Political dynasties booming

By Gohar Ali Khan

KARACHI: Until and unless land reforms and personality cult are abolished, political dynasties following monarchs in the name of supremos of mainstream political parties will linger on in the country.

Barring the most influential families of PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, in Pakistan’s parliament, there are more than 40 per cent families which belong to dynastic politics.

Pakistan is not only the country where such weak parliamentary system prevails, but other countries have also such dynastic politics such as the Mujeeb-ur-Rehman family in Banladesh, the Bandaranaike and Rajapaksa families in Sri Lanka, the Aquino and Marcos families in the Philippines and even the Nehru/Gandhi family in India are the embodiment of such system.

“We shall not be able to do so. The political parties since 1960s have been founded on the basis of personality cult. The PPP revolved around Jiye Bhutto, Sindh Mutahida Mahaz around Jiye Sindh raised by eminent nationalist of Sindh G.M Syed, National Awami Party around Bacha Khan family, Pakistan Muslim League (N) around Sharif dynasty, PTI around Kaptan (captain), Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) around Altaf Hussain. There are reasons for that: The Asian people are culturally used to monarchs – Mughals here, Othman Empire in the Middle East; there is lack of political awareness; the political system has been founded on patron-client system of patronage, the politicians built their popularity on populist and cult basis with the help of slogans, propaganda, media and myths. These tactics continue relentlessly. Naming of roads and educational institutions, cities and parks after party leaders are part of this campaign to maintain the populist appeal of their party,” senior political analyst and former ambassador Mohammad Alam Brohi said.

As said by a political scientist, the public opinion is like clay and can be molded in any shape by opinion forming methods or propaganda. The task becomes easy when the soil is fertile. The people of this part of the world are more familiar with monarchy than democracy.

“Before the colonization, we had the Mughal and Ottoman Empires. The Mughal monarchs were by British monarchy. The history of monarchy of almost 500 years has left an impact on our culture, political thought and psychological make-up. It becomes easy to surrender our loyalty to one populist leader than the organizational discipline of a party. This paves way for dynastic rule in a farce democracy. Wily politicians take undue advantage of the people’s cultural weakness. They have deliberately avoided spread of education, ideological and political awareness,” he said.

The trade labour and student unions are banned or discouraged to play an active role. Schools are neglected, posts of teachers are doled out in disregard of merit. The state’s economic resources have been captured by the elite and growth of middle retarded. The rule of law or inequitable applications of law have become distant dreams. People live in insecurity and look to powerful for everything forgetting their constitutional rights. All this gets intertwined to help cult politics and populist slogans.

The ideological politics was suppressed and later systematically eradicated by the former military dictator Ziaul Haq’s regime. The ideology of the left and right got blurred and progressively died down with the long ban on unions and the elimination of leftists from all spheres of life. The party-less elections of 1985 created a new breed of politicians which felt beholden to the Martial law authorities for advancement. This encouraged the non-democratic forces or to be precise law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to have a permanent and bigger foothold in the politics, elections, formation of political administrations, management of parliament and parliamentarians, legislation. This prompted other state institutions to assert their positions. This resulted in political uncertainty. Political instability affects economic condition of the country. “This is how our country has reached to this pass where people cling to their safe and comfort zones in the form of political persons or political parties,” he said.

There is no democracy in the sense that the political leaders or political parties avoid developing the democratic culture, thought and mind in fear of losing their central position in the party or politics. The head count is not democracy.

He said giving education, economic independence, and security of livelihood to people and ensuring equitable enforcement of merit and application of law will change the scenario slowly and progressively.

Senior political analyst and Professor of politics Prof Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed when it comes to the dynastic politics, two influential families of the country—Bhutto and Sharif come into the mind, while there are 40 per cent constituencies where the dynastic politics prevail only in Punjab, and 40-to-50 per cent parliamentary seats belong to the such politics. Where the father was active in politics from there his sons or brothers are active in politics in the same constituencies.

“Until the land reforms are not brought, made and implemented, the dynastic politics cannot be eradicated from the system. For instance, you have 1 million acres of lands, if 1 million acres of lands are divided among 10 people, some will sell and others will hold or possess. The political and economic powers will be divided.  Unless and until feudalism and land holding is abolished, the dynastic politics will prevail. They will keep contesting big constituencies and winning elections,” he said.

Politicians are more important than parties which are weak, until political parties are strengthened, top leaders of parties will keep enjoying monopolies and powers.
“Except for Pakistan, the dynastic politics prevail in many countries, in fact, we have a parliamentary system but agricultural economy is of paramount importance in our economic system where people or feudal lords possess big agricultural lands. Feudalism has a long history from where feudal lords get economic benefit from land where they also get political power due to a large number of farmer families. The feudal lords contest elections from their respective areas. Capitalists can make investment and contest elections anywhere but for example Jatoi, Makhdoom, Hashmi, Syed, Chaudhries, Sardars, Pirs and other contest elections from their areas in Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and rest of the country and win them with flying colours,” he said.

When it comes to PML-N, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has a substantial influence over his party, other top leaders of the party like Khawaja Asif, Ayaz Sadiq and others think that if Nawaz Sharif does not head the party, the party will be no more and will disperse and fall prey to disintegration.

Actually, not a single political party acts on their respective parties’ constitution and meetings of executive committees are not held on time, main leader runs the entire party by consulting his kitchen cabinet including 10–to-12 leaders.

“Former chief minister of Punjab and PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi was frequently criticized by PTI chairman Imran Khan, recently Imran Khan announced that Pervez Elahi would be a president of the PTI. It is a mockery and joke of the democracy. During the 2014 PTI’s protest, when PTI president Javed Hashmi gave a statement against PTI’s demonstration, Imran Khan standing on a container removed the party president Jawaid Hashmi. It means, you are so popular or so dictator that you do not like to consult a few senior leaders of your own party,” he said.

Top leaders of local political parties are more than monarchs as a UK monarch wants to get crockery, he will need permission from the parliament,” he said

It cannot be said that there is no democracy in the country, elections are held and there is a parliamentary system where provincial assemblies exist. However there are some other countries where the parliamentary system is not existent.

“We have weak institutions. However, we have Constitutions since 1973, if this Constitution does not exist, there will be an issue of survival of the country,” he said.

An extraordinary cult of party’s leader, racism and extremism prompt local people to take unwise decisions as people have the devotion cult towards their respective parties’ leaders and they are infatuated with them [leaders], if they tell a lie, frequently change statements and policy, but followers are still staunch supporters and stand by leaders. All leaders have followers who are always ready to sacrifice their lives in the name of their leaders. No leader is different from the other in the country. Followers are also well-educated but I think there is a world of difference between educated and conscious people. Educated people can be aware and conscious, but every educated person cannot be conscious or aware.

In United Kingdom, the Conservative Party is more powerful in terms of a majority than leaders, one premier of the UK is not popular, the party brings the second one as these leaders have the secondary positions in comparison with parties. In parliamentary system, the PM is called “the first among the equal” [who is the number one among all equal people]. During the 30-40 years of the UK politics, former premier of UK Margaret Thatcher known as an iron lady was a powerful premier for 11 years, when she was unpopular due to imposition of some taxes, a couple of leaders of her party lobbied to de-seat her that the party would not be able to win the next elections and she also realized her weak position, she resigned. The party changed the PM and John Major became the new PM in place of the Ms Thatcher.  Another influential PM of UK Winston Churchill was dumped by his own party.