Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, architect of the 18th amendment, which resolved the longstanding question of provincial autonomy, has recently warned against the conspiracy to roll back this landmark decision. What he has missed is the question regarding failure of provinces in transferring power to local bodies, the only nursery available in the country to produce political workers. This has been the dilemma of our national political parties, whose approach is too narrow when it comes to making institutions strong.

It is also important to assess performances of provinces in the ministries, transferred to them after the 18th amendment, such as Education, Health and Labour. It is a sorry state of affair when it comes to governance.

The future of national politics has to come out from the concept of 'win Punjab, win Pakistan,' for which a serious debate is needed on more provinces particularly at a time when population census may be held early next year.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and PML-N in 2013 gave a very positive message to Pakistan by allowing nationalists to form the government in Balochistan, opposition PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Sindh. He can take a bold initiative in strengthening democracy through more provinces and transferring powers to the local government's level.

Such steps are needed for national harmony. China-Pakistan Economic corridor (CPEC) can become a game changer, if we are really sincere in changing the game.  

Defending democracy against dictatorship is one thing and we all stood for the rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution, but, within democracy it is the political parties which create hurdles in making people empowered and negate the very concept of democracy i.e. government of the people, for the people.

Political parties lack a culture of democracy within themselves. As a result, they fail to empower people into taking decisions about their own future, weakening democratic institutions. Even the unanimously passed 1973 constitution could become a deterrent to the coup in 1977, 1999 and 2007.

The parties did not even have the courage to challenge controversial amendments passed by the illegal parliaments of General Zia ul Haq's Majlis-e-Shora. The maximum it did was abolishing 58-2(B) and that too after four governments were dismissed.

Today, the 1973 Constitution is not in its original form but in a distorted shape as weak and undemocratic national parties comprising cronies of military dictators could not correct the historic wrong.

All this led to the failure of national politics as all political nurseries like student and trade unions had been destroyed and the parliament was left unable to restore the right of association and right to information. 

It is our national tragedy that we lost a major province before resolving the issue of provincial autonomy. Perhaps we have not learnt any lesson from past failures. We still defend feudalism. Some leaders implement ‘Jirgas’ to resolve issues in their area.

It took almost 65 years to accept the demand of Pashtoons to rename North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, though it did not make the life of Pashtoons any better. It took us 60 years to settle the issue of provincial autonomy and no one knows how much time it will take to resolve issue of more provinces followed by empowering people.

Pakistan since its inception in 1947, hardly has a party with a national character particularly after Pakistan Muslim League (PML) divided into fractions and as a result a democratic system could not be evolved. The break up of Pakistan also resulted because of the absence of national parties.

If we just go through the very structure of the three mainstream parties, PML-N, PPP and PTI they can't be called true representatives of all the four provinces. 

This tendency in our political culture led to the rise of nationalist parties but with the passage of time they too became ethnic in nature and undemocratic, and as a result could not make inroads in the electorate. Most of these parties only play the role of pressure groups, like many religious parties.

Most of the nationalist parties particularly in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh, were the outcome of ban on the left-wing National Awami Party. Had NAP not been banned it would have had the potential to become a national party.

Muhajir nationalism or its political dynamics also exist because of the absence of national politics and the failure of national parties in urban Sindh.

The left-oriented National Awami Party despite its characteristics of a national party, and strong presence in then-NWFP and Balochistan, could not form government at the center due to its poor presence in East Pakistan and Punjab.  

General Zia had shrunk national parties and promoted ethnic and sectarian politics on the one hand and through non-party based elections created further division in our national character. PPP was the worst affected, not only because of the hanging of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, but also because of a well hatched conspiracy to marginalise PPP. Benazir's assassination and post-BB politics of PPP confined the party to Sindh.

PPP's political vacuum was filled by Imran Khan and PTI, but in the last three years, he could not consolidate his position in Sindh and Balochistan in particular and the next election would determine his strength in Punjab. His popular base still remained KP, and this leaves an interesting scenario.

If PTI swept polls in Punjab, it would be an end to Sharif's politics as PML-N stands no chance in any other province; but if PML-N retained its position despite losing some seats it would still be able to form a government at the center.

Either way the national crisis would persist and unless parties like PML-N, PTI and PPP expand their political structure to all the four provinces, national politics would continue to face difficulties in removing the sense of deprivation despite the 18th amendment and provincial autonomy.   

Federating Units must be empowered by creating more provinces, which would also change the narrow nationalist approach of our nationalist parties.

 Can our parliamentarians and so called national parties take some bold steps to save democracy and resolve this unresolved national question?

 —The writer is the senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang. He tweets at @MazharAbbasGeo