EDITORIAL: There is nothing similar to or as good as intra-party elections in the country’s top political parties to remind everybody how hollow the institution of democracy has become in this Islamic republic. The election of the top leader has been a mere formality since their inception.
PML-N’s (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s) recent internal elections, which saw Shehbaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz re-elected as its president and senior vice-president, respectively, was the latest such exercise which once again bolstered a family-driven status quo; giving it politically correct legal cover if only in name and substance.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took the exercise a step further by implying immediately after his win — pre-determined, of course — that he was only a temporary custodian of his party position, which shall revert to Nawaz Sharif upon his return to the country, even though the former three-time PM did not even figure in the election.
Other parties are no different. There’s no question of anybody other than the Bhutto family, Bilawal Bhutto specifically, landing the top slot in his party in any intra-party election at any time now or in the foreseeable future.
That is why PPP co-chairman and former Pakistani president Asif Zardari makes no secret of the fact that he wants to see his son as Pakistan’s next or future prime minister; whichever is feasible. And even PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf), the self-proclaimed standard bearer of change, real democracy and haqiqi azadi, will never have an election that does not confirm and re-confirm Imran Khan as the chairman and his chosen lieutenants in the positions closest to him.
In fact, when PTI’s intra-party elections became controversial a few years ago and former Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed was tasked with investigating allegations of corruption and cleaning the rot, he was ultimately shown the door when his report found Imran Khan’s closest aides guilty of buying votes to secure important party positions.
Even ANP (Awami National Party), accepted by everybody as one of the most progressive parties in the country, now largely confined to the north, has always been headed by the same family and everybody knows this trend will never change.
In fact, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) has proved to be the only party that has consistently conducted transparent intra-party elections that have never been dismissed by all onlookers as something of a farce.
Sadly, though, JI’s mix of religion and politics has never appealed to the electorate at the national level and its position, despite its democratic credentials, remains limited.
It’s not just party elections, of course, because regardless of who occupies which position within any party, the final decisions always come from the same individuals and/or families that remote-control them from top to bottom.
For example, it does not matter what the party rank and file feel about the next general elections, they will only be announced when the families and individuals leading the ruling coalition decide the time is right. PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari has gone to the extent of claiming, on national TV that the elections will take place when he decides.
Similarly, PTI turncoats now suddenly comfortable with spilling party beans in public are revealing how their pleas of not dissolving Punjab and KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) assemblies fell on deaf ears in Bani Gala, and ultimately Imran Khan overruled everybody else and gave them the chop.
Worse still, the party’s unrivalled social media outreach ensures that anybody and everybody that disagrees with their charismatic chairman is taken to the cleaners very publicly, as previously respected leaders like Asad Umar are fast finding out.
This is a shame, because it reduces democracy to a sham run by dynasties. That is why parliament is always housed by feudal lords and industrial barons whenever the so-called establishment steps aside and leaves the politicians to their task. And when democrats themselves run their parties and the country like despots, their frequent claims of interference by undemocratic forces ring very hollow.
Clearly, the first step in enforcing legitimate representative governance in Pakistan is first making political parties truly democratic. But that begs the obvious question of who will bell the cat. There is always a price to pay in the fight for democracy in this country.
For example, PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Miftah Ismail made excellent prime minister and finance minister, respectively, in their short stints, but now they are nowhere to be seen; not even in the party elections. And anybody crossing the PPP or PTI chairman in their own internal matters is expected to meet the same fate very quickly. And so we go round in circles.
In a way, political parties themselves do the greatest harm to democracy in Pakistan by keeping it hostage to powerful and established dynasties.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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