[author image=”http://hunzanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mamu1.jpg” ]Sultan Madad[/author]
It seems that there is a gap between what Amin Beg advocates and the agenda unfolded through Baltit LSO. There is no second opinion that civil society has a tremendous role in promoting political awareness, HR advocacy and acting as watch dog to promote merit and transparency. It is not conflicting rather it is supplementing the rights based struggle of political parties. Therefore, the so called second generation mobilization is an encouraging initiative but surprisingly some people are presenting civil society as a substitute for political parties. Drawing legitimacy for the idea from religion is a wrong conclusion. Contrarily, the guidance emphasizes on pluralism, tolerance for difference of opinion and democracy. The argument that political parties have only divided, is illogical in our context because no political party has been formed so far in Hunza or GB for that matter. I repeat my point of view that the local chapters of Pakistan’s federal parties, is an imitation without understanding of the basic realities. Irrespective of their political ideology, none of them has a program, a vision or a road map for the solution of fundamental issues of GB. The political process has not matured enough locally to form a real national (regional as some may say) political party. Those claiming to be nationalist parties are devoid of clear vision and political program either. They are pre-party group stage factions.
I have great respect for some of the personalities favouring the ‘LSO brand democracy’ as unfolded in Hunza Mutahid Hay but we need not to underestimate the possible outcome — aristocratic approach of exclusiveness in the name of unity and merit. The idea is impractical because interest groups contesting elections without any political vision or program derive their power either from the ruling party or they rely entirely on money and prejudices (such as regionalism, tribalism, etc). Civil society has no meaning for them. Since LSOs are fostered by AKRSP, I would humbly suggest to kindly forestall undemocratic tendencies that may stem out of their brainchild.
