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Time To Reform Political Parties
 While
so much is going on in Pakistan, government should move to
reform political parties in Pakistan.
First, what is wrong with current political
set-up?
The fundamental fact about Pakistan’s
political parties is none of them is democratically organized.
Almost all political parties are organized around charismatic
leaders who are replaced by their family members in case of
their absence from the scene under any circumstances.
The second problem with current political
parties is they are under influence of powerful families.
Fathers, sons, brothers and sisters of certain families carry so
much weight in different political parties; parties almost
become hostage to those powerful individuals or families.
These impediments do not allow democratic
culture flourish in Pakistan. Pakistan cannot become a true
democracy until we reorganize our political parties on true
democratic fashion.
How can we democratize our political parties?
The first and foremost thing to democratize
political parties is the enrolment of voters by Election
Commission on the basis of party affiliations.
Each Pakistani who is legally entitled to
vote must register with Election Commission and declare his
party affiliation in his registration form.
After having all the voters registered,
Election Commission should organize political parties through
electoral process. Election Commission should hold within party
elections and establish political leaderships on the basis of
voters’ consensus. This method should be adopted for choosing
leaders from bottom up. Even various Chairmen and Presidents of
Political parties should be chosen through the similar party
elections held under the auspicious of Election Commission.
Right now, Party leaders appoint political
leaders at various levels. The appointment of political leaders
by Party leaders is the biggest hurdle in establishment and
strengthening of democratic system in Pakistan.
Once Election Commission registers voters on
the basis of party affiliations and establish political
leaderships through electoral process, a true democratic system
will start unfolding in Pakistan.
In order to become a democratic society,
Pakistan has to establish and implement these procedures.
In absence of these procedures, Pakistan
cannot become a democratic state. Political parties will
continue facing make and break scenarios. Horse trading will
continue, leaders without political credibility will continue
controlling the political parties and democratic process will
remain in the doldrums.
True democracy means real representation of
the people of Pakistan at all levels of legislation and
governance. It won’t happen until political parties are reformed
along these suggested lines. Particularly, at this critical
juncture when Pakistan is moving towards unfettered democracy,
political leadership must consider putting the process of
reformation of political parties in place.
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