Current Political Situation

After the February 18 parliamentary elections in which the two main opposition parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League –Nawaz (PML-N) fared well, Pakistan’s transition from military to civilian rule is seemingly complete. Although neither party won a majority, the two historical opponents formed a coalition government. Months of fractious wrangling between the coalition government issues ranging from the reinstatement of disposed judges to soaring consumer price inflation briefly subsided as the two parties jointly decided to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf. To avoid the long impeachment process, Mr. Musharraf resigned as President of Pakistan on August 18. The political paralysis that appeared to have gripped Pakistan had seemingly come to an end. Unfortunately, the fragile coalition could not come to an agreement on a timeframe for restoring the judges and the PML-N left the coalition. The election for the new President of Pakistan took place on September 6, with Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, widow of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, winning with a majority of support from the national and provincial assembles. The PPP-led government faces a number of challenges including Pakistan’s plummeting economy, food and energy shortages, the growing insurgency in the tribal areas, and growing turmoil in the North West Frontier Province. In the absence of strong leadership under the new government, it is the military that has been negotiating ceasefires and exchanges of prisoners with the militants, often with minimal, if any, input or oversight from the central government.

NDI Programs

The National Democratic Institute has 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 multiyear United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded political parties program in the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and the NWFP. NDI worked with emerging party leaders to initiate reform efforts within their respective parties. 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.

NDI has been implementing programs to assist political parties to strengthen their internal development and increase the political participation of marginalized groups such as youth, women, and ethnic minorities. 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 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 2007, NDI organized two pre-election assessment missions in May and October 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. 

Currently, NDI is implementing a parliamentary party caucus strengthening program and is working with a local partner to conduct a series of events on the political transition of FATA. The FATA activities will focus 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.

With funding from the Government of the Netherlands, NDI recently conducted an assessment of the political parties in Pakistan that will serve as the baseline for the newly awarded three-year political party strengthening program. This new four-part program will support the development of professional political party secretariats; assist in the establishment of formal training capacities in political parties; foster women’s political participation in the political process; and improve opportunities for youth to become more politically involved.

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