Lahore – Political parties should be democratised and strengthened to establish democratic governance in the country, believed speakers on Thursday at a seminar aiming at the role of political parties in Pakistan. The seminar was organised by Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) and was presided over by Husain Naqi, while Mubarak Ali, a historian, Qayyum Nizami, an intellectual, Iftikhar Ahmed, a journalist, Jamhoori Watan Party General Secretary Rauf Sasoli, former parliamentarian Mehnaz Rafi and SPO Regional Head Salman Abid also attended the seminar.
The participants unanimously agreed that the role of politicians and parties had become significant and they needed to come forward with proposals for strengthening democracy in Pakistan. The seminar concluded that the political parties worked on thier own agenda and supported only a limited personalities as thier leaders.
They contended that the parties needed to rise high above thier mentality and think about the establishment of a sound democratic system. They believed that the public did not know how democracy worked because they had never seen it in action.
Politicians needed to rise above their party slogans and take care of the democratic process than forwarding party agendas, they said.