A new review done by Free & Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has stated that the majority political parties in Pakistan do not have proper websites.
It further stated that digital use is increasing and the law require parties to have proper sites
According to their paper “Assessing Web Presence of Political Parties in Pakistan,” only 58 out of 166 parties — around 35% — have sites that are working completely or at least partly.
Even inside parliament, the situation is not much better. Out of 20 parties who got representation in National or Provincial Assemblies, only 14 have websites that can be called functional.
This goes against the Elections Act 2017 (Section 208(4)), which clearly says parties must upload the latest list of their central leaders and executive members online.
From those 58 working sites, just 40 gave a list of main office holders. Only 6 of them had names of executive body members, showing a serious lack in sharing internal info, said FAFEN.
The group also pointed out that even though some parties are active on social platforms, those aren’t a replacement for a proper website. Social feeds don’t give permanent info and vanish fast due to algorithms, so they not useful for transparency.
JI Most Transparent Digitally
Parties with seats in assemblies did slightly better overall. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) led in online presence by sharing 18 out of 30 info categories FAFEN checked.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was next with 15, but their site is currently blocked inside the country and need VPN to visit. PPPP had 12, PML-N showed 11, and ANP posted 9 categories.
Few others had notable scores like MQM-P and Haq Do Tehreek (HDT) with 8 each, while PkMAP and Sunni Ittehad Council had 7. TLP and JUI-P stood at 6, and MWM had 5. BAP came with 4 and PML-Q only showed 1 item.
From non-elected parties, Pakistan Tehreek Shadbad (PTS) scored highest with 13 categories.
Poor Financial Details
One big problem FAFEN raised was that almost no party gave public financial records. Only one site showed proper financial report as told under Section 210(1). Same goes for assets and liability list of party leaders — just one party shared this.
While 88% of sites showed basic aims and goals (required by Section 201(1)(a)), and 83% gave at least one office contact, only 38% uploaded their party constitutions. Updated manifestos for upcoming 2024 General Elections were only seen on 12% of sites.
No party shared data about their elected general councils, which are supposed to meet yearly (Section 207(2)). None gave selection rules for picking candidates either, which is covered in Section 206.
FAFEN also noted that important details like how leaders are picked, rules about suspending members, limits on foreign donations, and office tenures were seen only on one website each.
