POLITICAL PARTIES AND DEMOCRATIC DEVELOPMENT IN PAKISTAN: MILITARY REGIMES AND DEMOCRATIC TRANSFORMATIVE STRUGGLE

Date

2023-8

Author

Rahim, Tariq

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

1670
views

2746
downloads

Cite This

Pakistan’s political history is marked by instability, turmoil and turbulence. At the time of independence in August 1947, Pakistan began with a democratic system of government, but then the country experienced repeated military coups. During the military rule, democratic process was warped, freedom was limited, political activities were banned, the press was censored and secular culture was attacked. Other disturbing aspects of Pakistan’s tumultuous political history include; three ratified constitutions, unwarranted judicial interferences and ten contentious general elections. Notwithstanding all this, democratic aspirations prevailed and the party system survived. This thesis aims to examine the role of political parties in democratization process in Pakistan. Democratization is potentially a protracted process as democratic erosion and collapse remain prospects in new democracies. Furthermore, democratization does not occur in a vacuum. On the one hand, political parties act upon opportunities to galvanize popular support; on the other, they face constraints in their struggle for the civilian rule. This study will argue that a proper understanding of Pakistan’s turbulent experience with democracy necessitates determining the correlation between political parties and democratization process. This study will try to address, first, the question concerning the role of political parties in democratic transition, and second, the relevance of political parties in democratic consolidation process. It will contribute to the existing literature on Pakistan’s democratic development.

Subject Keywords

military regimes, political parties, democratization process, Pakistan

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/104879

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis