Details

Technical Note

Families in Politics: A Need For Change

Muhammad Ajmal

INDUSTRY : Politics

AREA : Devolution & Governance

ORGANIZATION : Siffat Tutorial Systems

LENGTH : 14

LUMS No : 20-011-2007-2

PUBLICATION YEAR : 2007

KEYWORDS:

Families in Politics,Change,Political Process,Military Leadership,Bureaucracy,Government,Devolution Reforms

DESCRIPTION:

Lack of continuity in the political process has been varyingly attributed to the inclination of military leadership to interfere in civil affairs as well as immaturity of political leadership. Another poignant issue is the inability of the political elite to bridge the link between the state and society. Political parties are viewed as mechanisms to further political ambitions of their leadership which is strictly limited to a few families. Members of parliament, provincial assemblies and now local bodies- especially district and Tehsil Nazimeen represent an oligarchy closely linked through family ties with each other and other institutions of power like the judiciary, the higher bureaucracy and the military. The new local body system, introduced through Devolution Reforms 2000, has again suffered from the phenomenon of elite capture. It is argued that as long as political parties do not allow democratic process to take roots within their own functioning and resist tendencies of family control, their credibility in the eyes of the common people will not increase. Some basic reforms to decrease economic and social inequality are urgently required. Already the voters of Local Government Elections 2005 have indicated a yearning for change from the old basis of loyalty to the new and more progressive basis of relationships between the rulers and the ruled. This note investigates the types of elite comprising the political strong-hold of Pakistan. It also assesses the role political families in the local government play in the devolution process of the country. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

N/A

SUBJECTS COVERED:

Governance, Devolution