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There is no doubt that the powerful Pakistani army was involved in Khan's victory, and of course its links with the Islamist parties are deeply disturbing. However, the popularity of his party suggests at least a positive development for Pakistan: the decline of political parties rooted in ethnicity. To understand how, a story is useful
In previous decades, when Pakistan had a civilian government, this government was most likely run by one of two parties: the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) or the Pakistan Muslim League (PML). ). These parties, of course, had official ideological platforms. The PPP was founded as a socialist party. And the different versions of the PML that have contested elections have been characterized as center-right parties. Yet the ostensible ideologies of these two parties have never been as important as their ethnic affiliations. As a general rule, the PML would win with Punjabi voters in the country's most populous province, the Punjab, and the PPP would take Sindh, a province with a distinctive ethno-religious identity. Smaller parties could appeal to ethnic groups in Baluchistan, Karachi, and so on.
Ethnic politics is not inherently reprehensible, and parties defending the interests of distinct cultural communities play a valuable role in democracies. But in Pakistan, the dependence of major parties on ethnic ties has seriously undermined state-building efforts. Prior to this decade, no democratically elected leader had completed a full term; instead, they were generally rejected or overthrown by the military, the judiciary or both. Therefore, it was not expected that the rule of one party could lead peacefully to the domination of another party, or that the party in power would have a reason to appeal to outside voters. at his ethnic base during his tenure (usually brief). As Adam Prezworski writes, democracy can only persist in situations where "the losing political forces in opposition conform to the results and continue to participate rather than overthrow the democratic institutions". As losing Pakistani voters had little reason to comply, politics became a tense affair. Elections often ended with tensions or violence between supporters of major parties, ie ethnic violence, even if desperate leaders described it differently to prevent it from becoming uncontrollable. . It is then that the military intervene.
In the 1970 elections, for example, the PPP won the majority of votes in West Pakistan, while the Awami League won the Bengali vote in the East, eventually leading to the bloody war of secession. In 1977, the PPP government won the elections, but the opposition's refusal to yield the vote led to protests that culminated in a coup of Zia ul-Haq. Even the coup perpetrated by Pervez Musharraf, which is often seen as an answer to the embarrbadment that the Pakistani army has suffered in Kargil at the hands of India, has followed a decade of democratic depression. A fierce conflict between the PPP and the PML, where every forced exchange of power has led to more ethnic tensions, more protests surrounding a late registration, and more radicalization among the smaller ethnic parties, especially the MQM in the city from Karachi. rule
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