Atypical Politics - Newspaper

8/23/22, 11:45 PM Atypical politics - Newspaper - DAWN.
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TODAY'S PAPER | AUGUST 23, 2022
Atypical politics
Dr Niaz Murtaza | Published
August 23, 2022 |
Updated
about 16 hours ago

The writer is a political economist with a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
0:00 / 5:59 1x 1.2x 1.5x
MANY wonder why our politics is so unlike

Western democracies’. Politics emerges from and
reflects societal realities. Our society is unlike
Western ones and thus too is our politics. But
more odd is why our politics is so unlike that of
even other Saarc states despite a shared culture,
history and ethos.
The first atypical fact is the security establishment’s hold

over politics. It ruled overtly for decades and continues its
influence even now. Within Saarc, only Bangladesh has
been so ruled. Evidently, though, it has nixed this bad habit
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8/23/22, 11:45 PM Atypical politics - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
for good. Afghanistan is ruled by an armed group. But

other Saarc states have a proud recent history of only
civilian rule even if it has not always been democratic.
The second fact is the social class of politicians. The top

leaders of our older big parties — the PPP and PML-N —
belong to the landed and business upper class. In contrast,
middle-class-led parties have been the norm in Saarc
countries like India’s Congress, BJP and most regional
parties such as AAP and Mayawati and Mamta Banerjee’s
parties. In Bangladesh, the Mujib and Ziaur Rahman
families have middle-class roots as do top leaders of most
parties. The same is true in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal
and Bhutan. Afghanistan is autocratic but even its main
political force, the Taliban, is middle-class-led.
The role of middle-class parties has increased with the

PTI’s rise. But their politics is the third atypical fact.
Middle-class parties elsewhere follow mainstream ‘Saarc-
modal’ politics (except for the BJP’s extremist politics);
this modal unluckily is still corrupt and dynastic given
structural issues. But our main middle-class parties have
made politics worse than even the PPP and PML-N’s Saarc
modal politics. This includes the religious extremism of
Jamaat-i-Islami, the JUI and TLP and the MQM’s violent
cultism and the populist, divisive and religion-laced
politics of the PTI whose top leaders are elite upper
middle-class, and not lower-middle class as in other
middle-class parties. The party exhibits all the negative
points of the PPP and PML-N (sleaze, ineptitude) but also
others like social regression, polarisation, poor global ties,
a phobia of the West, apocryphal populism, constitutional
violation, exclusionary governance vision, etc.
Narrow politics and non-

civilian sway have undercut
our progress.
The fourth atypical fact is ideology. Our two main aspirants

to national power — the PML-N and PTI — are right-wing
as are most mid-sized parties. Most mix religion with
politics. In India, BJP is so too. But Congress and many
regional parties are centre-left and secular. Bangladesh’s
Awami League is centre-left and even right-wing BNP is
secular. In Nepal, most parties are actually centre- or far-
left. There is good mix of ideology in Sri Lanka and Bhutan
and most parties are secular. Only tiny Maldives mirrors
us.
The fifth fact is regional sway. The top leadership of our

biggest parties — PML-N and PTI — is from Punjab and its
main city Lahore. Pindi chiefs too mostly are from Punjab.
No other large Saarc state has such a narrow political base.
Right-wing, religious, elitist, regionally narrow politics and

non-civilian sway have undercut our progress. The last
issue is the key immediate reason for the other elements as
the politics of most of our parties exhibits heavy
establishment influence. The founders of all major ones
entered politics via its aid and most remaining ones were
formed or are controlled by it. It has crushed leftist parties
badly.
These big political divergences from socially similar states

beg for a deeper social science explanation. Saarc states are
all ancient, having existed for centuries, except Pakistan
and Bangladesh. But the latter is homogenous. So, despite
the two-nation theory’s claims and hopes, weak pre-1947
cohesion was our big gap. The areas of today’s Pakistan
also experienced more sociopolitical retrogression. The
Muslim League’s own pre-1947 gaps (caused too by this
weak cohesion and retrogression), unlike freedom parties
such as Congress and Awami League, made it hard for it to
fix these gaps even after 1947. This led to non-civilian
sway, the immediate cause of all our woes.
So big were these prenatal gaps that if social science was

good enough then, it may have presaged our post-1947
political woes. The British worried about our economic
viability. But we had the natural and human resources for
it, given good governance. The real issue was political
viability. Weak cohesion and sociopolitical retrogression
meant that the good governance to use resources well
couldn’t emerge from society easily. Luckily or unluckily,
social science is good enough today to predict safely that

these problems are still so deep that good governance may
not emerge from society even by 2047. Only civilian sway,
democratic devolution and a poor-led progress model give
faint hope.
The writer is a political economist with a PhD from the

University of California, Berkeley.
murtazaniaz@yahoo.com
Twitter: @NiazMurtaza2
Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2022

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8/23/22, 11:45 PM Atypical politics - Newspaper - DAWN.

TODAY'S PAPER | AUGUST 23, 2022

0:00 / 5:59 1x 1.2x 1.5x

MANY wonder why our politics is so unlike

The first atypical fact is the security establishment’s hold

for good. Afghanistan is ruled by an armed group. But

The second fact is the social class of politicians. The top

The role of middle-class parties has increased with the

Narrow politics and non-

The fourth atypical fact is ideology. Our two main aspirants

The fifth fact is regional sway. The top leadership of our

Right-wing, religious, elitist, regionally narrow politics and

These big political divergences from socially similar states

So big were these prenatal gaps that if social science was

social science is good enough today to predict safely that

The writer is a political economist with a PhD from the

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2022

SC judges: Of cavemen Lethal

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Updated 22 Aug, 2022 22 Aug, 2022 22 Aug, 2022

Agricultural reform Suicides in Chitral

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