Political ethics in Pakistan
WHEREAS, the state is the basic unit in an anarchical international system, at domestic level the political, economic and social activities of its masses revolve around the state and its interests. The political forces (political parties) pursue the state’s interests through a political system while making judicious use of all elements of national power. In the domestic politics, the activities of political forces in any state are bound to follow some set rules, morals, values and actions which are known as political ethics. Indeed, “Ethics and politics are inseparable” hence must be practiced and demonstrated accordingly. In the politics of Pakistan, there have been some of the leaders whose moral values and ethics seriously hamper the social tenets of the country as witnessed recently.
The relationship between ethics and politics is deeper and intimate for the states like Pakistan which follow an ideology of a Divine religion; Islam. In the wordings of Allama Dr Muhammad Iqbal, “Jalal-e-badshahi ho ki jamhuri tamasha ho, Juda hodeen sayasat say to reh jati hai changezi”. This clearly reflects the picture of politics where there are no values (since religion is all about morality and values) and in the absence of values, it is all the ‘law of jungle’. The law of the jungle depicts a situation where there are no tenets, no rules and people use force to get what they want. The Constitution of Pakistan is based on golden principles of Islam which is an advocate of morality, values and ethics.
The leaders of political parties should be specimen and true reflection of the values and ethics for the rest of the masses and society they represent. Indeed, they derive power from the masses and the people whom they lead subsequently. In order to be effective leaders, the political parties must demonstrate ethics which give them moral ascendancy over law of jungle. Unfortunately, some political parties in Pakistan are publically demonstrating a culture which has no values, no ethics and no morality; rather they have autocratic mind-set more closely to radicalism. This in fact is a violation of their written party constitution and manifestoes besides the religious and social values of Pakistan. The publicly demonstrated acts of these political forces give a wrong message to general masses especially the youth, constituting over 60% of total Pakistani population.
Ideally, the power should come from the people, but the demonstrated brand is that it is emanating from people with vested interests who promote violence, mayhem, use of force, abusive language, money as political bribe and immoral practices. The political forces should demonstrate the compliance of law and its enforcement through a fair play and ethics. But, the practices are totally different and indeed, contradictory in nature. Practically, the political forces are promoting a system of political violence and antipathy, social fragmentation and intolerance and religious bigotry and revulsion.
While, state and its interests should be the focus of all political parties, the demonstrated practices are otherwise. National interests and people of Pakistan are the missing links in the power politics of some political parties of Pakistan. Their immediate aims are to grab power (through any means may be illegal) and the subsequent objectives are to remain in power even through on unjustifiable grounds. They claim to be the only champions of democracy. Away from state-centric national politics, the political parties of Pakistan are individual based family-centric, irrespective of capabilities and potential of members of these dynasties.
In this few individuals and family centric politics, other dedicated members of the respective political party cannot lead the party despite they are better in all aspects; politically prudent, senior in age, prolonged-political experience and excellent capabilities to run both the state and the party. This is true with all political parties of Pakistan. This is the basic dichotomy in the democracy-based political parties of Pakistan. This indeed is negation of democracy within political parties of Pakistan which publicize democracy and claim as the exponent for the supremacy of democracy in Pakistan. Some leaders are the dictators and do not accept the opinions of the senior party members, giving way to wrong practices.
Recently top leadership of a political party has been found involved in activities below the moral, social and ideological ethics of Pakistan. Indeed, the activities of this party were contrary to the strategic and social culture of Pakistan. These activities are not only unethical but also contradict the commonly recognized Pakistani traditions. The unethical politics in Pakistan cannot be expected to nurture a harmonized socio-political order in the country. Similarly, the hereditary politics of contemporary political parties in Pakistan is not anticipated to encourage democracy in the wider politics of Pakistan. Besides, there are cartels (interest groups) of virtually all types that firmly support the current format of politics in Pakistan.
Under such unjustified and discrimination based individual centric approach, the state of Pakistan cannot realize its true potential domestically as well as internationally. The question arises: what to do at this most trying time of our history. A smart answer is: let’s aware the masses, empower the people, revamp the national educational system, debate issues of national interests through academia and media and strengthen the institutions as per the Constitution of Pakistan. Besides, there is a need to aware the masses not to blindly follow and vote for the self-centred politicians having autocratic and belligerent mind-sets. There is an immediate need to revive the traditional value system in the politics of Pakistan.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
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