Editorial
There has been a noticeable trend in Pakistan’s political landscape ever since the third Marshal law was repealed. Political parties come to power with the voters’ mandate or with some hybrid arrangements. Thanks to the unrefined electoral systems, parties make government by making alliances with other parties. A single party hardly wins a majority required to make government. After two or three years in government, a strong opposition emerges with ‘bestowed’ powers to remove the government. Governments hardly finish their constitutional limits. Finally, governments are forced to leave via vote of no-confidence or through any extra constitutional intervention. Unfortunately, in this exercise, the judiciary hardly plays a role of stabilizer.
This editorial tries to highlight two potential causes behind political instability in Pakistan.
First and foremost, the economic stagnation is the root cause of political instability in Pakistan. Governments achieve so-called stabilization that is proved to be low growth in the long term. According to RP research, Pakistan needs 8% annual growth in order to absorb the demographic pressure of young job seekers. Our estimates show that nearly 3 million graduates are entering the labor market each year, while the market is weak to absorb them, with unemployment rate 7.1 % and young unemployment standing at roughly 12.5%. In short, economic dysfunction breeds political instability.
Second, a weak culture of democratic norms in parties. Our political parties are dynastic groups, not institutions. They lack the ability for consensus building. We suggest to politicians that they must find confidence in their powers: in a parliamentary system of government, the political executive should be empowered to hold the bureaucratic executive accountable. Politicians must sit together and sign a charter of society first and a charter of economy later. Consensus building is an antidote to instability.
Politicians must agree on certain frameworks: economy, reforms, and accountability mechanisms.
Republic Policy has coded its research on the legislature in Pakistan in its book, Fixing the Legislature Branch of Government in Pakistan.
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