Abstract
This research article1 has attempted to explore, investigate and analyse the causes, effects and impacts of the 1985 party-less election held under Zia’s dictatorial reign. Zia executed Martial Law in 1977 and except Bhutto’s party; all other mainstream political parties profoundly lauded the Martial Law and amplified their bolster to the tyranny because they had already faced the dictatorial attitude of Bhutto in guise of democracy and considered that Zia’s dictatorship would be better than PPP’s worst democratic government. It was within few years that only one or two political parties remained with their previous stance and maximum mainstream political parties left Zia and joined the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) 1 which had been initiated by pro-democratic political parties against the dictatorial rule of Zia. MRD launched resistance movement against Zia but it was not effective enough to get its political objectives. The main issue was disorganization and disunity of the member parties and Zia got benefits from their conflicts with his political tactics. To satisfy the major demand of the the political forces to restore democracy, President Zia announced the elections in 1985 on non-party basis. MRD’s member parties boycotted the elections which gave a chance to ethnic, regional and linguistic-based local political groups to come forward and participate in National Politics. This article searches that how and why MRD failed to get its political objectives during the 1985 elections? What were the motives of President Zia behind arranging for the 1985 elections and how he succeeded in attaining his goals? The article further discourses democratic development with a special introduction to the growth of the political system in Pakistan after the election of 1985 and explores different aspects which the political parties to favor Military’s rule in the early years of Martial law.
Keyword(s)
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