Barrister Usman Ali, Ph.D.
Pakistan’s seventy-seven-year political history can be summed up in one blunt truth: the will of the people has never been fully accepted. Power has always been shaped by forces behind the curtain. National and regional parties, politicians, judges, bureaucrats, and journalists, all, at different times, became part of this game. Sometimes they were propped up, sometimes broken apart, sometimes silenced, sometimes pitted against one another.
From the very beginning, the plan was clear: no national party, especially one built on ideology, would be allowed to grow strong enough to govern on the strength of public mandate. The same applied to regional movements demanding constitutional rights. To achieve this, the state deployed every tool, political engineering, electoral manipulation, creation of artificial parties and factions, and fueling internal divisions.
Martial laws were imposed and promptly legitimized by courts. The media often presented the generals as saviors. Politicians, instead of resisting, lined up to join military governments. When it suited power brokers, blatant rigging marred general elections. At other times, experiments with non-party elections were staged, “King’s Parties” were manufactured, and so-called “electables”, independents herded into compliance, were handed victories to engineer the “right” alignments.
The result was inevitable. National politics was drained of ideology and vision, reduced to a hollow contest over who could sit on the throne. Those given temporary support lived in illusion, until the pressure turned on them too. Then they cried foul. But no one learned. One by one, every party took its turn in the same game. By the time some realized the truth, it was already too late. Today, those enjoying patronage live in the same delusion.
Regional parties suffered a similar fate. Sometimes a hand was placed on their shoulders to share power. Sometimes they were branded traitors. Their internal rifts were encouraged. Rival groups were created to limit their influence. Parties once considered the authentic voices of their provinces have now shrunk to a few constituencies. These nationalist movements were repeatedly splintered so they could never mount a serious electoral challenge. State pressure combined with internal flaws, lack of internal democracy, family dynasties, leadership disputes, and self-interest, to weaken them further. The damage has gone far beyond the parties themselves. It has left a dangerous vacuum of leadership, fueling misgovernance, unrest, extremism, and terrorism, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
History shows that political engineering always ends badly. In the Middle East, it created dictatorships. In Latin America, repeated military interventions pushed democracy into constant retreat. Pakistan is no exception: weak democracy, fractured politics, disillusioned citizens. A system that takes votes from the people but delivers power elsewhere cannot endure. And today, there is neither an effective national party nor a strong provincial voice. To fill the vacuum, artificial leadership has been manufactured. Instead of stability, it has only deepened public mistrust.
The time has come for every institution to play its role. But politicians, who have been the largest participants in this game, bear equal responsibility for today’s crisis. Restoring genuine democracy is their duty, if they truly wish it. National and regional parties must change course and adapt to modern political realities. They must free themselves from the shackles of outdated politics and embrace global diplomacy, digital campaigns, and modern electoral strategies.
They need to build unity within their ranks, abandon dynastic politics, personality cults, and backroom deals, and rebuild their foundations on principle. Their focus must return to public agendas: the economy, education, welfare, justice. They must form alliances with workers, students, and human rights groups so that they can no longer be silenced. Otherwise, they will fade into irrelevance, permanently.
The state too must learn. Breaking apart parties, propping up artificial leadership, and silencing genuine voices has inflicted irreparable harm. This path leads only to fragility, where nothing and no one is left to hold the center. If Pakistan is to move forward, it must make space for real representatives, real leadership, and real voices of the people. And it must accept a simple, timeless truth: in a democracy, power flows only from the people.
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