LAHORE: It seems that practicing politics based on principles has no role in our land of the pure. Every political party wants to grab power in the name of democracy to exploit the poor of Pakistan and when ousted, they have a ready list of excuses to make for their failure to fulfill promises.
I suggest that the Constitution be amended and the tenure of the assemblies should be increased to 10 years and voting should be made mandatory for all citizens. The Election Commission of Pakistan should be replaced by an election commission authority headed by a bureaucrat or an army general. NADRA should be given the task of preparing electoral lists and the army should be given the responsibility to conduct the elections.
By extending the tenure of the assemblies to 10 years, a ruling political party will have the full opportunity to serve the country and if it fails to govern honestly, it will have no excuse for its poor performance and will not be able to ask the people to elect it again. If a self-elected military general can rule for eight to ten years, why can’t a legitimate, elected government rule the country for a similar time period? This will allow substantial time to really prove itself to the people. Also, this will ensure that never again do we have to hear the excuse that a government failed because it was not allowed to complete its tenure or that certain ‘forces’ hindered its attempts to serve the people while in office.
ST Hussain
Published in The Express Tribune, April 25th, 2012.
