POLITICAL parties are in preparations for the next general election. The PML-N, PPP, PTI and rest of the parties are restricted to provinces, regions or districts. The PML-N is holding Punjab province, the PPP interior Sindh while the PTI has different pockets.
The other notable parties JUI, JI, MQM, BNP, PMLQ, ANP, BAP, PKMAP and TLB have their influence in some constituencies of few districts. None of the contesting political parties is a national level party.
According to the Constitution of Pakistan election contesting parties should have their national level representation and do not reflect ethnicity, sectarianism and regionalism. Hatred based priorities of the political parties have divided the nation in different regions.
Fall of Dhaka is the worst precedent of this divide. In the 1971 election Z A Bhutto couldn’t win seats in East Pakistan while Sheikh Mujeeb-ur-Rehman remained unsuccessful in West Pakistan.
This led to the disintegration of the country and the fall of Dhaka. Unfortunately, we haven’t learnt any lesson from the Dhaka tragedy.
Political divide and instability are serious issues threatening the survival of the country considering the heterogeneous structure of our society. It is creating massive problems and hindering the development process of Pakistan.
Regional ethnic parties threaten the integration of the country and it had lost half of the territory and population due to ethnicity and selfishness.
Secession of East Pakistan was not only a setback but also an incident to rethink about national priorities and to accommodate regional aspirations through acknowledging the pluralism of the political culture. Low profile leadership always led to regional politics.
Unjust and deprived parts of the country have caused divide. The Punjabis and Pakhtuns have never been deprived in terms of places in government apparatus both military and bureaucracy.
They were given more space as compared to their ratio of population. They remained mobile and were never denied opportunity in any part of the country in terms of fortune hunting, establishing business and settling as a household.
Despite all this, the Pakhtun leadership of ANP continued to detract people and hindered the process of national integration by raising the issue of Pakhtunistan time and again at the instigation of a neighbouring country.
Conflict of interests in Karachi and the tit-for-tat strategy of ANP against MQM remained a constant source of violence in urban Sindh.
It was ironic that both parties were sitting in government as coalition partners of PPP but unfortunately were not ready to reconcile with each other on national interests.
The political parties which are having seats in Parliament bear more responsibility to strengthen the political system but in Pakistan, the regional parties with fewer seats in Parliament find it appropriate that its regional agenda should materialize in lieu of the political support which the mainstream political parties need for government formation.
The MQM is the clear example contesting for allocation of jobs and quotas in the educational institutions while the economic activity has been paralysed in the urban areas of Sindh for decades, but they are not ready to reconcile.
Different political parties have been involved in massive killings of not only other ethnic groups and their own dissidents. They are always seen fighting for more resources.
Their strategy of violence has continuously been threatening peace and the very survival of the individuals and the society as a whole.
The problem lies in the treatment of ethnic issues. All the political governments took ethno-nationalist issues as a mere law and order problem while these issues needed a well chalked out political solution based on national consensus. The question of regional autonomy should be addressed as given under the constitution.
The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution has progressed on this issue and has abolished the concurrent list, leaving all the residuary powers with the provinces. But still grievances are there which require constitutional reforms. The prolonged military rule has magnified the regional aspirations.
The inability of the politicians to reconcile with the needs of time and resolve the political problems through a defined political process has provided the defence forces opportunities to intervene.
There is no other solution to the current complex political impasse except through invoking the constitution, consolidating institutions and respecting the plural nature of the political culture. Strong political parties of national character are a pre-requisite for this purpose.
The working of democracy, however fragile and short-lived, could groom the political system into a clear multiple party system.
If the national level political parties could exercise democracy within their own ranks, they could serve better interests articulation and filling the gaps of representation by all the factions.
It is believed that it may be dangerous for democracy if leaders remain restricted to provinces, regions and districts for longer periods.
Fresh leadership from the grass root level could end the sense of deprivation of the masses of largest as the elite politics is no longer the solution of the problem.
Strong representative institutions, accommodation of all factions in the process of governance and emergencies of leadership from the middle and lower middle class will lead to a national source of patriotism which will not respond to foreign and internal dictatations, offers and incentives at the cost of national interests.
—The writer, based in Islamabad, is book ambassador, columnist and author of several books.
