Daily Times

In the corporate world, succession planning is a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill key leadership positions. Succession planning increases the availability of experienced and capable human resource, which is eventually prepared to assume these roles as they become available. This requires engaging the leadership in supporting the development of high-potential leaders. The same concept, if applied to political parties, can bring about much awaited change to bring forward individuals who have extraordinary capabilities to effectively steer the party and subsequently the country towards achieving positive synergy. It is evident that no such concept of succession planning exists in our political culture, which is driven by the flawed concept of inheritance, running contrary to established democratic norms.

The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is a social democratic, centre-left political party. To date, its leader has always been a member of the Bhutto or Zardari family. Though bestowed with many promising leaders, the party is being steered towards ‘accepting’ Bilawal as its next leader. Bilawal was appointed chairman of the PPP on December 30, 2007 and subsequently his name was changed from Bilawal Zardari to Bilawal Zardari Bhutto, thus ensuring the ‘incorporation’ of the Bhutto legacy.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is the majority opposition party in parliament. The president of the PML-N, Shahbaz Sharif, is the chief minister of Punjab and the political leader of the PML-N is the former prime minister of Pakistan, Mian Nawaz Sharif. The expected heir to the PML-N throne is Mr Shahbaz Sharif’s son, Hamza Shahbaz, who, at present, is a member of the National Assembly.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) is a centrist, conservative political identity, formed prior to the 2002 general elections. The party was formed by former President Pervez Musharraf who wanted to create a branch of the PML that would support him exclusively. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is the president of the party while his cousin, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, is the party president of the PML-Q in Punjab. His son, Moonis Elahi, is a member of the provincial assembly seat from Gujrat and is being groomed by the Chaudhrys to take over the party in the coming years.

The Awami National Party’s (ANP’s) main area of electoral influence is in the Pashtun-dominated areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan) was its political and spiritual leader. The party in subsequent years elected the majority of its leaders from within the family with prominent names being that of Abdul Wali Khan and Afsandyar Wali Khan. Asfandyar Wali, the eldest son of Khan Abdul Wali Khan and the grandson of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan is the present president of the ANP and has served as a member of the provincial and National Assembly, as a senator and, presently, is an MP. It is one of the few parties in Pakistan to hold a system of regular internal elections every four-year period, although the outcome is generally in favour of the family members.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) is headed by Maulana Fazlur Rehman. He inherited his political career from his father, Maulana Mufti Mahmud, an Islamic scholar and a political activist. Apart from these, we have some other smaller parties like Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a party that holds immense mobilising potential in the province of Sindh, headed by its founder Altaf Hussain. We also have the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), founded by former cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. Both these parties suffer from a second line leadership deficit and run the risk of fading away with time.

The inherent flaw with dynastic politics is that it brings forward individuals with limited abilities living under a false illusion of competence, thus desperately needing sycophancy around them for cosmetic glorification. Furthermore, the continuity of the status quo is required to protect and further perpetuate the financial interests of the political elite. This resultantly creates a vacuum that, instead of promoting real democracy, creates civilian dictatorship. This trend of voting into power these repeatedly tried failures by the uneducated masses is a perfect recipe for a complete disaster — the sight of which is closer than we think.

The writer is a social activist. He can be reached at drirfanzafar@gmail.com