Politics in Pakistan is mostly ‘personalized allegiance’ to political parties which often means nothing more than allegiance to a powerful individual to establish real democracy. It is imperative that a charter of responsibilities for the political parties be developed. Simply holding election cannot ensure democracy in Pakistan. The political parties participating in the election must hold election to choose their leader. Political parties should maintain and publish their accounts and reveal the main source of their funding.
The main political parties should maintain proper office in which their records should be available and kept current and should periodically review and publish their manifestos. Due to non-representative nature of politics their political agendas are based on ethnic and sectarian identities rather than ideology.
The authoritarian political culture has not allowed the political parties to grow or become true democratic entities, rather they are autocratic governments. Pakistan has never actually experienced the benefits of a democracy and this cannot happen until we educate Pakistan.
S T HUSSAIN,
Lahore, January 2.