POLITICAL PARTIES: A FACTOR OF STABILITY IN PAKISTAN 1999-2008

This paper studies the Pakistan’s political stability in the context of the role of the political parties from 1999 to 2008. It also highlights that the culture of political parties went through a profound change during the Musharraf era in the result of the reforms introduced by the military regime. The questions how the political parties strengthened themselves in response to and due to the challenges posed by the army rule and how parties performed for the development of the stability in the country have been dealt. The role of ruling parties ? Pakistan Muslim League (PML(Q)), Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) ? as well as the opposition parties ? Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League (PML(N)), and Mutahida Majlis-i-Aml (MMA)’s religious parties ? as the safeguard to the instability has been defined through a qualitative research. It was assessed that the political parties matured themselves and did not sacrifice the stability of the country for their political gains.