Electoral diversity

The transgender community is one of the smaller minorities in Pakistan but in recent years their profile has risen, and in the coming election there are to be five transgender candidates seeking election. There were 13 but the rest pulled out unable to afford the fees charged by the Election Commission of Pakistan, another reminder that elected office is for the rich(er) members of society. They may be poorly represented on the ballot paper but the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) has decided to hire 25 transgender members as election observers — a first for Pakistan. The hiring is to be welcomed as they will make the electoral process more inclusive and participatory and is a reflection of the FAFEN work more broadly, already noted positively in these columns. They have reached out to vulnerable groups like those with disabilities as well as transgender people.

Entirely laudable as the work of FAFEN is the fact is that it is an organisation which exists outside the political parties — not a bad thing in itself — but its existence highlights the generally poor access and opportunity given to minorities by the mainstream parties nationally. Collectively the minorities number in their many millions yet they rarely get a mention along the campaign trails of the majority political parties. This in itself is emblematic of the lack of inclusivity in society generally, and the marginalisation of those that do not conform to a stereotypical template.

The aforementioned withdrawal of transgender candidates because of their relative poverty is also worthy of note. Politics is a rich person’s game in Pakistan and representation of ‘the masses’ who in large part hover around the poverty line is almost exclusively the domain of the wealthy, many of whom belong to a feudal class that has little interest or motivation in empowering anybody but themselves and their extended families. Broadening representation in both national and provincial assemblies is one of the greatest challenges facing the democratic experiment in Pakistan. The irony is that the minorities may achieve greater representation before the majority does, and poverty is a long way from finding a voice in the politics of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2018.

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