Government-Opposition Relations during Benazir Bhutto’s Rule in Pakistan

Abstract

Democracy, transition to democracy and democratic consolidation have widely been debated across the world and have prominent position in third world countries. Democracy in developing countries particularly in Pakistan is confronting long standing problem of consolidation of power by civilians. In democracy the strength of the state institutions depends on the relationship among central government with opposition and with provincial governments. Pakistan consists of a centre and four federating units having mix nationalities. This paper investigates the factors which have provoked confrontational politics both within the parliament between ruling and opposition parties and with provincial governments especially Punjab during Benazir Bhutto’s rule. The paper focuses on the question whether it was the same follies which Benazir Bhutto played with during her second term with opposition in the centre and their governments in provinces. To find answers to these questions, secondary data has been used and to supplement newspapers have been consulted for obtaining first-hand information of public officials. The relationship among the ruling party in the centre with opposition and the provincial governments often remained unpleasant and unfriendly. It is argued that personal the national considerations augmented the confrontation and conflicts among national and regional level political parties.