Till printing of these words, it is hoped, all dramatic situations and uncertainties prevailing on the political scene would have come to an end. Gen Pervez Musharraf would be a retired chief of army staff. A retired general would have taken the oath as a civilian president of Pakistan. However, it is still not clear whether he would take oath of his office under the PCO or under the Constitution of Pakistan? Whether he would pledge to protect the PCO or the Constitution as head of the state?
Forced or self-exiled leaders, except MQM’s Altaf Hussain who is not interested to come back, have already returned to their beloved country with the help of their foreign friends, and with the consent of the military, making ‘deal’ or no ‘deal’. The date for general elections has been announced and first phase of election process, filing of nomination papers by aspirants for the assemblies, has been completed peacefully amidst not-so-serious threats of boycott of the polls.
But, not a single political party, large or small, federalist or nationalist, progressive and moderate or conservative and extremist, has so far made its manifesto public. No political party has made clear, unambiguous and specific promises or any policy changes for well being of common people if it is voted to power. Perhaps, so far, only Benazir Bhutto has talked of ‘Roti, Kapda aur Makan’ (food, clothing and shelter) reviving the slogan raised by her illustrious late father Z. A. Bhutto. It seems as if the people of Pakistan shall be betrayed once again as it happened in earlier elections held during the decade (1988-1999) of so-called civilian rule when political parties were more or less chosen by the military establishment to become its partner in the government whereas the military would be calling the shots.
Political parties, and the parliamentarians, owed their coming into power, or into the assemblies, to the army and the intelligence agencies, and perhaps did not feel obliged to their voters. Political parties, and the parliamentarians, had nothing to do as such in the assemblies as all socio-economic policies had already been formulated by the donor agencies and pushed through the military-civil bureaucracy for implementation. If political parties, after sharing power, ever tried to pursue their own socio-economic policies, and refused to accept “conditionalities”, they were sent back home.
The irony is that political parties, and their leaders, are again being seduced, or pressurized by their ‘friends’, to become partner with the military, and with its representative as the civilian president who has repeatedly said that he would be there to ensure ‘continuity’—continuity of politico-economic and strategic policies. This continuity will resultantly ensure protection of interests of ‘common foreign friends’, instead of interests of the people of Pakistan.
Historically, opposition parties remained most of the time engaged in struggle against the military dictators, and for restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Political parties and their think-tanks if any, hardly could find time to probe and study the society, and social, cultural, economic, environmental and developmental problems faced by the people in different provinces and regions and which with the passage of time continued multiplying. That is why the political leadership could not offer any genuine solution of those problems.
Besides, the political parties do not have much experience of developing election manifestoes rooted in socio-economic and cultural environment of the society, reflective of people’s aspirations and depicting long term programmes and plans of the parties making Pakistan a progressive, prosperous, peaceful and respectable country in the region.
Political parties have contested only six general elections during the past 60 years. The first general elections, on the basis of adult franchise, were held in 1970, 23 years after the creation of Pakistan. Those were the elections for which contestant political parties did home work and prepared elaborative party programmes largely on ideological basis, and hence developed their election manifestoes. There was a sharp contrast among the manifestoes of different political parties during the 1970 elections. They were developed on ideological basis. Among the expressed goals for which Pakistan People’s Party, led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was formed were the establishment of an "egalitarian democracy" and the "application of socialistic ideas to realize economic and social justice". The Party also promised the elimination of feudalism in accordance with the established principles of socialism to protect and advance the interests of peasantry.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and other religious parties, on the other hand, saw solution of the problems in Islamic system and promised imposition of Islamic Shariah in the country. Awami League (of the then East Pakistan), defunct National Awami Party (NAP) and other nationalist parties in Balochistan and NWFP contested elections for the protection of their national rights.
Since 1988, political parties have contested snap elections held abruptly. In 1988, MRD (Movement for Restoration of Democracy) and other political parties were engaged in a struggle against military dictator General Zia when his plane crashed and the parties had to contest elections without any preparation or long-term planning. After that, four civilian governments were dismissed suddenly, almost during the mid of their term, and elections were announced. Again, political parties contested elections without any serious thinking as far as problems of the people were concerned. Now, the political parties were more dependent on the military, intelligence agencies and the IFIs and less on the electorate for sharing power with the establishment. Hence, the election manifestoes, and promises made, were not a product of serious consideration.
After 1988, there was not much difference among the manifestoes of so-called progressive or conservative political parties, except that of religious parties who still have been promising introduction of Islamic system. Mainstream political parties generally followed the instructions of donor agencies to practice and strengthen neo-liberal economy, particularly privatization of public enterprises. Election manifestoes were written haphazardly. The contents of the documents comprised generalization of the issues and their solutions. No specific promises were made for any major social, economic and political change in the country. Defence and foreign policy was already out of the domain of civilian partners of the regimes.
The forthcoming general elections are to be held under rather worse conditions; more likely under emergency rule. Opposition parties again are involved in struggle against the military dictatorship, but now more divided, confused and frustrated. An atmosphere of uncertainty still prevails as what would happen after the elections. The strategic scenario is not in favour of the people of Pakistan. Balochistan and tribal areas along the border of Afghanistan are in war-like situation. Smaller political parties, particularly nationalist parties, have been marginalized and forced to follow politics of mainstream political parties. Religio-political parties, badly injured because of fierce infighting, are shy of claiming to introduce Islamic Shariah any more. PPP, and now PML-N, are going to contest the elections with the stigma of some secret deal with the military. Independent judges are under house arrest, lawyers’ community is the target of wrath of the military ruler, and the journalists are struggling for freedom of expression. In this scenario, the sufferings of common man and woman have been left far behind. No one has time to be engaged in futile exercise of developing manifesto or party programme as is practice of democratic societies when the elections are held.
Let us hope that the main opposition parties, at least PPP and PML-N, will base their election campaign on the promises they made when they signed the now almost forgotten Charter of Democracy reaffirming their commitment:
“…to undiluted democracy and universally recognized fundamental rights, the rights of a vibrant opposition, internal party democracy, ideological/political tolerance, bipartisan working of the parliament through powerful committee system, a cooperative federation with no discrimination, provincial autonomy, the empowerment of the people at the grass-roots level, the emancipation of our people from poverty, ignorance, want and disease, the uplift of women and minorities, the elimination of klashnikov culture, a free and independent media, an independent judiciary, a neutral civil service, rule of law and merit, the settlement of disputes with the neighbours through peaceful means, honouring international contracts, laws/covenants and sovereign guarantees, so as to achieve a responsible and civilized status in the comity of nations through a foreign policy that suits our national interests.”
