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.
Shahbaz Ali , Muhammad Iqbal Chawla, Nauman Kiran. (2020) Electoral History of Pakistan: Recontextualising the Party-less Election of the 1985, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 57, Issue 1.
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