Citizens of Pakistan look towards ECP to ensure completion of our country’s democratic process, devolution of power.
LAHORE: I write to the chief election commissioner of the country as a citizen of Pakistan, to convey my concerns on the Local Government (LG) election debacle. While legal battles are being waged in courts and commissions by political parties and governments, we, the citizens, feel mocked at by the very process that is in place to make us stronger.
Balochistan is the only province that has gone ahead and fulfilled its obligation of conducting the LG polls. Election laws have not yet been made in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while the LG elections schedule practically stands cancelled in Sindh.
While we, the citizens, are expected to abide by all laws and fulfil all our obligations towards the state sincerely, with the sanction of penal action in case of failure therein, the state has failed and borne no sanction to fulfil its obligation towards the citizens.
Article 140-A, along with Article 32, of the Constitution of Pakistan imposes an obligation on provincial governments demanding the establishment of local governments in each province and the devolution of political, administrative and financial powers. However, we, the citizens, have been denied this right for almost five years.
Like all other citizens, I, too, believe that the Constitution is supreme, all laws and institutions derive power from it and are bound to abide by this sacred code. However, even after the Supreme Court of Pakistan puts its force behind Article 140-A, whereby the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is authorised to hold LG elections, the honourable commission seems helpless. It is the view of many citizens that political parties are averse to the idea of holding LG elections and consequent devolution of power from their clutches to the hands of the people. It is to serve this very purpose that the demand for proper delimitation is being used as an excuse and soon enough, the demand for the overdue national census will be added for effect. Many citizens believe that in their loud celebrations for the revival of democracy, our political parties and governments forgot that the democratic process is not yet complete, without functioning local governments.
LG elections seem improbable yet again after the recent decisions of the honorable high courts of Sindh and Punjab. The ECP is faced with a dilemma; new delimitation requires time, which would necessitate the postponing of LG elections, but for how long? Before the delimitation exercise can be carried out, the question of the overdue national census will also surface and that will, in turn, take even longer, consequently adding more years before citizens get their right to elect local governments.
In my humble opinion, the democratic process is completed only when we have an elected parliament, provincial assemblies, an elected president and finally, elected local governments. Without any one of the above-mentioned ingredients, democracy is incomplete, partial and even defective. The national census has been due since 2008 but was not conducted. As a result, the current parliament and provincial assemblies, elected in 2013, were formed by way of elections conducted on the basis of the 1998 census and the honourable president of Pakistan sits in office because he was elected by these very assemblies
LG elections are a phase of this process and not an entirely new process, therefore, preconditions for all phases of the process ought to be same. If the 1998 census and pre-elections delimitation were deemed appropriate for the conduct of the general and presidential elections, why are they now obsolete for the last phase of the democratic process — the LG elections?
The census and delimitation exercises should be carried out and completed, but only before the start of the next exercise (commencing with the next general elections) and not during the ongoing exercise.
I, as a citizen, do not hold the honourable ECP responsible for the ongoing LG elections fiasco. I do, however, feel that the citizens of Pakistan look towards the commission to ensure completion of our country’s democratic process and devolution of power to our elected local representatives.
Zafar Zulqurnain Sahi
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2014.
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