Enroute to 2018
On Tuesday the PML-N held its first intra-party election since 2011. Interestingly the entire top leadership comprising Nawaz Sharif as party president, several senior vice presidents and party secretaries for finance and information were elected unopposed. When hundreds of voters are required to choose from a list there are naturally going to be differences. For all of them to make identical choices for the top slots looks contrived rather than natural. This is likely to be considered a fixed match than a genuine election where voters freely exercise their choice. In fact, the PML-N might not have held the election at all if the Election Commission of Pakistan had not made the exercise a condition for every political party desirous of taking part in general elections.
Sadly, that’s not just the case with the PML-N alone. It’s the same story with every political party with the exception of the Jamat-e-Islami, which is less of a mass political organization and more of a cadre based outfit, cynically dismissed by JUI(F)’s Fazlur Rehman once as an NGO. Even the PTI, which had condemned the PPP and PMLN as outfits controlled by two families and had promised a genuine inner party democracy, fears to hold fair and free intraparty elections. Failing to convince Imran Khan of the need for such polls the first election commissioner bade farewell to the party; the second was made to quit the post.
Genuine intra-party elections are necessary for the growth and natural development of a political party. They help get rid of dead wood and provide a sense of participation and ownership to the party workers. What is more they empower the common workers and help in the growth of a genuinely elected lower and middle level leadership which can keep the party working even when the top leadership is incapacitated for any reason. Parties comprising nominated office bearers lost all steam and provided no help to either Benazir or Nawaz Sharif when they were exiled.
