Party politics is a concept which is basically an element of
democracy in a sense that political parties, supposedly, represent the
population. Even when the concept of party politics was introduced in the
modern world, it was criticized that it would produce conflicts and destroy the
underlying unity of the society. The main concern that arose about the functionality
of party politics stemmed from evidence of their decline as agents of representation
and as an effective link between government and the people. They have been
promoting divisions in the society and instead of focusing on the problems
corresponding to the population; political parties have always readily grabbed
the opportunity to get into power to work on their own self interests.
In democracy, especially in parliamentary systems, members
of political parties contest with, usually, members of other political parties
as representatives of people. Now considering situation in Pakistan, Nawaz
shareef for example, won a seat from NA-68 Sargodha. He himself lives in a
lavish house in Islamabad. How can we assume that he will be representative of the
problems of the people of Sargodha? Hence political parties have failed to
create a link between the government and the people.
Multi-party system in Pakistan has been agile in inculcating
hatred among the people. Every party has different ideologies and people have
been loyal to different parties. Hence the abhor speeches of the leaders of
political parties have created a sense of adversary among each other. PML-N’s speeches
against Altaf Hossain, then MQM’s speeches against Chaudry Nisaar were a very
evident example of this problem in Pakistani politics.
The absence of a true, honest and devoted party that
represents the interests of the majority and serves the people has caused people
to lose faith in the electoral process that has allowed parties in power to use
it for their self-interest instead of working for people. Though people had
faith in Imran Khan’s PTI that it would be able to serve KPK atleast, but their
ideologies regarding terrorism have tarnished their respect. Pakistanis now
have almost no hope that a political party will come and not help their
egoistic desires but work for the betterment of the country.
2 comments:
Yeah, parties in Pakistan have unfortunately worked for their personal benefits and haven't fulfilled their duties and promises. But still the only hope for a better democratic system is the reform in the political parties. If these parties are improved, they can prove to be beneficial for the state beacuse they represent masses.
I’d like to talk about the PTI’s ‘ideology on terrorism’ as you put it, which I feel is widely misperceived. The party isn’t a Taliban apologist. When the terrorist problem was the key issue on the national conversation, they sought ardently to explain the causality of the problem because of their understanding of its complexity and their belief that the solution must be of a similarly complex nature in order for it to be sustainable and effective. The discourse was not conducted in an attempt to justify or rationalize the radical mindsets of the Taliban. Regarding the military operation, the PTI was in staunch opposition because of their genuine belief that force can not suppress a people prepared to die and that for a solution to be sustainable a complex multi pronged strategy was required. PTI are not Taliban apologists, or even worse, the political wing of the Taliban. The leaders of this party see more shades of grey in this problem than most of our other politicians.
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