LAHORE: The right to be elected is an important political right ensuring the participation of individuals in the political process of the country. The right to elect and the right to be elected are related and complementary to each other. Therefore, denial of the right to be elected, in a way, amounts to disenfranchising the people. At present, the qualifications required for public representation in any country are simple and almost uniform all over the world. In this regard, the universal rule of general qualification requires an individual to be an adult citizen of the country in which he intends to be a public representative. So, only minors, those not of sane mind, non-residents and aliens are disqualified from representing the public. This rule is being observed all over the world, including democratic countries, such as the US, the UK, France, Canada, Australia and India.
In the form of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution, Pakistan has, perhaps, the most exhaustive and extensive preconditions for qualifying to be a member of parliament. For this, a candidate has also to conform to the “ideology” of the country besides being sadiq and ameen. In fact, there is no known procedure or mechanism for probing of candidates before labeling them good or bad Pakistanis or Muslims. As a matter of state policy, Pakistan recognises the right of dual citizenship but the Constitution bars dual nationals from being members of parliament. Likewise, despite massive illiteracy in the country, there has been the graduation precondition for the same in the past.
A person once convicted by a competent court is considered to be innocent having undergone his punishment. So barring someone on the basis of an old conviction from contesting the election is against the rules of natural justice that prohibits punishing a person for the same crime twice. Likewise, loan defaulters and tax evaders should be apprehended and dealt with according to the law of the land, instead of raising these objections at the time of filing of the nomination papers. Recently, we have observed that returning officers, apparently, had opened a sort of Pandora’s box of confusion and controversies in the name of compliance with Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.
Democracy is a political system that believes in the unique potential and capabilities of the ordinary people. People are considered to be the ultimate arbiters in this system. Therefore, no needless restrictions should be placed on the individual’s right to be elected, and this matter should be left to the electors with whom sovereignty rests. Integrity and honesty of public representatives are, no doubt, desirable but the same should be ensured by the promotion of a healthy political culture and the establishment of the rule of law.
Mohsin Raza Malik
Published in The Express Tribune, April 22nd, 2013.
