POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND

DEMOCRACY IN PAKISTAN
Political participation is the foundation of any democratic society since it is the primary method
that the public engages with its governing authorities. Given Pakistan's complex political system
and history of military interventions, it is crucial to investigate the mechanics of political
participation in this nation. This report examines the evolution of political participation in
Pakistan, emphasizing pivotal moments such the elections of 1970, 1988, and 2024 that were
significant in the country's democratic shift.
Democratic stability is nonetheless burdened with serious obstacles from enduring issues like
extremist threats, irregular elections, and institutional weakness. A thorough comprehension of
these dynamics and a proactive attitude towards resolving underlying systemic inadequacies
are necessary for evaluating Pakistan's democratic future.

Importance of Democracy:
Maintains Equality:

Democracy maintains equality by giving citizens the right to vote regardless of their class, social
status etc. hence, giving each individual equal opportunity to vote and participate in political
processes. This means that the officials which are elected through the votes of the individuals
are now accountable to them and represent the public who supported them through effective
and efficient policies and other political mechanisms making the politicians responsive in
fulfilling the needs and concerns of the people. Other reasons through which democracy
exercises equality is through the rule of law where laws are applied equally to regardless of any
background, an example of this can be the protection of civil rights where they protect the
liberty of individuals as mentioned in both the constitution of 1956 and 1973 that that the right of
equality as a citizen will be given to each individual.

Promotes Participation:

Democracy promotes participation as in dictatorship or in martial law, these rights are taken
away from the public. Hence democracy allows an individual to freely participate by allowing
them to politically engage in activities e.g campaigns joining political parties and more. This also
leads to every individual truly exercising their freedom of speech and expression by openly
portraying their opinions about a certain party without having the fear of being retaliated against
by someone else. Another factor that makes democracy more significant is that unlike
authoritarian regimes democracy gives the public the access to information which can include
political documents and records for anyone to use in any form. In many democratic countries,
media e.g. news, reporters etc. have more freedom to showcase what stance they want to show
without being highly influenced by some political regimes. However, this cannot be said in
regards to Pakistan as according to the world freedom index, Pakistan lies on 37th position out
of the 100 countries and political rights are ranked at 15/40 and civil liberties are ranked at
22/60.

Promotes Transparency:

When the government practices its political activities openly it can be said that the government
is promoting transparency. This means that the documents, public meetings etc. are all open to
the public due to which, anyone can question the activities that are occurring and the
government will be accountable for it. Transparency is also promoted through accountability
institutions; an example of this can be the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Pakistan
which is an organization that is responsible for the elimination of corruption and related activities
by holistic approaches. However, transparency is still a matter of debate in Pakistan as the
democratic institutes are non-functional due to political influences where official prefer personal
interest over public interest.

The 1970 Elections

In 1969 as President Ayub Khan’s power started to fade after the political unrest he ended up
resigning appointing the next president, General Yahya Khan. Yahya Khan, Although a military
leader, committed to bring democracy to Pakistan based on “one man, one vote” and political
activities resumed.

The main parties that were present in the 1979 elections were the Awami League led by Sheikh
Mujibur Rehman based in East Pakistan and Pakistan’s People's Party led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
based in West Pakistan. The Awami League was able to win support by proposing a program
which called for a fairer share of the government spending and more power to be given to the
provinces. This was able to capture the frustration that the people in East Pakistan were facing
towards West Pakistan.

The elections were a stunning victory for the awami league as 160 out of the 300 seats
allocated to East Pakistan were won by them. On the other hand, Pakistan’s People’s Party was
only able to get 81 out of the 138 seats of West Pakistan. This meant that the Awami League
not only had majority seats in East Pakistan but also in the National Assembly as a whole, due
to which, they had the position to form the government on its own as the future Prime Minister
and Cabinet could come from East Pakistan alone. Secondly, the also meant that the power in
the central government can be reduced for the provincial power to rise due to which the foreign
exchange earned would greatly reduce the funds available in West Pakistan.

However, before all of this could be implemented, the escalated civil war eventually led to the
breakup of Pakistan, as Bhutto did not want any party from East Pakistan heading the
government. Instead Yahya Khan appointed Nurul Amin, a Bengali politician as Prime Minister
to compromise between PPP and Awami League.

Since the general elections were being held after the end of martial law, ppl were the most
excited to vote as they had many political parties to choose from. In 1970 out of the 25,730,280
registered voters, only 16,318,808 actually voted, having a turnout rate of 63%.

The 1988 elections

In August 1990, Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed Benazir Bhutto's government after a decade
under the repressive regime of Zia-ul-Haq. Bhutto, a dynamic and educated female leader, had
promised a new era for Pakistan during her election campaigns, drawing unprecedented
crowds. The movement against Zia-ul-Haq marked one of Pakistan's largest anti-establishment
movements, with the 1988 elections offering hope for change after years of military rule.

The 1988 elections were a turning point, signaling an end to dictatorship and a step towards
democracy. Despite historical challenges and a legacy of suppressed dissent, Benazir Bhutto's
victory brought optimism to the nation. However, her tenure faced immediate opposition and
challenges from the establishment, which sought to undermine her authority. Despite efforts to
obstruct her government, Bhutto worked to fulfill her promises of peace and progress for
Pakistan.

The establishment's resistance to Bhutto's leadership persisted, leading to her eventual

dismissal in 1990. Despite her efforts to navigate a complex political landscape, Bhutto's
government faced allegations of corruption and challenges to maintaining law and order. This
episode underscores the struggle of democratic governments in Pakistan against entrenched
interests and the enduring influence of the establishment.

The 1988 elections represented a hopeful moment for Pakistan, promising a break from past
authoritarianism. However, the challenges faced by Bhutto's government highlight the
entrenched obstacles to democratic governance in the country.

The 2024 elections

General elections, initially scheduled to be held in 2023 were held in Pakistan on 8 February
2024 to choose the Members of the 16th National Assembly.
The elections were held after two years of political turmoil after Head of the State Imran Khan of
the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was removed from office by a no-confidence motion. As a
result, Khan was apprehended and found guilty for corruption and banished from politics for five
years. As the elections approached, the Supreme Court stripped the PTI of their electoral
symbol for neglecting to hold intra-party decisions for quite a long time.
The Military Establishment faced accusations of manipulating the votes for the PML-N's chief
Nawaz Sharif to keep the PTI's chief Imran Khan out of the electoral race. Members of the
International community, including the US, UK and the European Union, have voiced their
concerns about the equitableness of the elections.

2022 POLITICAL CRISIS - BACKGROUND

The opposition parties filed a resolution of no confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan
with the National Assembly's secretariat on March 8, 2022, under the banner of the Pakistan
Democratic Movement (PDM).
In the aftermath of the National Assembly's no-confidence resolution against him, Prime Minister
Khan declared on April 1, 2022, the "establishment" had discussed three choices for them to
consider: "resignation, no-confidence [vote], or elections".
Following the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly's rejection of the resolution of no
confidence, President Arif Alvi of Pakistan dissolved the National Assembly on April 3, 2022, at
Khan's recommendation. This action would have mandated that elections for the National
Assembly be held within ninety days.
He became the first prime minister in Pakistani history to be removed from office by a vote of no
confidence on April 10th, after a Supreme Court decision that the no-confidence motion had
been unlawfully rejected.
The public throughout Pakistan protested his dismissal.
With the backing of the Pakistan People's Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, and several smaller
parties under the PDM coalition, Shehbaz Sharif emerged victorious from the no-confidence
motion on April 11, 2022, garnering 174 votes out of 342 total, two more than the necessary
majority.

In the weeks preceding to the next elections, several observers—including Human Rights
Watch and the United Nations—have drawn attention to what seems to be pre-poll fraud. The
electoral process's fairness has been called into question due to the numerous claims of
"election engineering" and other manipulative tactics that can favor particular political parties.

Three days before Pakistanis went to the polls came this prediction, one that would prove
prophetic on what would happen if voters failed to back Nawaz Sharif and voted for Imran Khan
instead. That is exactly what happened. On the night of the elections, media outlets showed
PTI-supported independent candidates driving in around 127 national assembly seats, which
indicated a possible larger part. However, the declaration of results was unexpectedly halted as
the official website of the electoral commission abruptly crashed. Pakistanis who watched media
outlets were seeing the real-time management of their democracy.

Following a nearly 15-hour delay caused by several claims of election tampering, Pakistan's
Army Chief General Asim Munir released a statement advising everyone to "move on from the
politics of anarchy and polarization."
“This election was hardly an election; I think the right word for what this was is a ‘predetermined
selection’. The military establishment had expected that they would be able to control the
results, within 2 to 3 hours it became obvious that Imran Khan's party was sweeping the
elections so the military took control of the election commission and has manufactured a totally
new election results”, commented Moeed Pirzada.
Thus, independent candidates wound up winning 103 general seats including 93 backed by the
PTI, trailed by 75 from the Pakistan Muslim Association (N) (PML-N) and 54 from the Pakistan
Public's Party (PPP).

AFTERMATH

While voter turnout was close to 48%, data indicate that more Pakistanis than ever before—
roughly 60.6 million— came out to vote.
“Voters did come out in sufficiently large numbers, which showed their faith in the democratic
process and their belief that their vote did matter,” former Pakistani diplomat Maleeha Lodhi
claimed.
Political analyst Zahid Hussain called this “a vote for democracy and against repression." and
that "they [voters] were angry and they wanted to see a change,” he told. According to experts,
the primary target of this anger was the military establishment, which has an extensive history of
influencing Pakistan's democratic system.

The interim government of Pakistan has dismissed requests from foreign nations to look into
claims of election tampering, claiming that the electoral process was a sovereign internal affair.

Voter Turnout Challenges

Gender Disparity:

One of the main challenges of voter turnover rate is gender disparity. Many women are unable
to exercise their right to vote because a lot of households are dominated by men where they
consider that it is a waste of time and undesirable for a woman to vote. They become
disenfranchised (losing the privilege to vote) as they cannot go to polling stations which are
located far from their vicinity. Many individuals of the same family have different polling stations
allotted to them which create an even bigger hassle. Gender disparity issue in regards to voter
turnout rates is not only visible in rural areas but also in the urban areas too.

Data collected of the 2024 elections also proves this issue as 10 million more men women were
registered to vote considering the fact that more than half of the population of Pakistan is made
up of women. In the 2018 elections 11 million fewer women practised their right to vote.

Youth’s Low Political Interest:

There has been a general decline in the participation of youth in Pakistan’s elections. This is
due to the fact that the younger generation is much less interested in politics as their opinions or
voices carry no weightage in the eyes of the politicians and nothing much is done to improve
this situation. There are many factors that lead the youth to perceive that their vote is of no use
e.g. poor economic situations, political instability and more (how is democracy failing? And this
point to elaborate). Another main reason is corruption that has been present since
independence. Throughout the course of 76 years none of the Prime Ministers have ever
completed their 5 year long tenure this has led the youth to question whether true democracy
will ever be prevalent and whether the conditions today differ from the past.

The lack of representation of the youth in political parties is also a reason why many don't vote.
Although 44% of the registered votes are comprised of the youth yet their representation in
political parties is around 10-17%.
Public Trust on System and Vote Polling:

The lack of trust on the system is also a main reason for the low voter turnout rates in Pakistan.
Unfortunately, there has not been a lot of work done to maintain an efficient delivery of services
to fulfill the needs of the people which causes a hindrance to regain the trust that was once lost
and to rebuild the narrative of political participation. Hopelessness from the demographic
processes and low levels of transparency in the election processes has caused the public to
vote less, further widening the gap between state-citizens relation which generate distrust of
public on institution. Lack of trust in the political system also leads to alienation from the system
overall and the voter feels and gets detached from the current activities that may be happening
politically. Pawell (1986) argues that there can be many reasons for nonvoting behaviors; one of
them is the realization of the endless cycle of the consequence of the election processes the
outcome is the same but in different ways hence, the repeated trends overall creates a
detachment from political participation.

GROUP MEMBERS

- MANAAL RASHID KHAN

- HIBA
- MINAHIL OMAR