akistan’s political landscape is highly polarised. This fact is sometimes blamed on the diversity of the country’s constituting regions and their ethnic, cultural and political heritage. Despite being cobbled together in a national polity, heterogeneous communities have been able to maintain their distinctive features, which inform their political priorities because heterogeneity needs multi-polarity. Whenever a modicum of political stability is reached, a two-party system starts emerging and consolidating. However, a rupture in political stability and launching of new parties at the behest of the establishment grinds the democratic development to a halt, over and over again.

While mainstream parties are considered the proponents of a grand or master narrative of the national state, smaller parties operate on the periphery, away from the centre, and are considered the custodians of alternative narratives. Though these political narratives do not carry the potential for wide acceptance, they have their followers and buyers of this ‘dissent.’ It needs to be understood that even mainstream parties have their specific support bases. For instance, the Pakistan Peoples Party draws maximum support from Sindh while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz tries to maintain its popularity in the Punjab.

The smaller but consistently organised political entities such as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in urban Sindh, the Awami National Party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (Fazl) in southern parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal district and several parties in Balochistan have their spheres of influence and maintain their presence in the national and provincial legislatures besides helping form central governments. These parties tend to articulate the interest of their particular support bases. Some have ethnic and regional profiles too. Certain parties were promoted as mainstream parties during military regimes but they were indeed a loose alliance of potential winners and local heavy weights. For instance, the Musharraf regime offered power and patronage to influential people through local governments and then encouraged them to contest seats in provincial and central legislatures.

The educated urban population and the middle class in Pakistan are change seekers in their behaviour. The people generally support and vote for potential winners and mainstream parties, and not smaller parties or those on the fringe. For some time, it appeared that politics in the country was gravitating towards a two-party system. This meant that although a number of minor parties existed, only two parties enjoyed sufficient electoral and legislative strength to have realistic prospects of coming into power. Nonetheless, the establishment trumped the development, possibly because it felt that it may then lose initiative. Certain minor parties have been regular beneficiaries of this situation. They receive political largesse from powerful quarters in an establishmentarian democracy.

It takes a real issue, an agenda and massive resources to transform a minor party into a mainstream political entity. Otherwise, parties are formed and they operate for a short while but then evaporate into thin air within a decade. Examples of this phenomenon include Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party; Ayesha Gulalai’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-Gulalai; and Jawad Ahmad’s Barabri Party. The Pakistan Republic Party was recently launched by Reham Khan; Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr has also announced plans to form his own party. As things stand, it seems that these might meet the fate of the parties mentioned above. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr may have to challenge his cousin, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, for the legacy of their grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. While it was problematic for Asif Ali Zardari to claim the Bhutto mantle, for Bilawal, being the only son of Benazir Bhutto, that claim sits quite well and is considered genuine by PPP voters and supporters throughout Sindh and beyond.

Before this attempt by Bhutto Jr, Ghinwa Bhutto, the widow of Murtaza Bhutto, had also tried hard to establish herself as the true claimant of Bhutto’s political dynasty. She could not do so. It seems unlikely that Bhutto Jr will be able to establish his credentials just yet. Although, he seems to be committed to the cause of the poor and pledges to address, what he calls, the “real needs of the people.” Recently, he stated that now, the people needed electricity, gas and water rather than roti, kapra aur makan, a reference to the PPP’s original slogan. However, political space in Sindh seems to be saturated. Bhutto Jr held a jalsa in Lahore recently but it was poorly attended.

Another party, the Awaam Pakistan Party, was established last year (2024) by some seasoned politicians, including former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former finance minister Miftah Ismail, who had both left the PML-N. They had sought to reimagine Pakistan by introducing radical political and economic reforms. They drew in some familiar political faces. But the party has yet to be tested in a general election. It takes many political and electoral cycles for a party to establish its credentials and fetch public acclaim.

King’s parties such as the Convention Muslim League supported by Ayub Khan, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q buoyed by Pervez Musharraf and the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party have never managed to gather sustained public support. Launched with the backing of more than thirty legislators, the IPP won only a few seats in the last election. It was, by and large, rejected by the electorate in all provinces.

The number of political parties registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan stands at 175. This includes individual parties as well as political alliances. A majority of the electorate may not even know their names, let alone their agendas and manifestos. The public at large is experiencing frustration and disappointment and yet, there is not much political space available in the prevailing circumstances. Given their fragile nature due to a lack of popular support base and electoral strength, minor political parties are at the receiving end and in no shape to challenge the mainstream narratives or undemocratic forces and their repressive policies.

The writer heads the History Department at University of Sargodha. He has worked as a research fellow at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He can be reached at abrar.zahoor@hotmail.com His X handle: @AbrarZahoor1.