Vote bargain video

There is a reason that many people see Senate elections only as an avenue to reward cronies or raise funds

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Law Minister Sultan Khan resigned on Tuesday over a video that appears to show him and other politicians being paid off for their votes in the 2018 Senate elections. On the one hand, the video provides proof of an open secret — Senate seats are bought and sold. On the other, it raises questions based on the reactions several politicians have raised, or in some cases, failed to raise. Elected officials are not private citizens. They are public servants. They have no right to privacy when it comes to actions performed in their official capacities. This includes all votes cast in an official capacity, such as the Senate elections.

It is ironic that while the Senate's mission statement online says that "the Senate holds to account and ensures transparency in Executive functions”, the process by which senators wound up in their seats remains the most untransparent part of the country's election system. There is a reason that many people see it only as an avenue to reward cronies or raise funds, rather than governing effectively. The only circumstances under which voting for Senate seats should be secret is if voting powers were to be transferred to the people by making the Senate a directly-elected body, since the voters would then be private citizens. Barring that, parliamentarians who want to vote their conscience rather than party nominees should not be afraid to do so.

To their credit, PTI leaders, including Asad Umar, have explicitly backed this argument. Meanwhile leading opposition voices who are demanding respect for the vote have been curiously silent on how secret Senate polling disrespects the most important voters — the people of Pakistan. Yet, there is also a lesser, but still confounding angle to the video saga. News reports quoted Shibli Faraz and others as saying that the PTI had these videos for three years but just saw them. This is simply astounding. Even if the reports were incorrect, we must ask how, after the PTI's internal inventory after the 2018 Senate polls, Sultan was able to not only avoid detection but get appointed to one of the most influential ministerial positions.