Norway’s example

Norway has named Abid Qayyum Raja as one of five vice-presidents of its parliament

Norway, the world’s top-ranked democracy for the sixth consecutive year, has named Muslim lawyer and Liberal Party politician Abid Qayyum Raja as one of five vice-presidents of its parliament. Raja is only the second Muslim representative after Akhtar Chaudhry to have won the honour. He joins Nils T. Bjorke, Magne Rommetveit, Eva Kristin Hansen, Morten Wold in that role. Raja cannot help but find great symbolism in his elevation to the office. In time, both within Norway and outside, Abid Qayyum Raja believes his rise to the office of vice-president will be looked upon as an emblem everywhere and serve to display the cultural diversity of Northern Europe. In a continent that is adrift in the migrant and refugee crisis, Raja’s own upbringing mirrors that of many impoverished families who grow up in municipal apartments and have to struggle hard to achieve any visible change in their status or their life. His own father was a factory worker at a steel plant in Nydalen and his mother an unlettered homemaker. The fact that there are young and emerging politicians from varied backgrounds like Raja is a good advertisement for Norwegian democracy. More encouragingly, Raja is determined to use his position in the presidency to work for the cause of religious dialogue and strive for the freedom of belief internationally.

Residents of this Nordic nation of five million people are drawn to politics. They are automatically registered to vote, and a whopping 78 per cent of them did so in the last election. A major reason perhaps is that the country functions as a social democracy. Most people feel they are a part of democracy. And their politicians are just regular folk — not drawn from some elite and wealthy groups. In that respect, Pakistan and other states have much to learn from Norway.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2017.

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