such an extreme that they are ready to give away their lives for their leaders. No matter if they are Bhutto’s supports in Sindh, Sharif’s supporters in Punjab or the Pirs and Gaddi-nashin supporters in different parts of Pakistan, all have their own loyal supporters who can do anything for their leaders.

After every five years, people of Pakistan give a chance to a new political party to run the country In lieu of a better economy and living conditions in the country given that no army chief has declared the country in a state of martial law. But the fact that needs to be concentrated upon is that regardless of the fact that whichever party comes as a government, people will have to change themselves in order to bring a change in the country, believing in the fact that the smallest things make the biggest impact