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Saturday, October 12, 2024

Inequalities and Increasing political dynasties…!

Moeed Pirzada |

From Ms. Fahmida Khan on this Page: – There is a provocative proposal at the tail end.

Moeed Pirzada, After watching your programe yesterday, I couldn’t stop myself penning down my thoughts around “Political Dynasties and Future of Pakistan. Hereditary transition of power where leadership is passed down through family ties, proved that these are the causes of the persistent social and economic divides in a country like Pakistan where more than 50% people are living below poverty line. Where inequalities are increasing and access to power is decreasing by public on daily basis and far less policy attention has been given to address the real issue to avoid political dynasties.

Read more: Dynastic politics and email from Ali Khan, USA?

If one read a column written by Dr. Farrukh Saleem today in The News, one can easily gauge that dynasties cannot work in democracies. But question is what democracy means in Pakistan, is it kleptocracy or civil martial law which actually abrogate the constitutions from its true spirit of implementation and where human rights are held in abeyance. One needs to understand that the rise of elected officials with extensive familial links to present and previous politicians in power, signals a growing inequality in access to power and political influence. That, in turn, could also affect the persistence and prevalence of social and economic divides.

what democracy means in Pakistan, is it kleptocracy or civil martial law which actually abrogate the constitutions from its true spirit of implementation and where human rights are held in abeyance.

Democracy means access to power by people of the country. In an article written by Ronald, he quotes that a famous theory by Mancur Olson suggests that “even less benign leaders with a secure hold on power may behave like a ‘stationary bandits’, benefiting from their position yet ensuring that growth and development nevertheless takes place in order to continue to secure their hold”. A darker view suggests that the less- benevolent and less-scrupled would turn to wide-scale and more destructive pillaging if given a short window of power. As per empirical evidences available, it suggest that a longer period in power increases the chance that a person may start (or continue) a political dynasty. Therefore, dynastic political power is self-perpetuating in that a positive exogenous shock to a person’s political power has persistent effects through posterior dynastic attainment. In politics, power begets power. The spectrum of political dynasties should be approached through the prism of electoral sociology or by comparing electoral and parliamentary performance.

Yesterday I was surprised to watch that some media commentators were defending political dynasties and becoming mouth piece of PPP. What bothers me that are we as a nation ready to have future leaders from political dynasties like Hamza Shehbaz, Maryam Nawaz, Fiza Gillani, Abdul Qadir Gillani, Bilawal Bhutto, Moonis Elahi? Being son and daughters of ruling elites, they have to raise above to prove their leadership skills otherwise just being from these families does not justify anymore to become leader of this country.

Read more: Panama Papers: Why ‘Commission’ should be rejected?

In my opinion, there should be a constitutional amendment, legislation or policy measures that can actually avoid perpetuating of political dynasties. Tenure of the parliament and office bearers should be for 04 years and only one term should be allowed for each position in Parliament. One, who wants to perform, can perform in 04 years. Based upon performance public can then decide on.

 

Moeed Pirzada is prominent TV Anchor & commentator; he studied international relations at Columbia Univ, New York and law at London School of Economics. Twitter: MoeedNj. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy. This piece was first published in Moeed Pirzada’s official page. It has been reproduced with permission.