Rs 3,000
Throughout Pakistan’s history, and persistent even today, there has been a serious debate about whether the ultimate responsibility for the failure or derailing of democracy lies with the military by taking over the country’s reins so frequently on one pretext or another or with political parties which did not follow democratic principles or traditions whenever they got a chance to rule, nor provided good governance. Imbalances in civil-military relations affect the political class as a whole, but what have political parties of Pakistan learnt from successive military interventions? Organised political parties serve as engines of democratic consolidation in a country and while institutionalisation of parties is desirable for improving the quality of democracy in Pakistan, where do these parties stand in terms of organised thought on dealing with the most crucial issue in sustainability of democracy today? This paper examines Election Manifestoes of 3 political parties mainly the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPPP); Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for their respective policy pledges on democratic civil-military relations and national security and defence. This is a continuation of PILDAT study of Election Manifestoes of 2008 of three Political Parties held in November 2011.
