Democracy is known to be an ideal form of government, due to its several attributes like public participation in political affairs, separation of power and accountability, etc. But in the third world countries, it hasn’t given such fruitful results in terms of proving to be an effective way of government.
Due to a lack of education, awareness, resources management, and opportunities, democracy doesn’t provide an ideal forum for the public in terms of enhancing their lives. In fact, in such poor countries, in the name of democracy, elites have always exploited and manipulated the masses for their personal gains.
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The privilege of politicians
The same is the situation of Pakistan, due to lack of ideological politics, political ideas, and principles among political parties, democracy is ineffective and weak. There is a sort of dictatorship within the so-called democratic political parties of Pakistan, as few families or several personalities have dominated the whole politics of these parties.
They have key positions in political parties and are greatly involved in dominating the decision-making process, irrespective of their worker’s opinions. The majority of political leaders in Pakistani politics are born with a golden spoon in their mouth static with diamond and don’t know the problems and opinions of the common individuals.
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Politics and power are all about the harsh realities of life. Unfortunately, politicians in Pakistan haven’t experienced such realities, as they are given everything in plates from their forefathers.
Moreover, the majority of political leaders in Pakistan, have no political identity. Political identity comes from ideas and convections which is lacking in Pakistani politics. The political leaders in Pakistan have no convictions, beliefs, and philosophy, and they understand politics as the whole personal gains or pursuing family interests.
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Who is a true leader?
A true and genuine personality of a politician is built on the principles, ideas, conventions, and sense of beliefs. He or she should be given a strong influential ideology to which they should strictly stick or even be ready to die for it.
For instance, in US politics, president Joe Biden from his university life is affiliated with the one democratic party for more than 50 years. From that same party, he became a member of the city council in 1970 and later on elected as a senator six times.
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Similarly, he served as the head of the senate foreign relations committee. In fact, Biden contested presidential elections twice from the same forum and failed both times. But he didn’t leave the party. He worked as a vice president in 2009 from that party and became president of the US in 2020.
Even in India’s politics, there is no absolute ideological-based politics like that of the US and UK, yet there is an ideological distinct line that differentiates the liberal politics of congress from the conservative politics of BJP.
Read more: Forget economy, India under Modi is home to contentious identity politics
Reasons for poor political structure in Pakistan
In the case of Pakistan, things are completely different, here politics lack ideological identification. Like politicians, people also lack the political will and a sense of ideas, and vote either on the basis of fraternity or caste.
Here, a large number of electables exist that constantly change their political affiliations along with changing political atmosphere. In every political party, one can find a heavy list of such political leaders that adjust themselves in parties according to elections or the position of political parties.
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In Pakistan, many blame military establishments for poor political infrastructure and suggest non-stop tenures of democratic governments, which they think will definitely bring political awareness and politics of ideas to the system.
In my opinion, although interference of establishment in political affairs is one of the major factors in ruining the political environment yet, it is not the only one. Politics of fraternities, personalities, family legacies, and testament are the reasons for the lack of a proper political structure in Pakistan.
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Instead of elections and the so-called voting process, there is a serious need for a renaissance in Pakistani politics to get rid of such a flawed system. A sort of social revolution is required like that of French and Europe, which overthrew all aristocracies and social injustice and brought true civil supremacy.
The writer is doing his Master’s in International Relations. He has attended a number of seminars on national and international politics and has a wide experience of writing for various newspapers. He can be reached at barkatullahbarakaat@gmail.com. The views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.