ISLAMABAD: When ‘internal democracy’ among the political parties in parliament is compared, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif comes in last and opposition Jamaat-i-Islami of Sirajul Haq tops the chart, according to an assessment carried out by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat).
However, according to the assessment report if JI’s restricted system of membership and internal election excludes it from the comparison, PTI emerges as the party with the best internal democracy.
The report lists the parties in descending order and gives them scores in percentage. At the top is Jamaat-i-Islami with a score of 56 per cent followed by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf at 49 per cent, Asfandyar Wali’s Awami National Party at 46 per cent, Fazlur Rehmans’ Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) and Hasil Bizenjo’s National Party (NP) both get scores of 43 per cent.
Altaf Hussain’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is at 42 per cent, Asif Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) score is 34 per cent and Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N comes in last with a score of 32 per cent.
Journalist Mujibur Rehman Shami, a member of the Pildat committee which assessed the constitutions and internal activities of the eight parties, noted that most of the political parties do not even have a list of their members. “This is the reason the party which made Pakistan has fragmented into groups,” he said at the launch of the Pildat report.
“Most parties spend millions in contesting elections but bank accounts do not show matching amounts. We cannot afford political parties receiving funds from unknown sources,” he added, advising them not to emulate “the budgets of traders’ unions” and keep proper accounts.
PTI Member of National Assembly Arif Alvi found it “encouraging” that his party “scored high” in the list. “We held elections of PTI for overseas Pakistanis in 2006 and decided to introduce electronic mail to cast vote. Then in Pakistan we opened membership through phone and around 3.5 million people registered. Another four million were registered manually,” he said.
Agencies
