Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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With the elections just around the corner the discussion should turn towards what the parties are promising in various fields if they are elected. For the purpose of this discussion I have started with the Education sector promises made by the major political parties in their manifestos. The parties are:

PPP
PML(N)
MQM
PML(Q)

**PPP

**The Peoples Party built 48,000 schools in its two tenures between 1988 to 1996; it recruited and trained 100,000 teachers in three years alone, thereby doubling literacy.

The PPP increased the education budget by many billions in its last two recent tenures of power, a testimony to the top priority it gives to education.

The PPP commits to its sons and daughters of Pakistan an education system that enables a brighter future than that of their parents so that
they can hold their heads high in the comity of Nations.
Quaid-e-Awam introduced free and compulsory primary education, promoted Centres of Excellence, created Institutes of Science and Technology and took Pakistan to the cutting edge of Nuclear Physics, establishing centres of Nuclear
Medicine. He set up a chain of new Universities, Medical and Engineering Colleges in the neglected areas as a harbinger to a Muslim Renaissance.

The PPP will focus on providing computers progressively for every Secondary School and College in Pakistan. The Party will install at least one computer in each School so that the new generation can enter the digital age. To universalize basic education, every child in government primary schools will be provided a stipend.

Universal enrolment by 2015 of all children between the ages of 5 to 10 is the target of the Party. The Pakistan Peoples Party believes in providing quality higher education in all regions of Pakistan through both Public and Private Sector colleges, Universities and Institutes. The quality of existing Colleges and universities will be improved and the number of Public Universities and Colleges,
particularly in Science and Engineering, Medicine and Agriculture will be increased. Funding will be regulated and monitored through QualityAssurance Boards of the Higher Education Commission. Funding to Private Sector Universities will be enhanced through a competitive programme.

Madrassah Reforms

We are in the process of sowing the seeds of national disintegration of a new generation of alienated young people bred on hate and paranoia. Educational extremism thus represents the greatest danger to Quaid-e-Azam’s vision of
the federation. The funding of groups during Afghan Jihad of the ’80s has led to the rise of political madrassahs. Many of them are not schools but irregular army
recruitment centres for militants as well as arm depots holding rocket launchers and Kalashnikov guns. No militia will be allowed to seek refuge under the name of madrassahs for militant activities. Madrassahs will be reformed to be Madrassahs that impart knowledge to children The PPP had planned to build ‘Apna Ghar’ (Our
Home) as a free boarding school for socially or economically disadvantaged children. The plan initially adopted by the PPP in the budget of 1996, but dropped by subsequent governments, will be revived.

**PML(N)

**[size=7][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=2] With knowledge becoming the key driver of economic and social progress in future, education must become number one national priority. Education is also the greatest single equalizer of society and mass education can help to solve most of our problems. An educated, technological advanced and progressive society is the aspiration of all the people of Pakistan. During its previous tenure, the PML(N) government took several important initiatives in this sector. These will be supplemented by the following policiesonal programme. To ensure decisive movement towards this vital objective, PML(N) will take the following steps:

                    § Ensure that education in all public sector institutions                          upto higher secondary will be free of cost. The system                          will work through provision of transferable voucher scheme                          to encourage competition in the public sector educational                          institutions.

                    § Achieve 100% enrollment in middle school education                          by 2012, 100% enrollment in secondary education (Matric)                          by 2015; and 80% enrollment in higher secondary education                          (Intermediate) by 2020. 

                    § Guarantee that all students who get first division                          in both Matric and Intermediate examinations are ensured                          of a place in a public sector college in their tehsil/taluka/sub-division.                          This target will be achieved by 2010.

                    § A National Education Corps will be set up to employ                          all graduates without jobs and they will be employed in                          literacy and adult education programmes with the objective                          of achieving 100% adult literacy by 2010, 100% adult education                          up to middle level by 2015, and 100% adult education up                          to Matric by 2020.

                    § The Federal Government will fund 50% of the public                          sector education program up to higher secondary level                          through grants to provinces and 100% of all public sector                          universities and higher education institutions through                          grants. The Federal Government will also fund the National                          Education Corp.

                    § Provide maximum facilities for science education                          and vocational training for all middle and high school                          students.

                    § Provide fiscal and other incentives for private                          investment in education.

                    § Pay special attention to the development of libraries                          at national, provincial and district levels. 

                    § Promote several centers for professional excellence                          in various scientific disciplines by providing highly                          qualified teachers, generous scholarships for training                          abroad, and liberal grants to science laboratories. 

                    PML(N) resolves to implement the National Education Policy                          2010 to break the monopoly of elitist education system                          and to create equal education opportunities for all by                          reviving delivery of quality education in the public sector.                          A participatory approach will be adopted to achieve key                          targets through public private partnerships. Strategies                          shall be made to optimally harness and utilize the existing                          education facilities by improving governance, efficiency,                          monitoring, and effectiveness. 
                    To improve the quality of education for the poor, Education                          Foundations will be set up in each Province and eventually                          at the district level to take over and manage education                          facilities through high level professionals. As described                          in the section on Employment, they will be received grants                          on per student basis.
                    National curricula will be standardized and adopted at                          all levels to eliminate multi-class system based education                          in the country. Sharp focus will be put on academic content                          in science and mathematics. Curricula will be enriched                          by putting more emphasis on acquisition of practical skills,                          along with theoretical perception, and environmental education.                          
                    Teaching profession will be made more attractive by grant                          of higher salaries to teachers who possess qualifications                          higher than the prescribed level. Additional increments                          for better performers and best teacher awards shall be                          introduced at all levels of education. National medals                          and awards will be given to nation's best teachers every                          year. Principals/Heads of educational institutions/teachers                          will be given special status in local areas. Female teachers                          will be posted as close to their homes as possible. 
                    Ethics and values based curriculum and teaching systems                          with a focus on character building to develop honesty,                          perseverance, tolerance, discipline, wisdom, innovation,                          respect, and team play, as enshrined in Islam, will be                          introduced at all levels. The teaching of Quran with translation                          will be compulsory for all Muslim students in secondary                          schools.

**MQM

**Education enriches lives and is an economic necessity for any developing
country. We need to modernise our education system and spread education
through out the country on war footings by taking following steps:

• Abolishment of the present dual system of education in the country
where the educational institutions for poor people have different
standards as compared to the English medium and Grammar schools.
This can be done by raising the standard of Urdu Medium and
Government educational institutions to bring it at par with the
Grammar and English medium educational institutions.
• The Madarsas need to be provided all out incentives to bring their
syllabus and standard of teaching in conformity with the main stream
education.
• Increase expenditure in education from 2.2 % to 5 % of GDP during
the next five years.
• Minimum 20% of the Provincial and District Governments revenue
expenditure be allocated for education.
• Make education compulsory for each and every child and would be
available free up to Matriculation or its equivalent level.
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• Salary structure for the teachers must be revised upward, above 3%
inflation each year.
• New Schools, Colleges, Universities, Professional and Vocational
Institutions in cities, towns and villages through out the country would
be established.
• Secondary School for any village where the population exceeds five
thousand people would be established.
• Adopt a school policy be encouraged.
• Promote “earn and educate” concept in public sector school also.
• Training and Refresher courses of primary and secondary School
teachers would be launched extensively through out the country.
Female teachers would be given preference for primary education
recruitment.
• The examination system would be made more transparent and in
accordance with the requirements and standards of modern age.
• The syllabus would be amended according to our national
requirements and the needs of modern age.
• Educational Institutions would have Management Boards / Committees
and their performance monitored regularly.
• The University education should be strictly on merit with more
scholarships for talented and deserving students.
• Grants for Professional Institutions would be increased to reduce the
fees.
• The private educational institutions would be regulated.
• Extracurricular activities would be reintroduced/ strengthen through
elected students unions.
• A net work of public libraries would be established all over the
country.

**PML(Q)

**[/size]

  • Education, PML’s number one priority, is central to building a modern developed society and the Pakistan Muslim League will seek to ensure free and universal primary education.

  •  The PML also makes a commitment for **mass literacy in the country within the next 10 years.** Training of teachers, expansion of their expertise and increasing their salaries and status would be ensured.

  •  The PML would also like to set aside a special day in the national calendar as the **“National Teachers Day” **as a mark of respect to the honourable profession of teaching.

  •  The existing educational institutions will be improved and upgraded from primary to secondary, from secondary to higher secondary and from schools to colleges. This would specially be provided in the case of education for girls and women as well as institutions in rural and backward areas. Vocational and technical education would be encouraged so that education is linked to enhancement of skills.

  •  The sector of **Madrassah education** is highly neglected and the PML would seek to provide all facilities and financial support for modernization of Madrassahs especially in curriculum. The Madrassah students will thus be able to benefit both from religious education as well as the education provided by other schools.

  •  The Pakistan Muslim League will also ensure that all scholarships offered to Pakistanis, either at home or from overseas, will be duly publicized through advertisements and through the internet so that these can be availed well in time by deserving students and these are not allowed to lapse.

  •  The Higher Education Commission would be made autonomous and encouraged to improve quality of universities. **Retirement age of teachers will be increased to 65.**

  •  The PML will also take up the case with respective foreign governments regarding the denial of student visas to Pakistani students in sciences like physics and engineering since this is an infringement on the right to education and knowledge and based on political and ethnic profiling.

  •  The PML will encourage setting up of public libraries equipped with the modern research and reference tools, including internet facilities.

  •  Sports, Arts, Music and languages as well as English and Maths shall be taught in all schools. PML’s plan is to tailor our educational system to individual pupil needs, involving parents and teachers support in raising academic standards and moral values.

Can we keep the discussion focused on the education manifesto of various party rather than anything else. Any posts attempting to derail the thread will be removed and members warned. Lets focus on issues and not personalities. I will be opening threads on other points of manifestos by our leading parties.[/size]

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto’s

And how much of this is outright lies?

:rolleyes:

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto’s

Good to see that posters are ready to indulge in some serious discussion. 40 views and one reply. :hmmm:

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

Does any one really take seriously what is written in the parties manifeso? If so will any of the parties deliver what they promised.

I DONT BELIEVE ANY OF THEM AND DONT THINK THEY WILL EVEN GET DELIVER WHAT THEY PROMISED. THERE WON'T BE MUCH CHANGE.

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

I noticed PML(Q) hasn't mentioned much about what they've done in last 5 years. If you have been in power for 5 years, & don't have much to show for thn why should people vote for you again?

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

In that case, why would people vote for majority of "mainstream parties" in Pakistan?

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unfortunately, manifestos dont mean much even in developed countries where awam can read unlike in pakistan. instead best way to find out what parties represent is to have the press question them on specific issues such as what would parties would do to tacke terrorism, deal with energy security, manage budget deficit, increase exports etc? unfortunately pak press is on the take and journalists are cluless about issue facing pak.

people looking to parties for salvation are just whistling dixie. pakistani parties are only good for sowing sectarian, religious and ethnic hatred while leaders at the top enrich themselves at the expense of awam. people who look to parties for salvation deserve to get screwed.

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

^^ well manifestos do mean a lot in developed countries.

the above manifestos just bunch of promises with no logic or sense behind how to acheive this, how will they provide funding for such things? and if they arrange funding, will it be from taxing or aid or loan or any other budget cuts from other departments
**
PML-N
§ A National Education Corps will be set up to employ all graduates without jobs and they will be employed in literacy and adult education programmes with the objective of achieving 100% adult literacy by 2010, 100% adult education up to middle level by 2015, and 100% adult education up to Matric by 2020.

**

this specially makes me laugh, they will employ all the graduates and make them teachers??? they will end up more teachers than the students if they employ all the currecnt graduates.

secondly not all want to be teachers, they grossly mis calculated number of graduates in the country.

all parties need to learn, what ? and how they going to acheive it instead of making promises, ie by 2010 we have 100% middle or secondary education.

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

ehsan bhai

manifestos are a good start, and surely everything that every party has listed resonates a chord with some people, some may like one thing more than another or focus, but really speaking as a whole the mainfestos read okay.

I am very interested in seeing plans. I mean the manifesto is a promise or a wish list. How exactly are they going to make it happen.

let me start with an example.

if someone says we will increase level of literacy and do this by opening new schools.

questions that are in my mind are, goals, targets, strategies and measures.

how much will the literacy rate be increased, what is the schedule.
how will it be increased i.e. new schools, expand current schools, grow madrassas curriculum?
where will the new schools be built, why in those locales? how will we pay for it?
where will the new teachers come from, do we ave people available? how will we keep the funnel of educators filled so its not too many and not too few?
where will they be educated, and credentialed?
what is broken in our schools now in terms of teacher training, skills, and how will we correct it, what will the program of correction look like, who will implement it, how will it be staffed.

so aside from a viewpoint on what in general needs to be done, specifics,
what will we do,
when will we do it,
how will we do it,
who will do it,
what do we need to be able to do it
how will we prepare ourselves to do it
how will we pay for it
what are our targets
how will we measure our performance on an ongoing basis

I have never seen this info.

I mean look at presidential debates in US, or even congressional elections and people have facts figures, numbers, plans..

we seem to just go for promises, and manifestos. manifestos are a good start, but is that it?

an often ocverused statement in my field of work is that failing to plan is planning to fail.

thats what it looks like to me.

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

errrr, silence is golden? :)

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

no dice?

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

Geo's great debate has touched on quite a bit of the details.

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how about a summary. Thanks
and why dont political parties have that stuff on their websites? what is this 1989?

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's

I personally find statements by all the parties on education a bit stale and too generalised. As stated above by Rebel X no one has come out and quantified their objectives as to how they will achieve it and which areas or parts of the country will get priority if any. How will they make sure that the current abuse of the system will be stopped like ghost teachers and schools without proper facilities. I was listening to one debate on education where someone gave a list of deficiencies in our schools and I was shocked to hear that many schools don't even have basic toilet facilities.

It is a shame that an area which should receive top priority has been treated shabbily by the leading parties and all they could come up was general statements.

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http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=95171

Saving the Republic
Islamabad diary

Friday, February 08, 2008
Ayaz Amir

But not, I trust, through the National Reconstruction Bureau, that monument to useless ideas we have seen make a mess of things during the last eight and a half years. But reconstructing Pakistan so as to remove, hopefully for all time to come, much of the nonsense which so disfigures our republic.

But does anyone have a plan or is this nation of lost souls condemned to live only on a diet of cliches? Everyone wants to fix Pakistan, solve its problems, but no one seems to have the foggiest idea how. No wonder, instead of concrete ideas we get some of the emptiest rhetoric to be heard anywhere on the planet.

Gen Pervez Musharraf had his seven-point agenda–penned in a hurry in Karachi (corps headquarters) on the evening his troops ousted Nawaz Sharif from power. About that revolutionary agenda the less said the better. Pakistan has been brought to its knees in large measure because of the wages of ineptitude we have reaped over this period. Anyone again coming up with a seven-point agenda and chances are half the nation will reach for their pistols.

One may not have any sympathy with the ideas of the Bolshevik party, the party of Lenin which for good or ill helped shape the 20th century, but one thing has to be said for it. The Bolsheviks knew what they wanted and when they seized power in St Petersburg in October 1917, and Lenin made his first appearance at the Smolny Institute, party headquarters in the Russian capital (later moved to Moscow), he gave no rousing speech and indulged in no histrionics. He said simply (and John Reed, the American journalist who later wrote ‘Ten Days that Shook the World’, a masterpiece of reporting, was there to record the event): “We shall now proceed to construct the socialist order!”

That was it. No poetry, no tub-thumping, none of the gaudy oratory at which we in the sub-continent so excel. Just these simple words followed immediately by a series of decrees on the distribution of land and other pressing matters.

Whenever there is a change of government in Pakistan the first gift we get is a press conference full of vacuous phrases and empty promises, followed by confusion and muddling, during which time the bureaucracy takes over, only to reinvent the existing order of things. Fundamentals never alter. If we are lucky we get a change of colour, a shift in emphasis. But the substance remains depressingly the same, marking another triumph for the status quo.

Every few years dictators needing a political crutch to lean on, turn to remnants of the Muslim League, which keeps getting reborn, now as the Convention League under Field Marshal (self-appointed) Ayub Khan, now the Q League under Gen Musharraf. Always the same collection of sharp-eyed urban and rural ‘notables’: ever ready to prostrate themselves at the altar of power. Doesn’t matter who is in power. The same class played loyal toadies to the British. After Partition and the birth of Pakistan every tinpot hero has been able to commandeer their services.

Only Zulfikar Ali Bhutto dared challenge the status quo but even he wasn’t too sure of what he wanted. He raised a lot of dust and made great speeches, certainly more exciting and inspiring than anything heard in these parts before. But the structures of power remained as they were and the Islamic Republic, far from undergoing an overhaul (something it badly needed after defeat in East Pakistan and the birth, amidst strife and blood, of Bangladesh), continued in its old ways.

Bhutto had routed the Punjab rural gentry in the 1970 elections. But then, inexplicably, he brought the same defeated goats into the PPP, an amazing turnaround for which he paid the price later. As was only to be expected, this class of opportunists lost no time in bolting to the other side when he fell from power. When the curtains come down on the Musharraf era, as they must on all things mortal, it will be fun watching the disappearance of the Q League, quite likely one of the fastest sprint-runs in our history.

So what can we expect from these elections on whose outcome hangs so much? Hosni Mobarakization (an aging patriarch hanging on to power) or democracy? This is what’s at stake in these elections. Much will depend on the two major parties, PPP and PML-N. If they can’t get their act together, if they fall out over the distribution of loaves and fishes, dictatorship’s last stand will be postponed and we will be in for more hard times, harder than what we are already experiencing.

The costs of being America’s frontline ally are rising as the situation in South Waziristan gets more alarming by the day, boding ill for both Pakistan and its army because the course we are set on (under foreign advice) can only mean one thing: the army bogged down in a never-ending conflict, one, moreover, being fought not on foreign soil but our own homeland. We need to rethink the folly of this.

At the height of the popular uprising in Indian-held Kashmir, at the most a couple of thousand ‘jihadis’ or ‘mujahideen’ were able to tie down several hundred thousand (I don’t have the exact figure) Indian troops. Now we are digging a similar pit for ourselves, several divisions of the army tied down in Waziristan.

Two questions loom. Can these elections bring about a change in the present setup in Islamabad? If yes, that’s a huge step forward. If not, what are these elections worth? And, as a result of these elections, can we see a situation emerging where we stop taking orders from foreign patrons and stop bleeding ourselves on our western frontier? If not, then what is all the fuss about?

The Americans have a simple aim: broadening Musharraf’s support base by getting major political parties to support him, so that the ‘war on terror’ has greater legitimacy. Everyone understands that the Q League is a liability. And no one is dumb enough to seriously consider Pervaiz Elahi as Pakistan’s next prime minister. The Americans want other political players to tag along with Musharraf.

The Chaudhries (Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz) are therefore way off the mark and should be adjusting their sights. If they can’t read the emerging political map, what is friend Mushahid Hussain (the suave interpreter of their garbled thoughts) there for? He should be telling them what is what, unless he is advising Pervaiz to ‘play it on the front foot’, constant advice he gave Nawaz Sharif, to disastrous effect.

Pervaiz Elahi, poor soul, should be an object of sympathy. For the past two years he has been investing time and money (indeed, huge amounts of both) in promoting his bid to become prime minister. Look at the mess he and his party are in.

We need strong leadership. We need wise leadership that can safely make the transit from the doghouse of decrepit, no longer-working, authoritarianism, to something approaching representative rule, leadership that, without provoking our American friends too much, can tell them this is where our interests converge and here where our paths diverge.

The so-called war on terror has made a prisoner of Pakistan’s soul, hurling Pakistan into a pit from which there seems no escape. Let us heed the fate of Cambodia, a once smiling land set on the path to ruin and destruction when pulled into America’s war in Vietnam. But why go that far? Let us heed Afghanistan’s fate, a once near-serene land ravaged by externally-imposed conflict.

About one thing we can be sure. Self-proclaimed caudillos, straw champions of fictitious causes, uninvited saviours don’t go off their own accord. The cottage industry that has mushroomed urging Musharraf to quit could therefore take a badly-needed rest. He is not stepping down as per the advice of any bleeding hearts. Only the result of these elections can put second thoughts in his mind. That too if, after the results are in and a democratic majority emerges in the new National Assembly, the PPP and the PML-N can together map out a common course for the restoration of democracy.

But for that both parties will have to demonstrate something so far woefully missing from their baggage: an ability to reach out for the stars.

Email: [email protected]

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Re: Politcal Parties and their Manifesto's


Political parties' manifesto are like constitution of Pakistan, its good to have it, but who cares about it? :D