Parliament - An Essential Part

In my opinion, a balance needs to be acquired between ‘the need for representation and accountability’ and ‘the need for leadership and strong government’. This can be done with an equal and appropriate (depending on what their job entails) distribution of power between both the parliament and executive branches.

The parliament is an essential part of the government as it not only fills the communication gap between the ruling government and the people being ruled but also ensures that public opinion and concerns are heard and integrated in policy formation processes (or are supposed be to, at least). 

Taking this power away from the parliament and distributing it among the other two branches would render the process of representing popular opinion inefficient because the focus of the executive and judicial branches lies elsewhere i.e making and executing policies, and passing legislation.

The executive branch and parliament should work side by side. Policy-making authority should be given to the executive branch while the parliament should have the power to veto any policy if it deems it unfit. In conclusion, it is important for both the branches to work collectively and for neither to dominate the other.  

Session 9 - Parliamentary vs Presidential System

The major difference between Presidential and parliamentary system is that in a former system, the executive leader, the President, is directly voted upon by the people through a committee elected solely for the purpose of electing the president. This committee has no other purpose. Whereas the executive leader of the latter system, the Prime Minister, is elected from the legislative branch directly.

In the Presidential System, it is more difficult to enact legislation, especially in the event that the President has different views than the legislative body. The President only responds to the people, the legislative branch can't really do anything to threaten the President. As a result, he can make it more difficult for the legislative body to do anything. Hence legislative branch has limited control and freedom.

In the Parliamentary system, if the Parliament doesn't like the Prime Minister, they can cast a vote of no confidence and replace him. This tends to make the executive leader subordinate to or dependent on the Parliament.

So basically it depends on the approach and difference of viewpoints.  If you believe that government should have more checks and balances, then a Presidential system will give you that. If you believe that it should have the power to pass laws quickly, then you should opt Parliamentary system.

Session 9 – Pakistan’s Overdeveloped Executive

A government consists of 3 branches; legislature, executive and judiciary. In terms of power, rather than a hierarchy, it is comprised of a horizontal organizational structure. The power afforded to each branch is played off against each other as a means of providing checks and balances. This system of checks and balances is generally referred to as the separation of power in a government.

The Government of Pakistan, sadly, has always had an inequitable distribution of power because the executive is more powerful than the assembly (or legislature). This can be directly attributed to Pakistan’s postcolonial legacy.

Britain’s colonial rule in the subcontinent was fueled by economic incentives and as such, their policies with regards to the colony aimed to derive maximum value from local trade at the expense of the natives, and to oppress in case of any unrest. For governing the colony, they developed a state apparatus suitable for enforcing such policies. This resulted in the strengthening of the civil and military bureaucracy, i.e. the executive branch. This is referred to as the over-development of the State by sociologist HamzaAlavi.

Following the decolonization process, the British were replaced by a ruling class that had once collaborated with them. Rather than introducing reform, this new ruling class perpetuated the same policies as they served to strengthen their own position. In this manner, the executive has enjoyed a greater degree of autonomy than the legislature. Executive powers even have the authority to step in and take complete control of governance by declaring an emergency or martial law. In the event that such a thing happens, the Pakistan National Assembly lacks the power to do anything about it.

Session 9: Functions of Assemblies

    Scrutiny of the government officials is one of the functions that the assemblies are supposed to perform. But in Pakistan the assemblies are clearly not performing their functions in an efficient manner. Assemblies are formed by ministers and a few people monopolize the whole system of government and manipulate the state's resources. Our assemblies have never been completely autonomous. Our bureaucracy and military have always been stronger than our assemblies.
   Every now and then we see a general breaking the assembly. I think parliament should be the supreme authority and it should be powerful enough to scrutinize other institutions like supreme court, bureaucracy and military as well. As an assembly is formed by the elected members who are chosen by the masses. Whereas military officials, bureaucrats and justices are not representatives f people, I mean they do come from our people but they are not specifically chosen in the positions of authority by the people to represent them.
   Recruitment and training is a function that should be performed by the assemblies in different departments or institutions of a state. And one of the most important functions of assemblies is to promote legitimacy of a state. This in my opinion is very important as people should be taken into confidence by the governments regarding important decisions and they should have this feeling of living in a legitimate state in their hearts and minds. Which leads to decreasing depression among the masses.

 

Session 9 - The power of legislators

Assemblies hold a key position in the structure of any democratic government, they fulfil a number of complex roles, but above all, assemblies consist of representatives of the population and are essentially elected to uphold the regime. Pakistan has a bicameral structure of government consisting of the National Assembly, Senate and President. Assemblies also have the power to make laws; but how successful has the Pakistani national assembly been in legislating? Laws can be debated upon openly in an assembly’s sessions. The main problem in Pakistan is that legislators fail to recognize the importance of their decisions and its impacts on the country and the individuals living in it. An example of this can be the 8^th amendment of the constitution passed by the parliament under general Zia-ul-Haq’s regime. It made Pakistan’s system of government a semi-presidential system from a parliamentary democratic system. The implications of this amendment were seen later on as well when President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dissolved the nation assembly a number of times when Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif were prime ministers, unrest uncertainty was spread throughout the country.

Similarly, the 2^nd amendment of the constitution which declares Ahmadis to be non-Muslims has also had an impact on Pakistan. It has led to a rise in the divide between different sects of Muslims; where many argue that shia’as be also declared non-Muslims.

What our legislators fail to realise is their power to make or break; their decisions have a rippling effect on the daily lives of Pakistanis. They should realise that they are responsible for the laws they pass, and not abuse their positions of power. It is because of these reasons only that many have lost confidence in the parliament. The government needs to understand the relation between the people and the parliament, and the need for representation and leadership in today’s difficult times.

Session 9-Functionality of Assemblies in Pakistan

Assembly is a distinct brand of government whose prime function is to act as a law making body. Generally speaking, functions of assemblies include shaping and editing the legislation and constitution of the nation by representing the needs and people who elected them. While the legislative and representative roles of assemblies have declined in significance, greater emphasis has been placed on the ability of assemblies to constrain and check the executive power. Assemblies are the places from which leaders, ministers and prime misters are recruited.

Considering condition of Assemblies in Pakistan, due to the large class differences between the public and their representatives, the legislators fail to reflect the demands and needs of the general public. When the representatives do not understand the grievances of the people who elected them, no change can be brought at ground level.

Secondly before legislators could scrutinize the executives of the country, they themselves first need accountability. For example when the degrees of the assembly members were checked, most of them had false degrees. How can such defaulters be expected to rectify and check and balance the executives.

In developing countries such as Pakistan where the literacy rate is very less, parochial culture exists.  For example in our exercise in the class, janitors informed us that they voted for PML-N just because they paid them 5000, then the elected people will not be true representation of the people of Pakistan.

Functions of assemblies may be very useful for government in theories but practically speaking, the role of assemblies in Pakistan is awfully debatable.

Session 9: Rights of assemblies in Pakistan

One of the most interesting things that I founded in Heywood’s reading about assemblies was indeed the role of assemblies. Living in a country like Pakistan where politics plays an important part in a person’s life and is usually the topic for discussion on a dinner table or elders gathering, I was always bothered about the fact that what the basic tasks were that needs to be performed by these constituent assemblies. I had that curiosity about why are people always so desperate to win elections and be a part of the assembly.

My perception regarding these assemblies was that they are responsible for taking decisions and execute them; only after the reading I realized that these assemblies are also accountable for legislation, representation, scrutiny, political recruitment and legitimacy. Then I compared these assigned tasks with the tasks being performed by the Pakistani assemblies, and came to the conclusion that whether these assemblies were completing all their designated tasks or was there some other external locus of control that was controlling all these things.

 In my opinion there is no decision making going on in the assemblies and most of the decisions that are being taken are because of some sort of pressure from an outside source. It won’t be wrong to say that there is an “invisible hand” that is operating or at least influencing the workings of the assemblies of Pakistan. It might be the fact that because of these influences, our so called democratic and free assemblies are hardly able to complete their tenure. This can clearly be seen from the fact that in a history of more than 65 years, only one democratic assembly has been able to complete its tenure of five years, whereas all other have either been dissolved or taken over by military regimes.

To be very honest, an amateur like me cannot answer the question of who is influencing the House of Commons in Pakistan, but I do know that if decisions are made on personal biases and prejudices, the sovereignty of Pakistan will definitely be jeopardized.  

Session 9: Assemblies - The three branches of the government

The government is a body which governs the state and people; it can be divided into three branches – executive branch, judiciary branch and legislature branch.

What is the purpose of these branches? All three branches have distinct functions; however, they are all related to the law.

In America the executive branch is headed by the President – the President is the decision maker and passes all laws. The judicial branch then decides which laws are constitutional and which are not. Basically, when the government of the United States of America made up a system of three branches it wanted to ensure that there are no unjust practices and that a common man is treated fairly.

Although this system seems flawless in theory the reality may be much different – its effectiveness is questionable. It is of course a wise idea to divide power so that control doesn’t stay in the hands of one sect, but is this division really taking place? If yes then is power being distributed in the most optimal fashion?

Session 9 - The Weak State of Assemblies in Pakistan.

In this weeks reading by Heywood on assemblies, a parallel can be drawn between the expectations and functions of an assembly and the assemblies present in Pakistan. Five basic functions of assemblies pointed out in this article are legislation, representation, scrutiny, political recruitment and legitimacy.

In my opinion, the state of Pakistani assemblies is as such, that most of the above mentioned points don’t even hold prominence for the elected members of the assemblies. Our country has a national assembly and then a provincial assembly for each of the province. Most of the elected members are elected on the basis of on going influence in their constituencies. People vote merely on the basis of family name and respect. The state of our population is such that for them, assemblies don’t even matter much and what perks they get from their vote is what makes them cast their votes for certain people. An example could be the point Sir made in the last class about the guy voting for PML-N just because he was getting Rs 5000 in cash. Not only are the assemblies lacking in fulfilling the primary functions, they don’t seem to getting better.

Corruption and influential politics is on the high. The Pakistani assembly keeping passing laws and bills and no one ever sees them getting fulfilled. The worse part is, a lot of our own elected parliamentarians are barely educated and they are barely aware of what is expected from them in the tenure in the assembly. Being a member of any assembly has become a status symbol for many Pakistanis. It is a very complex and important job, which is not done justice to in our country. The apparent weak structure of our assemblies can also be pointed out by the fact that only one democratically elected assembly has been able to fulfill its 5-year tenure. All other assemblies have been dissolved and taken over by military coups. As a citizen of this country, I really hope that one day the state of our legislature and assembly becomes such, that it efficaciously fulfills all functions of the assembly.

Pakistans Executive-Dominated Assembly

   An assembly will have to disavow its authority as it transforms from a policy-making assembly to a policy-influencing assembly. This transformation was seen within the American politics. The Congress became a policy influencing assembly that simply invigilated the presidential decisions.

    Today I want to discuss the ways in which the Pakistani National Assembly is influenced by external factors that has never allowed the Pakistani assembly to become anything but executive-dominated. 

    In Pakistan, Assembly-Executive association is determined by the party division that occurs after the electoral process.  The executive will be highly dominating if there is internal party unity, and if the governing party has an influential position. PML-N enjoys a near-absolute majority in the national assembly which has allowed it to keep all empirical and practical power within the executive, even though there is a well-built opposition. The assembly merely becomes a being without any practical usefulness. The present government up until its first year in power had not passed a single bill, which shows that an executive dominated assembly is not only weak but the executive itself, fails to do its job.

   For the Pakistani Assembly to actually become an effective body, the executive needs to keep a separation of powers such that the executive can implement the bills that for a change actually exist.

Session 9: Role of Legislature: Representative of People

    Legislatures in Assemblies,Parliament , Majlis-e-Surah or Congress have primary role to represent people who choose them by casting vote and send them to assemblies. I don't think they completely represent their people because they only chosen by small portion of people  who belonging to some specific class and group.These legislatures  responsible for making new Laws, amendment in previous laws and cancel some brutal laws according to will of whole people who send them but we see role of these legislatures as drawbacks of Democratic System or Government because most of So-called People's representatives have primary task to entertain those few people and capitalists who select them and invest them respectively by making Laws or policies and issuing orders according to will of their supporters.

           The most recent example is last elections in Pakistan in which lot of capitalists specially Punjabis were supporting  Nawaz Sharif and Now His Government is making Laws and issuing orders which is according to the interests of above mentioned people and   These things are not acceptable for People of other Provinces and different groups in Pakistan. If we want representatives who have complete support specially by minorities because small groups and minorities always dissatisfy by representatives of dominant group. We should have procedure and system which results in the legislatures who have nearly complete representation of people not of partial . Otherwise it leads to decline of Assemblies. 

Session-9 Decline of assemblies

Assemblies can be strong or weak. It depends on the customs and the political scenario of any particular country. Decline can also be termed as the shift or change from the prospect of rule.

One factor is the organizational weakness of assemblies. As the population grows, the power towards bureaucracy increases while undermining the assemblies as a source of policy making only.Usually the assemblies move in a conflict between the ruling party and the opposition. Individuals have to move according to their party leadership so sincerity to party is the most important factor to remain in an assembly.
As leadership remains in the hands of few so the decision making power does not transfer at low level and party benefits become priority.

The greater the population, the greater the risk of representation in wrong hands. So in most cases, bureaucracy becomes powerful and the system of policy implementation faces many obstacles.

Lobbying factor or the interests of external power is also a main issue leading towards the decline. As sometimes it seems that decision has been made and assemblies are just debating to justify it. Assemblies are now considered as a source of policy making so interested groups shift the policies towards their own interests, this can be a favor in the form of change in tax laws.

Assembly; The Role of the House

Assemblies, Parliaments, legislature all primarily the same but have different names because of various functions performed by them. Its a house which when enacts a law is called legislature, when gathers officials for debating, representing purposes, is called assembly. An assembly is linked with the government and all functions performed by the acting government are under the supervision of the assembly.

Government is an authority and holds an upper hand, in taking decisions, implementing laws, dealing state matters and functioning effectively. But still the government has to answer the parliament in order to gain its support. Parliament consists of the functionaries which are considered to be the representative of the people. Because of this every matter which the government deals it has to include the parliament in it and the government should be accountable, for every step it takes. The assembly has the right to question, on behalf of the people and inform the people about every single step which is taken in the country.

An assembly, has the right to form new laws, amend existing ones and then enacting them. These laws are then implemented by the government and the interpreted by the judiciary. Public matters are discused and solutions are found for them. Its the official representation of the people on large forum. Debates are held so that everyone has the right to raise his voice and play his part.

The assembly has different structures including the unicameral and bicameral parts. One is the upper house and second is the lower house. The lower house consists of the people which come through electoral process and the upper house consists of people selected equally from different parts of the country so that no one feels deprived of the right to represent. Though the lower house has more power and is dominant in its functions. In some countries there is only unicameral system and in others there is bicameral.

In a nut shell the assembly is the reflection of people's will and should perform its duties honestly so that the government can work efficiently and the state could prosper.

Session 9 : Legislation

Legislature acts a pivotal role in the super-structure of a country. It is a platform through which issues, concerns and interests of the people are highlighted. These issues are then resolved with the help of discussions and debates.
               But, in Pakistan our assemblies are not performing adequately. Their votes are divided on the basis of party affiliations instead of public interest. Their mere motive is to safeguard their personal alliances.
   Moreover, members of the assembly act as role models as they represent a particular community and it makes them responsible and accountable for every action they take in the assembly. This demands that every member holds a high level of ethical and moral responsibility. But in Pakistan members of the assembly are often behaving in a completely uncivilized way.
   Another important function of  assemblies is to ensure equal implementation of law. But our members of assemblies do not concentrate on this issue because otherwise they themselves would be the ones behind the bars. As most of them have fabricated degrees and fake credentials.

Session 9: Assemblies in Pakistan

Assemblies embody the legislative part in the divisions of state. They are representatives of the people and are there to debate on the laws and issues surrounding the public affairs of the state. These assemblies have numerous functions that they are supposed to perform within the state machinery.

Assemblies can influence and debate the legislative aspects of the state. They are ideally supposed to debate bills and analyse them to ensure that the laws within a state are just to all members of the society. However, in Pakistan we see that the party-dominated culture has rendered these debates pointless because people vote based on their party affiliations.

Assemblies  represent the common man and mirror the diversity present in a society. They bridge the gap between the state and the people. We see that in Pakistan, this role is not being fulfilled because while there are fixed seats for non-Muslims and women and other minorities, the effect of these is hardly ever seen in substantial action. There are laws present that enable the persecution of specific groups in the society, e.g Hudood Ordinance or persecution of Ahmedis through declaring them non-Muslims. Although the Hudood laws were enacted through the presidential  orders of a military dictator, at the time when the democratic form of the parliament was suspended, the fact of matter remains that these laws are still in place and have not been removed or amended by the parliament. This owes primarily to the fact that these minorities do not have enough power within the assembly to influence the laws that are being enacted. Hence, it highlights the fact that the parliament has failed in its legislative procedures and it not the true representative of the people.

The system of holding the government accountable and responsible is also done through the assemblies. This role of assemblies is often overlooked in Pakistan because the majority in assemblies is held by the party in government and the opposition does not have enough power to tangibly hold the government accountable for their actions.

Governments also use assemblies as propaganda tools to appear legitimate to the general population which renders these assemblies indispensable to all forms of regimes.

The assemblies in Pakistan fall short of their prescribed roles all too often. Does this mean that our parliament has failed to perform its role as the legislators of state? Or are these roles only applicable in theory?

Session 9: Legislature as a means of protection?

Legislature may be seen as a segment of the government mechanism along with the Executives and Judiciaries. It can be defined as a representative of public, which may have the power to formulate laws through discussion and analysis.

We see that the legislature in Pakistan is not adequately performing its functions. For instance there is a lack of adequate minority representation under law, raising several questions regarding the representative ability of the legislature.

Similarly, several laws have been incorporated into legislature like the blasphemy law or even laws for the protection of women. But, all of this is mere paperwork to temporarily pacify public resentment leading to the failure of another legislative function, legitimacy. Do Pakistani citizens trust the legislature and ultimately the government system? Do they consider their rights safeguarded by law? We may find that in Pakistan’s case the public trusts the judiciary more than the executive body or legislature as seen by the Long March.

However, the malleable nature of the legislature renders it sufficient as a means of protecting individual interests as opposed to the more permanent nature of the constitution.

Session 9: Legislature: Unicameral or Bicameral

Governments usually have three branches. These being legislative, executive and judicial. The Legislative branch (in most political systems) is usually decided through an electoral process, like we have here in Pakistan. The executive and judicial are usually decided on the basis of merit. 

A lot of countries have bicameral systems in place for governance, this is where there a two or three houses of parliament. These houses share the responsibilities of the three branches of government. Here in Pakistan, the government is divided into three branches, the National Assembly (Legislative), the Senate (Executive) and the Supreme Court (Judicial).

This system has it's obvious advantages, for example, it allows for the flow of greater ideas and provides a platform for the refinement of laws being passed. However it carries with it some serious cons. Firstly, the chances of gridlock are greatly increased. With the flow of great ideas come the serious arguments that come up in the law making process. An example of this is when the US Government shutdown early last year. This was because the legislative wanted to increase the government borrowing ceiling but this was rejected but the executive. No amount of talks between the two (through commissions) lead to a result acceptable to both. Thereby the government shutdown till the problem was not resolved. 

Secondly, efficiency is not maximized when there exists a system of bicameral governance. Since there are more channels to go through, the final decision takes longer to pull through. Thereby with a longer procedure in place, laws take longer to pass, usually overshooting the time in which they were required in the most. In the light of the first point, the following example will clear how efficiency is compromised in bicameral governance. After the tragic attack on a Peshawar school, the government of Pakistan was immediately places under a huge amount of stress to "do something about it". The PMLN government hatched the idea of military courts. No two parties agreed on this idea, thus prolonging the process on this law being passed. Once the Assembly finally passed the law (with lots of opposition nonetheless) it took longer for it to pass through Pakistan's executive and finally judicial branches of government.  

Session 8 : Political Culture In Pakistan

Political culture consists of people’s shared, learned beliefs about their political system and their role within that system.Shaping people's roles and behavior within a political world, it influences the way people see their political world and what they expect from it. All democracies are strongly clouted by their particular political culture. Although each democracy has its unique political culture, various studies over the years delineated that the political cultures of successful democracies share frequent characteristics i.e  high level of political awareness,  strong sense of competence and considerable skill in cooperation, combined with rational participation in civic and political life.

Pakistan is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic country inhabited by rural and urban populations.While examining the political culture of Pakistan, one feels difficulty in defining it and to come up with concrete set of rules due to its heterogeneous orientation of the individuals and the society. In rural areas, biradri colonial legacy has played into the hands of politicians who conveniently used it as the advantage rather than performing their duties in developing a national identity and a consensual national political culture. Furthermore transgressions by the army, civil dictatorial  regimes  supported by self centered feudal classes in convenience with the clergy have yielded the fragmentation of political culture.Pakistan since its inception inherited governance system heavily influenced by the colonial tendencies to centralize power and controlling its subjects. This factor alone has a big part in shaping the existing conflicting political culture of the country.

The social culture of Pakistan is a set of various heterogeneous aspects which manifest themselves in the political orientations and resulting actions of the polity. The political landscape of the country is mainly dominated by landlords, businessmen and religious clergy who over the years have developed an unholy nexus with  ever dominant civil and military bureaucracy. The voting patterns are also divided on religious,ethnic and linguistic lines. The lack of education among the masses has further strengthened the stranglehold of these political actors on the political structure of the country. The biraderism plays a key role in the decisions of individuals and groups thus heavily affecting the voting patterns in the rural areas. With Sindh and Baluchistan dominated by the landowning classes, and masses being their subjects on a large scale, the political culture in these areas has remained autocratic. At the same time in Punjab the biradarism still dictates the political orientations of the people in choosing the candidates who can secure their interests as a group. Additionally in Khyberpukhtunkhwa people see politics through the prisms of religion and tribal affiliations.

Session 8: Political Culture

Political culture of the area describes and transcribes the political trajectory of that area. And political culture as shown in the reading is affected by many things. As shown in the reading, it is affected by the religion, media, family, government etc. Where the reading understood the government’s role in political culture in the sense that it sets in orientation to e.g. Nazism, and Fascism, it can also affect political culture by other measures. In Saudi Arabia for example, the political culture is widely affected by welfare payments. This phenomenon is demonstrated by the $32 billion payout promised by the New King of Saudia Arabi: King Salman. Interestingly, the deceased King also paid out a hefty sum in form of bonuses and salary bumps on his coronation back in 2005. He also paid out such payments in 2011 after returning from medical treatment, at which time the Arab world was going through an uncertain time with the Arab Spring and the King needed to keep his subjects happy. According to an article in the NY times, these payouts spring from a culture of familial bond between the King and his subjects and aims to strengthen that by including the common man in the revelry or the success of the King. Thus this is another way of affecting political culture. 

Session 8: Pursuit of truth

Political culture is reflection of peoples beliefs crucially their view of regime in which they are governed and also do they respect that regime as rightful or wrong.All the people had their beliefs play a role in promoting the stability and survival of a regime.It is also a pattern of orientation to political entities like parties.When Marx presents his view about how the certain dominant class of the society spread its narrative of things around the people they rule i do agree with it .The political socialization that is the process of transforming,conforming and establishing political beliefs and values is carried out by dominant class of the society.It is carried out through the help of institutions.One of the agents for this process of indoctrination is mass media. In today's world if we tune into our television sets so we can see different channels running same incident but everybody has a different way of explaining and describing the same event.They are employing different terminology for the same incident. Why is that? Is it just different ideas about a same incident?

                             Well up to certain extent yeah but this reflection of ideas come from the minds of the people funding the channel. Marshall McLuhan very rightly said"the medium is the message". Now people rely on learning about things happening in their surroundings through media.Media is controlled and manipulated by the dominant economic class.They want the proletariat class to reconcile their exploitation by creating myths and falsehoods.The political views are spread through media. Media plays a big role in forming and shaping our thoughts and most importantly our ideology . The very evident example of this would be state owned television channel(Ptv) and a private television channel for instance(Geo) .When you tune into Ptv for a certain political dispute you are not told the other side of the story. You are only told the government side of the story. In most of the cases you wont even realize that their is a conflict. On the other hand if you tune into Geo you would see a complete different view of the political analysts on the matter. Both of the channels are promoting their own (owned prefer to say) insight on the conflict. Both the sides are so skilled that you don't even know who and what to believe in?

                         Same happens with the foreign media if you for instance tune into CNN and Fox news you will see that they are terming same incident with different words explanation for instance if they are funded by Conservatives they would promote their party interests and interlink incidents and at the same time offer alternatives that would promote and lead to the promulgation of Conservative values.So it seems like the pursuit of the truth that was as i believe the job of the media had been from its formation is abandoned. The information is manipulated and made according to the wishes of people who owns these corporations. Political socialization of the people is taking place through the media of the people who sponsor the technology and owns the means of the production .

Session 8: Pakistan's Political Culture; Socialisation and our National Experience.

It is often quite complex a task to analyse any social scenario due to the many variables that require consideration and the multi directional relationships that they hold. Political culture is shaped by a nation’s political experiences, while the same political experiences are heavily influenced by, if not due to, the political culture of the time. This paper is an attempt at an unstructured analysis of Pakistan’s political socialization, not in an endeavor to explain it, but rather as an effort to hopefully understand it better myself through this process.

Lets first discuss the process of culture formation. Socialization is a concerted effort exerted by all members of a society, whether knowingly or not, in the collective shaping of certain ideas, concepts and values that are either agreeable, unquestionably rejected or fall within a socialized realm of ‘disagreeables’ upon which it is considered acceptable for there to be debate. Furthermore, socialization does not necessarily happen at large scales, or within the ambit of a ‘society.’ Every single instance of human interaction is a brick in the cumulative socialization of all those individuals who were a part of that experience. Hence, in a globalised world, socialization often takes place across societies, between and among members of the ‘global village’ as it has become.   

It is unavoidable that agents will exert different forces on the minds they can influence, many of which will often be contradictory as they should be in an open society of free idea expression. Hence a stark division about opinions on ‘the way forward’ is not a problem. It is, in fact, the key ingredient towards development sparked through pluralism. Disagreeing opinions reflect that social agents have opinions, and have invested themselves in the process by voicing those opinions, hence giving them a stake, no matter how small, in the politics of the country.

However, in Pakistan a worrying lack of interest and commitment has been evident for most of its history. Most curricula at pre university levels include little interactive study regarding the social sciences. A ‘dumbing down’ is clearly at play. Courses on history are limited to mere rote-learned dates and names. Very few schools engage in an outside-the-classroom process of linking their students to the political and social realities around them through seminars, debates, field trips etc. The focus has been on educational opportunities that are better geared towards improving employment prospects and hence the medical and natural sciences, which are in no way less important, have been given disproportionate priority by the vast majority of the educational institutes of the country. Where such opportunities are provided, they are seldom availed by students, a large proportion of which come from families that preach ‘siyasat se jitna dur, utna acha’ and pride themselves on their apolitical attitude. A large segment of the middle and affluent upper middle classes are keen on keeping their hands clean and remain far away from politics; the lower socioeconomic groups, albeit for different reasons, are similarly mistrusting, disenchanted and hateful towards the political process. Hence two key agents of socialization, the family and the education, have played little role in Pakistan’s political cultural development. However, a recent shift in trends is encouraging.  

A nation’s collective experiences are undeniably important. Pakistan, and for that matter the Indian Subcontinent, possesses a very deep inclination towards heroism. We are a people supremely enchanted by the prospect of a savior to help us rise from the ashes of our indifference. We possess an individualistic outlook. Our experience has been such that we have welcomed such individuals in the form of Zulfiqar Bhutto, Altaf Hussain, Nawaz Sharif and the likes and had abandoned neutrality in the fervor built around their political movements. Sadly, it was soon followed by repeated disenchantments due to their failure to deliver, which was in itself due to their ‘heroic’ and individualistic tendencies. Each time the depression that followed the euphoria was worse than the one that preceded it. Our heroic tendencies create individuals with heroic inclinations who fail due to their heroism. And leave a country that had dared to hope with an unprecedented resentment, only to be beaten the next time they’d dare to hope.

It is perhaps this process that has led us towards this apathetic indifference that translates into a disappointing lack of political socialisation. It is perhaps why thirty percent of our adult population votes in national elections. It is perhaps why I am met with lots of snide comments when I inform somebody that I am majoring in Political Science. And that too is part of my socialisation. 

Session 8 - Political socialization and ideological hegemony

The process through which one acquires political beliefs and values is known as political socialization. This process is viewed differently by different groups.

The Marxists, for example, emphasis the importance of the "ruling class" or those that are economically dominant in society in the process of political socialization. They believe that the state uses "ideological state apparatus" (as termed by Louis Althusser, a French Marxist philosopher) such as the family, the education system, religious institutions, the mass media and the government have a vital role in passing on the ruling class values.

Marxist theories about political socialization and ideological hegemony are, in my opinion, interlinked. Marxists believe that the ideas passed on through these institutions are in the interests of the ruling class or "bourgeoisie" and rather than helping in political socialization and allowing one to form individual and informed decisions, these institutions practice ideological domination or hegemony. 

An example of these institutions spreading a certain belief is evident in the rise of Islamophobia in the West. The mass media in the U.S in particular has been complicit in the rise of Islamophobia in the country. The death of three young Muslim Americans as a result of a shooting in North Carolina, for example, was barely given any attention in the media. This reflects how the attitudes of a the people in a country are affected by what is and is not represented in the "ideological state appartus." 

Pakistan's Sacred Cow

The Pakistani Media is considered by many to be the fourth pillar of the state but has it been successful in dispensing its duties responsibly? Has the media been able to transform the Pakistani society for the better? Has it been able to promote the idea of a pluralistic and democratic Pakistan?

Well the answers to those questions are not as simple as they seem. The Pakistani media is largely free, as free as corporate entities can be that is. The promise that the ‘free’ and ‘fair’ media showed, which was augmented by its role in the Lawyers movement, gave rise to a hope of a new Pakistan, a better Pakistan, with the ‘Free’ media leading the charge, has now been replaced with cynicism. The media in a way started following the Dominant-Ideology model, placing corporate interests in front of media ethics and the greater good. Sensationalism replaced cold hard facts and the agent for change became the agent of propaganda.

One of the most unforgivable sins that the media is guilty of is of ‘mainstreaming hate’. Everyday television shows give prime time slots to hate spewing Mullahs who don’t think twice before passing out fatwas against Ahmedis, Ismailis and other marginalized sections of the society. In giving ‘hate speech’ airtime the media is in a way legitimizing hate. Media ethics are an unknown concept in the land of the Pure and the media regulatory body Pemra is too impotent to assert its authority, much like the present government.

One of the most troubling things about the Pakistani media is its belief that it is above public accountability. That it has an unlimited license to tarnish anybody’s reputation based of just speculation. Media trials are commonplace and ‘Due process of law’ and ‘innocent until proven guilty’ are just fancy phrases that mean nothing to our divine media. The nexus between the Iftikhar Chaudry judiciary and Geo news based on mutual interests, exposed another kink in the media’s armor.

The media has the greatest power on earth, the power to influence and change hearts and minds. Pakistan needs this power now, more then ever, if it is to ever get out of these troubled times.