ISLAMABAD: With election just around the corner no major stake holder party has announced its manifesto exposing their non seriousness towards the issues of the country.
A manifesto is known as a “published verbal declaration” through which parties express their “intentions, views and vision” about national issues and also make public their “motives” and “targets” which they plan to achieve after assuming power.
Manifesto is an important component of the election campaign it vividly shows the interests of the political parties and their abilities to govern the state.
In established democracies, the party manifesto is considered to be the most important part of an election campaign.Turkey’s president Tayyep Edogan announced his manifesto months prior to the election while Donald Trump American president had announced his manifesto almost an year prior to the polls.
Besides MMA no other political force has announced its manifesto.
In Pakistan, however, political parties publish only a few thousand copies of their manifestos, , considering it a mere formality only for the consumption of the media and for political debate.
Since the parties have failed to function as an institution and due to lack of ideology-based politics, even election candidates are often found ignorant about manifestos of their parties.
The five-party alliance MMA through its 12-point election manifesto announced on June 6 has covered almost everything from local government to protection of Muslim minorities in other countries.
Announcing the manifesto, MMA chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had regretted that Pakistan had never had an independent foreign policy since independence.
The salient features of the MMA’s manifesto include independent foreign policy, enforcement of Shariat, land for landless peasants and jobs for locals in the projects being carried out under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
