LAHORE - Every mainstream political party is following dynastic politics for playing the role of second tier leadership at the cost of democratic norms and rights of the senior politicians.
History tells that it is not seniority or the services to the party which matter but it is the commanding position which is assigned to the son or the daughter of a party head which dominates in the decision-making and action in the party on national affairs. It is not clear as yet whether it is deficit of trust in other seniors or to keep certain things under cover. The party head always prefers his son or the daughter to supplant him after he or she is trained in politics at the second tier.
Excepting the PTI, the rest of mainstream political parties namely PPP, PML-N and the PML-Q are swayed by the party head and after him it is his son or daughter which plays the lead role at the second tier in every affairs. These parties have many senior leaders who have been in politics over the decades but they failed to command the position which Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in PPP, Maryam Nawaz and Hamza Shehhaz in PML-N or Moonis Elahi in PML-Q hold by virtue of being son or daughter of the party head. This trend in politics is not unknown to the world yet the intensity with which it is ingrained in our country, perhaps exists nowhere else. The pity is that these parties strongly stand for democracy but their respective heads shy away from enforcing the same in the party and their preference remains bringing up their siblings to lead the party in their absence.
As to the religio-political parties, they also go by dynasty to play the second tier role in the leadership but that is not of that scale found in the mainstream political parties. It is JI which formally holds election to pick up its ameer yet for others, it is shoora which decides the party head.
Although Imran Khan is holding Chairmanship since inception of the PTI yet none of his sons is in the picture to capture the leading role in the party. As to the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto came to the political limelight after assassination of his mother Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 who had desire for his son to be the party chairman in case she is no more. Bilawal has entered the parliamentary politics after the last election after he passed through a decade under the tutorship of his father and former president Asif Ali Zardari. Although he chairs the party yet Bilawal is still under the shadows of his father in decision-making on the national and the party affairs. The final word however comes from the mouth of young Bilawal yet influence of his father is not fully over on him. But he is sure to get out of it with the passage of time.
As to the PML-N, the influence and say of Maryam Nawaz and that of Hamza Shehbaz dominates over others after the PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif and the party president Shehbaz Sharif. When the PML-N was in power, they both occupied the centre stage, after the elder Sharifs in almost every national and party matter at the central and the provincial levels, respectively. At that time even the most senior leaders in the party were seen scared while talking to the said young Sharifs. At present when the elder Sharifs are in troubled water due to legal cases, the political value of Maryam and Hamza remains undiminished in the party. Although at the second tier at present, yet they are sure to come to the frontline in future bypassing seniors in the party.
The newly-elected MNA Moonis Elahi is the son of former chief minister and current Punjab Assembly Speaker Ch Parvez Elahi. During the chief ministership of Ch Parvez, Moonis was virtual power wielder in the province and the party. After he has returned to the parliament and is promised to become the minister, Moonis is bracing for regaining the past position and commanding role in the party and in the national politics after his father.
