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Why democracy in Pakistan remains wedded to dynasties

It was in July this year when Imran Khan, an opposition party leader in Pakistan, derided Nawaz Sharif for announcing his brother Shahbaz Sharif as his successor a day after the country's top court had disqualified him from holding the prime minister's office. Khan, whose anti-graft campaign had resulted in Sharif's ouster, compared the country's tradition of political dynasties to "a form of monarchy". "Political parties don't have democracy in them," he told Reuters in an interview alluding to Sharif's ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party and the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Sharif then nominated a staunch ally from his party, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, as an interim prime minister and asked his brother to contest a by-election for parliament to become eligible to take the reins. The plan changed, allowing Abbasi to ride out the rest of the ruling party's term as the premier and keeping the junior Sharif as the Punjab province's chief minister until the middle of 2018. Maryam, Nawaz Sharif's daughter and his presumptive political heir who too is in serious legal trouble, along with her husband and two brothers over her role in several offshore family properties, ran a successful campaign for her ailing mother who contested the seat that had fallen vacant after Sharif's disqualification.
Now Nawaz Sharif, as head of the party, has named his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif as the party's candidate for the country's top office in the 2018 general elections, signalling how patronage and kinship play a huge role in the country's politics.
According to some estimates, more than half of seats in the Senate and national and provincial assemblies have been passed from father to son, brother to brother, keeping the business of politics firmly within the family. Most of these political families are agricultural landholders such as feudal patriarch Shujaat Hussain, followed by ones from religious and military backgrounds. Maulana Fazlur-Rehman, whose father Mufti Mahmud founded the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), now heads the JUI-F. And Anas Noorani has succeeded his father, Shah Ahmad Noorani, as head of Jamiat-e-Ulema Pakistan. Sons of Gen. Ayub Khan, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, and Gen. Akhtar Abdur Rehman Khan are also in the parliament. Families in Pakistan have spread themselves across political parties. There are examples galore, like the Magsi family of Sindh and Balochistan or the Saifullahs of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The families are also held together by marriage.
The Bhuttos are the most well-known of the country's political families. Former prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - who was executed by the military regime in 1979 - formed Pakistan Peoples Party in 1967. After Bhutto's execution, his daughter Benazir Bhutto took over the party and became prime minister twice. After her assassination in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007, the PPP control has remained firmly in the hands of the family. Benazir's son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who speaks Urdu with an anglicised accent, became PPP's co-chairperson the same year sharing the slot with his father, Asif Ali Zardari, who, too, has launched his own dynasty and got two sisters and a brother-in-law elected as legislators.
There are fears that the Sharif dynasty will fray under his brother, as has the Bhutto family, which was once a power dynasty. PPP lost 76 seats in the last 2013 general election after Benazir Bhutto's assassination.
Meanwhile, after being cleared of false asset declaration charges, Imran Khan is now all out to take on the dynastic political parties. But his party, PTI, which is centred around his personality seems to be failing in that role.
Ali Tareen, son of disqualified PTI leader Jahangir Tareen, has submitted nomination papers on December 28 to contest the by-poll on Lodhran's NA-154 constituency. Jahangir, formerly the PTI's general secretary, lost his seat earlier this month when he was disqualified by the Supreme Court for not being 'honest' and 'truthful' as per the constitution of the country. Sharif was also shown the door under the same constitutional provision.
Contesting against Ali will be Ameer Baloch, son of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's Siddique Baloch, who defeated Jahangir Tareen in the 2013 general elections but was disqualified in August 2015 for possessing a fake degree. Jahangir then bagged the seat after defeating Siddique, who was allowed to contest the by-poll.
Democracy in Pakistan, sadly, has been either wedded to personalities or political dynasties that pass down power like a family heirloom. There are no exceptions!
Waqar Mustafa is a print, broadcast and online journalist and commentator based in Pakistan