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Those who keep up with politics in Pakistan will have noted that, outside of rallies, press conferences and posts on various social media platforms, there is not much communication between political parties and the people they are supposed to be leading. Where exactly does one go to find the detailed policy platforms of their parties or a list of their officers and members? Where do voters in a given area go to see the party member overseeing their constituency? In most countries today, the answer to these questions would be the party website. Sadly, this is not the case in Pakistan. According to a new report by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), many of Pakistan’s political parties do not even bother to pretend that they have a policy platform or vision to offer, or to let the people know that they have one. The report ‘Assessing Web Presence of Political Parties in Pakistan’ reveals that only around 35 per cent or 58 of the 166 political parties enlisted with the ECP maintain fully or partially functional websites. Of the 20 political parties currently represented in the Federal Parliament and/or Provincial Assemblies, only 14 (70 per cent) have a functioning website. This is even though web presence is a prerequisite for compliance within the overall purview of Section 208(4) of the Elections Act, 2017, which mandates political parties to publish updated lists of their central office bearers and executive committee members on their websites.

While most Pakistani political parties maintain a rather active social media presence, this does not substitute for the kind of information that a website can provide. As the Fafen report notes, the short-lived and algorithm-driven nature of social media feeds makes them less suited for hosting structured and accessible information. The social media feeds of many of our political parties, sadly, attest to the truth of this argument. No one who has actually approached a party hoping that they will solve a problem or listen to their concerns is likely to have been rewarded by their social media feeds, which usually serve as a promotional platform and/or a megaphone to air various grievances and accusations. One could forgive this if parties bothered to maintain proper websites with information that the people could actually use to their benefit. Only 38 per cent of parties shared their constitutions on websites, albeit with little to no information about any recent amendments, while only 12 per cent uploaded their latest manifesto clearly mentioning their electoral promises for the 2024 General Elections. And just one party published its consolidated financial statement.

Not bothering to maintain a party website in the 21st century is a pretty blunt way of telling the people that you do not care about them. And for those parties actually going through the trouble of maintaining a website, few are actually working to make sure that the sites contain useful information. Given how poor compliance is with such a basic requirement of running a modern political party, it is a wonder that Pakistanis still bother to turn up for elections at all. The revelations of the Fafen report only reinforce the narrative that Pakistani politics is a hollow exercise that is more about personalities, dynasties and ethnic, sectarian or regional loyalties rather than actual policies, philosophies and parties competing to see who can serve a constituency better. For all the parties we have, do people really have a choice?