Daily Times

Last year, in December, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari officially began his political career by addressing a huge gathering in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on the fifth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Bilawal, 24-years-old, is the co-chairman of Pakistan People’s Party and is hailed as the fresh face of one of the most powerful political dynasties in Pakistan.

Since its creation more than 60 years ago, Pakistan has seen epic socio-economic changes but politics in the country was, and still remains, a family business where, apart from a few, all the mainstream political parties are dominated by powerful families who draw electoral support from kins and clansmen.

Bilawal has lived the better part of his life outside Pakistan and only came to public view after graduating from Oxford in 2010. His speech in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh was modest enough but fell short of igniting the audience that mainly consisted of his own supporters. Apparently soft and sheltered, Bilawal needs a lot of coaching from his father, President Asif Ali Zardari, who has proved his shrewd political acumen time and again. It is, however, too early to comment on the political fortunes of this latest custodian of the Bhutto legacy.

Bilawal’s youth provides him with an edge over the ageing politicians who currently hold the reigns of power in the country. Like him, Maryam Nawaz, daughter of Mr Nawaz Shrarif is also very active politically. Until recently, she was set to contest the coming elections from Raiwand. Maryam is fluent in four languages and currently completing her doctorate from the Cambridge University. She belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which is a centre-right political party having its power base in the heartland of Punjab.

In 2002, Hina Rabbani Khar won the her father’s parliamentary seat from Muzaffargarh. Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar was unable to contest the election owing to the introduction of a new law that made it imperative for every candidate to hold a university degree. Following the resignation of the then foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Hina was appointed the first female foreign minister of Pakistan in July 2011.

The daughter of Syed Fakhar Imam and Syeda Abida Hussain, Syeda Sughra Imam currently holds a seat in the Senate. She has also served as the minister of Social Welfare in Punjab. Syeda Sughra was the one to receive the US secretary of State at the airport when she came to visit Pakistan in 2011.

Apart from the above, there are several other next-generation dynastic politicians who are actively pursuing a political career in Pakistan.

Dynastic politics is widely condemned as an undemocratic phenomenon and the root cause of widespread corruption in the country but, whether we like it or not, dynasties is an integral part of Pakistan’s political culture. In a true democracy, every individual who satisfies the rules of the electoral process can contest for public office. These rules are universal and equally applicable on a person belonging to a political family. Moreover, in any election the ballot paper contains more than one candidate from which the voter must choose the one who, he thinks, deserves his vote best. The right to choose between candidates is essentially the essence of democracy. If a particular voter chooses to vote for a family member, a relative or a patron to represent him in the legislature, for any reason, it is his undeniable right guaranteed by the principle of democracy. It means that a political dynasty cannot ensure a parliamentary seat for its candidate since the ultimate power lies with the voter, however, it can give its member a relatively easier and, sometimes, spectacular entry into the political scene as we have witnessed in Bilawal’s case. A political dynasty also cannot coerce hundreds of thousands of people into voting for its candidate. On the contrary, overwhelming number of Pakistanis vote for dynastic candidates on their own free will.

There have been a few occasions in Pakistan’s electoral history when voters rejected dynastic hopefuls resulting in candidates losing their traditional parliamentary seats. The most notable incident occurred in 1970 when the Pakistan People’s party upset the established political order in Punjab. In another such incident, an alliance of Islamic parties defeated the powerful political families in the province of Khyber pakhtunkhwah. Though, in both cases, the political order eventually reverted to its old trend, it was nonetheless established that the electorate, if it so decides, could ditch dynastic candidates at will.

The concept of dynastic politics is not Pakistan specific. There are powerful political families in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Singapore, Japan and even China. In all these countries, just belonging to the right family guarantees smooth and easy ascendancy to positions of power.

Dynastic rule has been the norm of the subcontinent for thousands of years. This renders it unwise to expect a comparatively younger nation like Pakistan to do away with millennia of society’s ingrained feudal dispositions in less than 70 years. To an extent, the British, who ruled India with the time-tested policy of divide and rule, are also responsible for the acute trust deficit in our present society and its distinctly submissive mindset that venerates personalities rather than policies and plans. The seeds of mutual distrust sown by the colonial masters polarised the nation where each segment of society, in times of crisis, looks inwards for patronage and protection rather than towards the state or its institutions.

However, it is extremely unreasonable to hold the past colonial masters entirely responsible for our present political plight. Contemporary political parties are also to be blamed for their continued engagement in dynastic politics, and creating and reinforcing cult of personalities around their leaders in order to keep their vote banks intact. Distribution of party tickets at the time of elections is a prime example of political patronage at play. Unfortunately, popular parties never tire of advocating democracy for the country while tending to become less democratic themselves.

To be fair, it must be acknowledged that political dynasties have produced some of Pakistan’s best statesmen, politicians and diplomats. However, democracy in its true sense facilitates, in fact encourages, a bottom-up approach in selecting peoples’ representatives. Political families, however, within Pakistan and without, tend to create their monopoly around the political sphere making it almost impossible for a newcomer, no matter how able, to break in. This causes stagnation in the system where new people and ideas are neither welcomed nor encouraged. Consequently, the perks and privileges of power remain securely in the hands of a limited few.

With the advent of fresh political actors including Imran Khan, the dynastic hold on democracy should get loose. A young and educated electorate and an outspoken media coupled with an increasingly strong election commission will help weaken the role of dynasties in Pakistani politics and simultaneously strengthen the role of democratic institutions that will facilitate genuine and constructive representation of electorate in the legislature.

The writer is an investment banker and a freelance columnist for various publications. He can be reached at syedatifshamim@hotmail.com