Daily Times

Yes, the economy is bleeding, but little can be done as the Finance Minister is the father-in-law of Nawaz Sharif’s daughter. This is not fake news on social media. This is not an attempt by the opposition to score political points. This is not a meme by a troll. This is an ex-finance minister of PDM talking about the present finance minister of PDM. It may have been an exasperated outburst by a party member, but it reflects the state of affairs in a party that is politically bound by the Sharif family and company. The other stalwarts in PPP are also a very family-oriented party that has revolved around the father, the daughter, the husband, the sister, and now the son. Even the smaller parties like JUIF and ANP have already launched their heirs to the political thrones.

The defence given to justify this is that this happens in South Asia. This is a dead-end justification. If something goes wrong somewhere else, it does not excuse it in Pakistan. Other countries are also fighting against it. Modi in India, despite being an extremist, has the story of the tea boy to sell against the dynastic politics of Rahul Gandhi. What has happened in Sri Lanka to the Rajapakse family, which is now escaping from the country, is very similar to the Sharif family escapade story. With such family influence, the democratic history of Pakistan is more of a dynastic clash of two families. As has happened over some time, this has not only made politics look limited but also created a huge dent in the development of the country. It is only with the emergence of a third party that this family takeover of politics has been questioned. The unquestioned acceptance of such political duopoly has many detrimental consequences

Acceptance of the Lesser Evil: A country that has been ruled by the military for nearly three decades is naturally wary of dictatorship. That is why democratic governments, despite being family-owned, non-performing entities, always get the benefit of the doubt. PPP has been in government five times, and this is PMLN’s fourth tenure in the centre. They have always been role models of bad governance, corruption, and inefficiency. However, they kept on taking refuge in the argument of not having full tenures due to military takeovers. Finally from 2008 to 2018 both PPP and PMLN got the chance to have full five years of government. Their performance and governance were dismal. That is why they lost the election to PTI in 2018 as people finally had a choice of going for an alternative within the democratic framework. The fact that all the opposition parties, with the help of the Pindi Party) ousted the PTI government in a vote of no confidence is now the final blow to the traditional excuse behind their non-performance. They have tanked Pakistan’s economy in 9 months that no one would have ever imagined. This is of course a very dangerous price to pay, but this is also the death of their recurring theme of their performance being affected by military interventions.

A country that has been ruled by the military for nearly three decades is naturally wary of dictatorship. That is why democratic governments, despite being family-owned, non-performing entities, always get the benefit of the doubt.

The third Generation Family Failure: Even in the corporate world, it is recognized that family-run businesses will only grow if ownership is shared on a merit basis with non-family members. All studies show that family businesses start to fail in the third generation. The new generation cannot perform due to two main reasons. Firstly, because they have not built the business from scratch, they have no intention of going through the drill the way their elders did. They are born in luxury and want to enjoy their lives. Secondly, they do not want to handle the business as their family did, and thus conflicts arise in the management styles, leading to separation and closures. Pakistani politics is based on “baradari” systems, especially in the rural areas where political families have for decades controlled the vote of their rural voters. However, the Sharif family has dominated the top slots due to their slick networking with local and international stakeholders. Hobnobbing with General Jilani and General Zia ul Haq, Nawaz Sharif rose in the 80s to become Punjab’s Finance minister, Chief minister, and finally in 1992 the Prime minister. He gave the chief ministership to his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif because it was his family’s effort with the generals. From then to now it is an effort to pass the political baton to Maryam Nawaz. However, like all family enterprises, there is now a conflict between the second-generation cousins, i.e., Hamza and Maryam, that has split the party into many groups. Similar is the Bhutto dynasty legacy. Benazir left the party in a will to her husband and her son Bilawal. PPP is a story of how political empires like business empires fail when families are passed on responsibilities they did not opt for or have the capability of handling. Bilawal is a classical example of not knowing, not doing, not succeeding 3rd generation misfits.

The Entitlement Syndrome- When something happens repeatedly, it becomes a norm and tradition. It was almost understood that after Bhutto, it would be Benazir, and after Benazir, it would be Bilawal. The Bhutto “lives forever” chant survived for a couple of generations but got a hit when Zardari also adopted the Bhutto mantel after his wife’s death. Times changed. The generation next to Pakistan is not the generation of the older times. They question and mock the fact that Maryam and Bilawal by dint of their birth assume that they are entitled to money, perks, titles and votes. When people and media started questioning Nawaz Sharif on using public money for the protocol of his family, he laughed and said it is my government, who are you to ask. When Bilawal went to New York and disappeared for days, people asked where the foreign minister was and how he could disappear on an official trip. This newfound questioning is bothering the Sharifs and Bhuttos, who think that their families own the government, and thus they are entitled to every pomp and circumstance. The fact that it is on taxpayer money does not bother them at all. They feel that they are born to rule, and this nation must accept a long-established political tradition. The fact that Hina Rabbani Khar, who has already been a federal minister of foreign affairs, was asked to become a junior minister of State for foreign affairs, as only the Bhutto family member can have the federal minister post, is bizarre.

The mindset of the party members is also trained to accept and bow. Hina Rabbani accepted to bow to the Bhutto family traditions and PMLN senior leaders have bowed to the appointment of Maryam Nawaz as the senior vice president of the party. This surrender to the lineage of families is why these parties have started decreasing instead of expanding. The PPP has now been wiped out of Karachi and is just a rural Sindh party. PMLN which was mainly a Punjab party is also now finding it being edged out of its core constituencies. The third-generation principle is in operation. For a democracy to flourish, you need to have a tea boy, a bus driver’s son, or a cricketer who has a chance of making it to the top ranks of your party. That means intra-party elections and changes in party laws. The “established” circles may not like that, as it is far easier to control families than the masses. Time for the most powerful stakeholders i.e the masses to vote out the imposters.

The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and an analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail,com. She tweets at @AndleebAbbas