Lahore, Sept 3: Pakistan People’s Party Secretary-General Jehangir Badar has said that democracy cannot flourish in a country under dictatorship. Speaking at the concluding ceremony of the training workshop of workers of different political parties under the Punjab Political Party Development Programme, organized by the National Democratic Trust for International Affairs, Centre for Civic Education and USAID here on Saturday, he said a democratic society was also necessary for proper functioning of democracy in a country.
He said democratic political parties were also necessary for democracy. Political parties in Pakistan were being run as groups and required to be turned into proper parties. The political leaders also required training for tolerating each other and respecting difference of opinion because democracy was the art of resolving disputes.
PML Lawyers Wing Secretary-General Aslam Zar said political workers were given importance only in democratic societies with rule of law. Undemocratic countries had undemocratic political parties functioning on the whims of the leaders. Such parties could not enforce or strengthen democracy because it did not exist within their own setup. Leaders of undemocratic parties preferred to nominate office-bearers instead of holding elections for maintaining their stranglehold on the parties. They announced attractive manifestoes to hoodwink the people before the elections but never bothered to implement the same.
JUI-F Information Secretary Maulana Riaz Durrani said most of the political parties in Pakistan had no arrangements to train their workers. Election procedures were required to be improved and the election commission made impartial for ensuring transparency.
PML-N Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooq said good political parties could change the fate of their nations and the bad ones could get their countries dismembered. He said workers were the strength of every political party but leaders should present themselves as an example for them to emulate.
US Consulate Principal Officer Brian Heath said democracy had a different shape in different countries depending on their peculiar socio-economic condition. Democratization was a continuing process and no time limit could be prescribed for its perfection. The American democracy had many flaws despite being 229 years old.
He said democracy was necessary not only for Pakistan but for the entire region. It was still in infancy in Pakistan and a lot of effort was required for its consolidation. The US could help Pakistanis in the process but they would themselves decide about the kind of democracy they wanted to introduce in their country. Political parties could not bring about democracy in a country without introducing it within their setup.
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs Country Director Mary Cummins said healthy political parties involved all sections of society in the political process and strengthened democracy. She said the institute had been training workers of different political parties in Pakistan for the past one year for strengthening democracy. It would now train the political leaders for the purpose.
Special awards were given to Dr.Shanaz Yasin, Aizaz Butt, Tahira Khalid, Tahira Tabassum and Ijaz Ahmed Hafeez for completing excellent projects during training.