Electorate expects government will enact policies keeping in mind that the welfare of the people will reign supreme.
LAHORE: Pakistani politicians are their own worst enemies and the reason I say this is because they have never done much on their own by their deeds and actions to reinforce democracy. It is the basic responsibility of democratic governments to respect the will of the people since that is how they (the governments) are elected to office. In a democracy, the electorate has a very fair expectation that the government that has been elected will spend public money thoughtfully and honestly, and that it will enact policies keeping in mind that the welfare of the people will reign supreme.
What is seen, or at least what the public tends to see, is that development projects are formulated and implemented without any input from the general public that they are supposed to serve. There is little accountability of the money that is spent on such projects and often one hears or reads of how a particular MNA or MPA has benefitted from them personally.
As a voter and a taxpayer, I would like to have greater say in how my tax money is spent — but how that will be possible is something that I have no idea about.
ST Hussain
Published in The Express Tribune, March 10th, 2012.
