Slightly over one year ago, public expectations were high as the Musharraf era came to an end and national elections returned power to democratically elected leaders. The transition to more responsive written government, however, has faltered as political tensions between the two major parties have escalated and extremist violence continues to reach out of the tribal areas into the nation’s heartland.
Political Situation
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led government continues to face serious political challenges and a deteriorating security environment. In February 2009, the Pakistani government agreed to implement Sharia law in the Swat Valley located in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in an effort to persuade Islamic militants to disarm. Political hostility was heightened in February when the Supreme Court of Pakistan barred Pakistan Muslim League –N (PML-N)’s leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother and Party Chairman Shabaz Sharif from running for elected office. The decision also removed Shabaz Sharif as the chief minister of the Punjab Province and caused President Asif Ali Zardari to suspend representative government in the province. This decision in turn led the PML-N to join the lawyer’s movement in their march to reinstate the judges previously deposed by former President Musharraf in 2007. Thousands of citizens joined the nationwide protests as government put out containers blocking roads and ordered police to use tear gas and batons to break up the rallies. As the march reached Islamabad the government gave into the opposition demands and announced the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the remaining deposed judges bringing an end to the two year long lawyer’s movement. President Zardari also relented and gave control of the Punjab government back to PML-N after a stay order was issued by the court on the decision to ban the Sharif’s from holding office. Also in March gunmen opened fire in Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team killing seven people including six policemen and injuring 14 including five Sri Lankan players. Shortly thereafter an attack took place on the Lahore police academy killing over 40 people. Sporadic bombings have continued throughout the country including at a police barracks in Islamabad.
Current Activities
The National Democratic Institute (NDI) is actively engaged in democratic development in Pakistan, working with groups seeking to improve democratic institutions and civil society in Pakistan. In March 2002, NDI opened an office in Islamabad and launched a program to assess the state of political parties in Pakistan. The Institute facilitated research to examine challenges facing the country’s political parties, and to identify reform-minded party leaders committed to strengthening democratic processes and institutions. Subsequent programs have focused on improving the ability of citizens to monitor government activity, providing training for journalists, increasing the skills and capacity of political party members, strengthening the capacity of political parties to engage in local governance, and working with parties to promote sustainable, peaceful dialogue on a range of issues undermining Balochistan’s stability.
NDI and its local partner, the Centre for Civic Education (CCE), launched a program in March 2004 to enhance the capacity of Pakistan’s political parties to undertake internal party reform. This six-month pilot project, based in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), was designed to support the emergence of reform-minded party leaders from parties committed to a democratic political system. The pilot program expanded into a multi-year United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded nationwide political party program. As part of this program, the Institute conducted focus groups to determine citizens’ views of the parties, and used this research to help parties devise action plans for internal reform.
In June 2004, NDI began implementing a U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL)-funded program, “Supporting Women Political Leaders in Muslim South Asia,” which sought to promote women as political candidates and elected representatives in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. This program was expanded in Pakistan in the summer of 2006. In April 2006, the Institute initiated a DRL-funded program to strengthen youth participation in political parties.
The Institute has also been actively involved in supporting the electoral process in Pakistan. NDI organized international delegations to observe the national and provincial elections in 1988, 1990, and 1993. In 1997, the Institute sponsored a pre-election delegation to assess election preparations. Based on the mission’s findings, an NDI technical team remained in Pakistan to observe the elections, including a monitoring presence in Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA). In advance of the 2002 general elections, NDI organized nationwide trainings for over 1,200 party poll watchers. The Institute also produced and distributed over 550,000 party poll watching manuals, which were widely used across the country on election day.
In May and October 2007, NDI organized pre-election assessment missions in advance of parliamentary and provincial elections. The Institute implemented a program and trained approximately 45,000 party polling agents to monitor polling stations on election day. NDI also worked with political parties to provide advice on the design and implementation of a communication system for the collection and analysis of election results and complaints.
Last year, NDI worked with the Shaheed Bhutto Foundation to complete a series of workshops on FATA which brought together over 300 residents from the tribal areas and focused on the extension of the Political Parties Act to the tribal areas, reform of the Frontier Crimes Regulation, and the legal and constitutional status of FATA within the Pakistani federation. At the completion of the workshops, the recommendations were published in a report titled “Mainstreaming FATA.” This report was presented to President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad at a national seminar in January 2009.
Last fall, NDI began implementing its three year political party strengthening program. With funding from the Government of the Netherlands, NDI conducted an assessment of the political parties in Pakistan that was used as the baseline for the program. The program comprises four components: modernizing party secretariats, developing internal training capacity within political parties, increasing youth and women’s political participation. NDI conducted research on the parties’ needs and recruited liaisons for the party secretariat element of the program. The secretariats are a focal point because they are a critical component in organizing the parties’ decision making and internal communication. They also can become an engine for internal change.
In November 2008, NDI held a two-day conference in Islamabad with participants from NDI’s previous youth program in order to assess the status of the youth wings since the earlier program ended in October 2007. NDI received nominations and conducted interviews of candidates from eight political parties: PPP, PML-N, ANP, Pakistan Muslim League –Q (PML-Q), Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam – Fazal (JUI-F), Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), National Party (NP), and Pashtoon Khwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP) for participation in the program.
NDI distributed the Women’s National Action Plan (NAP) which was developed by five political parties PML-N, PML-Q, MQM, PPP, and ANP in December 2008 on strengthening the organizational structures of women’s wings and increasing women’s representation on party decision-making bodies. In February and March 2009 NDI held single-party workshops for the women’s wings in order for them to develop party-specific strategies for implementing the NAP.
In addition, NDI received funding from the British High Commission to conduct a program working with political parties on reform strategies for FATA. These reforms include: the extension of the Political Parties Act; the abolition or amendment of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR); and the constitutional status of FATA. NDI held the first of five roundtables in March with representatives from six political parties including the PPP, PML-N, Awami National Party (ANP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Pakhtunkhwa Mili Awami Party (PKMAP), Pakistan Muslim League – Q (PML-Q) and National Party (NP). At this initial roundtable, the parties’ debated various political reforms and concluded that there is an urgent need to ensure that tribal people enjoy the same human and political rights as the rest of the country.
Finally, NDI has recently received funding from the Canadian Government to develop effective parliamentary caucuses in Pakistan. This program will build upon a series of roundtables with members of the national and provincial assemblies on the role of parliamentary caucuses in a parliamentary democracy that were completed last year. The roundtables identified the need to strengthen party caucuses to more effectively enact legislation supported by their constituents. This program will provide technical expertise to parliamentarians, members of provincial assemblies, and political party leaders on how to become more effective and united in parliament and provincial assemblies, coordinate with each other, and become more responsive to their constituents.
Contact Information
For more information about these programs, use our contact form or contact:
Islamabad
Sheila Fruman, Senior Resident Director
sfruman@ndi.org
+92 51 2609430-33
Washington, D.C.
Brian Vogt, Program Manager
Bvogt@ndi.org
(202) 728-5442
