Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Changing Dynamics of Democratic Consolidation in Pakistan (2008-24)

From Political Rivalry to Consensual Politics

Abstract

The research explores the relationship between Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that moved from political competition to selective consensual politics from 2008 to 2024. The study revolves around the question that whether democratic consolidation in Pakistan has been facilitated by the inter-party cooperation.  Employing the s qualitative historical-institutional approach the study outlines four phases: Reconciliation and constitutional cooperation (2008–2013), Competitive coexistence (2013–2018), Joint opposition and the Pakistan Democratic Movement (2018–2022) and Coalition governance (2022–2024). The analytical framework is based primarily on the dimensions of political development developed by Lucian W. Pye (equality, capacity and differentiation) and the dimension of democratic consolidation is measured by the continuity of elected government, peaceful transfer of power, constitutionalism, parliamentary competition and institutionalization. The results suggest that there was a positive interplay between PPP and PML-N for parliamentary continuity, constitutional cooperation, negotiated political transitions, and institutional resilience. The 18th Amendment and the parliamentary negotiations that followed, illustrate that political competitors can translate accommodation into institutional outcomes. However, cooperation has often been a limited, elite affair. Deeper democratic consolidation is inhibited by a sense of polarization, contestation of the legitimacy of the electoral process, central party organization, limited intra-party democracy, civil-military relationship and tensions, and limited grassroots decentralization. The article suggests that Pakistan is not a consolidated democracy but is in a resilient democratic mode. Therefore, it is important to view this shift from competition to collaboration as a gradual and uneven process, with inter-party negotiations progressing more rapidly than party internal inclusion and democratization processes and socialization. The article makes a contribution by discussing the PPP–PML-N relationship as a process leading to strategic cooperation with the potential to be institutionalized in a democratic manner.