Daily Times

I am a dejected and disassociated Pakistani citizen and voter these days, and I have my valid reasons to be that. I first voted in 1993, and then have voted in every subsequent election that took place. My voting patterns have been all over, and I voted for three parties in five elections. My last vote in 2013 was for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, and I started regretting it soon after I found that the party did not have a progressive middle class narrative, but a skewed and conservative one that, I feared, would increase social disorientation and promote intellectual confusion. Throw both these together, and you’d get an old political dish called ‘obscurantism,’ that has benefit no nation in the entirety of history.

Not that my vote is cursed, but none among the Prime Ministers completed his or her term since 1993. In five elections that I voted for, I have seen 13 Prime Ministers, including four caretakers. Political continuity solidifies democracy, and democracy helps creating an environment of competitiveness in which society opens up, people prosper, and economy grows. Among the latest miracles of political and democratic continuity are South Korea and India. Put a hand on your heart and ask yourselves a question about the global standing and image that both these nations have to that of Pakistan. We know the answer. Whatever the situation is right now, this can be changed but there cannot be quick fixes. Sorry.

You are though free to quote the Chinese model of governance, but that is an exception, and exceptions do not make rules. Also trust me that a country with 97 percent Muslim population would never agree to on a one-child policy, to say the least. Other examples form Chinese model of political governance could be appreciated or criticized for knowledge sake, but drawing inspirations for a China-like governance system is like comparing apples with oranges. Also that when was the last time you heard that political process was discontinued in China? Whatever their model, there has always been a political continuity that strengthened the foundations of the nation that consequentially built a power that China is today.

Exactly at a time in my life when I thought the political system was getting stronger, there was another ouster of an elected Prime Minister via a judgement that instead of ‘20 years,’ would probably always be ‘remembered!’ Without the continuity of a process, you cannot even make a good cup of tea; making a nation with frequent disruptions could only be a joke. I eagerly await that time when Pakistanis, particularly the urban youth would start seeing the joke that hopes, aspirations and dreams of this nation have been made into.

The PML-N has an unprecedented opportunity to transform itself from a political group built around the Sharifs since 1993 into an organised and systematic politcial party that has a future

Even if much but not all is lost. Human beings have a way to resurrecting their hopes, and rebuilding from the debris. This ouster of an elected Prime Minister provides particularly the PML-N with an outstanding opportunity to make itself from a political group that is built around the Sharifs since 1993, into an organized and systematic political party that has a future. Given the history of all Muslim Leagues in the past, many would have estimated that the PML-N would meet the same fate. But the party has taken the strongest blow in the recent past and PML-N is within its complete political and constitutional rights to continue ‘partying!’

Other than Jamat-e-Islami and National Party, all Pakistani political groups that do not have systems to prepare, and develop leadership from the grassroots. Politics of nearly all political leaders and workers depend on the level of favouritism from the local, provincial and federal leaders. Not only this internal weakness creates personal rifts, but also prevents the parties from becoming formal and policy thinking heads. This results in having public representatives that are not serious on the critical policy issues confronting the nation. This capacity gap has persisted for nearly seven decades, and provides opportunities to civil and military bureaucracies to act as perpetual power centres. This is primitive and does not correspond to the modern needs of the Pakistani State, and this must change of Pakistan and its society are to emerge as a politically democratic economy.

Ironically, PML-N is the party that is best-placed to take the lead and initiate a serious internal reformation process that could actually become an example to other political groups pretending as parties.

Despite the setback, the party for PML-N is not over. It could rather start ‘partying’ now, and do better in future over the long term.

The writer is a social entrepreneur and a student of Pakistan’s social and political challenges. Twitter: @mkw72

Published in Daily Times, August 7^th 2017.