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Pakistani politics is full of political rhetoric. Attractive slogans are used by leaders of political parties to inspire and set the mood of public about a particular issue. Even parliament is neglected by politicians. This political immaturity led the nation towards street politics and polarization in the society. Due to elements of intolerance in politics, leadership could not find consensus and viable solutions. The paper analyzes political rhetoric; slogan politics and role of parliament in Pakistan especially focusing on the first one year of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz's (PML-N) current government. In this context, political parties and their leaders' popular statements particularly in print media containing rhetoric and slogans to resolve two important issues i.e. electoral reforms and energy crisis has been examined. Political parties' initiatives in the form of calling attention notices, questions, resolutions, bills, motions and point of orders in the parliament have also been assessed followed by recommendations. The paper highlights that politicians generally use rhetoric and slogan politics instead of using parliament to satisfy the public on various issues. The paper recommends that political parties should enhance intellectual depth of party members and leaders so that they can effectively use the forum of parliament for resolving issues.
Keywords: political rhetoric, slogans, parliament, electoral reforms, energy crisis
Since its independence, Pakistan's politics have been shuttling between democracy and dictatorship like a pendulum where political rhetoric and slogan politics are mostly used to inspire and win public support. Pakistan's current politics mostly focus on various key issues namely panama leaks, electoral reforms, energy crisis and law and order situation in the country due to terrorism. Many other issues like corruption, unemployment, education, health, poverty, price hike and inflation etc. are, however, at low priority agenda of political parties at the moment. These issues are mostly highlighted by political leaders on streets through demonstrations and media coverage.
In developed democracies, politicians mostly use parliament as a forum to discuss various political, security, social and economic issues in order to reach at solutions and frame legislations. Furthermore, in advanced states, parliament works to detached people from staging demonstrations in streets and helps them to send their representatives in the legislature (Waseem, 2016). However, it is observed that the institution of parliament in Pakistan remains...