I observed a smooth transfer of power. There is no interim government since the system is designed to accomplish a step-by-step changeover. President Barack Obama, along with 435 Representatives of the House and 33 Senators have been elected, but will not take oath until January 2013. So, what happens before then? This transition period is called the lame duck session.
This time is also used to provide a comprehensive orientation for the newcomers (and to create a whole new administration if so needed). The re-elected ones know their way around. The 79 new Congressmen get an explanation on rules and regulations, information about available committee posts and, most importantly, ‘ethics’. Here, they learn exactly what expenses from their personal budget allocations they can charge to the taxpayers’ funds and what must be paid from their personal resources.
In summary, every Representative and Senator gets a salary, an office space, a handsome stipend to finance staff for two offices, one in the Congress building in Washington DC and one or more in their constituency. The staff do not have to be career civil servants, so the members simply hire people they trust, or recruit on the basis of merit. A typical team includes a senior chief of staff, legal director with a team of legal assistants, experts on foreign relations, communication director and logistical help. These people continually brief the member on issues coming up on the Congressional agenda, prepare policy briefs, keep them informed on committee affairs and prepare draft legislation.
Most of our MNAs and Senators have hardly any support system to help them understand the issues of the day or participate in a substantive legislative process. Only parliamentarians with a high position get assistance and that, too, only logistical. The generic support provided by career bureaucrats is too limited. Those who advance in the parliamentary service depend primarily on their years of experience. Perhaps, it is time to rethink the way professional support is provided to our parliamentarians.
In Pakistan, there is a serious criticism of parliamentarians and their expenses. What needs to be understood is that a few parliamentarians in senior positions might exploit the system but that should not be confused with the need for investments to make our institutions operate professionally. Yes, paying for professional staff would be expensive, but how expensive is it to have many parliamentarians who don’t understand critical issues or how to shepherd legislation that can address them?
An MNA in Pakistan gets minimal support to learn his job. Leaders of his party can guide him, but professional legal experts, researchers, policy people who can help him understand and make briefs for him in a language he understands are necessary. Many bring a nephew or a cousin to look after their schedule and help them with English, but only a few are able to make substantive comments on important bills, such as those for the budget.
As citizens, it is our responsibility to push for professionalism in our governance institutions. We have to make sure that in our criticism of politicians, we don’t overlook the real need for institutionalising good practices in legislation and oversight. Even though we will again resort to the use of an unelected interim government to handle the affairs of the state, leading up to our next election, all Pakistani citizens are looking forward to our first smooth transfer of power from one elected government to another. This is an opportunity to show ourselves as a maturing democratic nation, capable of institutionalising a process of peaceful handover without riots, cheating or deaths.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2012.
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I really DON'T think she argued that we needed a transition without an interim government. Most of the article was focused on how unprepared parliamentarians can be for office, not on whether the practice of holding elections under an interim setup should be done away with as a feature of our constitution.
I don't think she even tried to make such a case, except by obliquely- and very briefly- questioning the legitimacy of an interim government by calling it "un-elected". That's not really valid since such a set-up, like many other administrative branches of government, is still constitutional and therefore legitimate. Plus, the interim administrators are appointed by a broad consensus of the elected ones anyways. The article was clearly mis-titled.
There can be no comparison between the Legislators of USA and Pakistan,The USA and other western democracies have arrived at there current position through years of hard work and struggle,Countless sacrifices have been made in the service of accountability and service. The bureaucrat's in west do not and cannot consider themselves above the law, whereas here in Pakistan they are a law unto themselves just look at the Protocol VVIP movement and the flouting of all traffic laws and you have your answer. Finally our MNA's do not need training and guidance in Legislation as most are born into the job! Every Senior MNA has a son/daughter or wife in waiting to take over the family business of Politics. Of course we the people are mostly to blame for this sorry state of affairs as we only vote for Peer sahib/Choudary sahib/Raja sahib/Malik sahib Zamindaar sahib etc we vote for anyone as long as he or she is corrupt thats the only Moral compass we use when deciding the fate of our country.
Thank you for educating us Dr. Fouzia. Indeed it is easy for us all to keep criticizing the system but when it comes to our system's institutional capacity we are clueless about the issues below the surface. Sadly, we would opt for Dictatorships that mutilate our State's institutions rather than promoting policies or practices that would strengthen Democracy as well as our State institutions.
A good Op Ed and a glimpse to Pakistanis how a real country is run by its people. The US has not become the richest and strongest country in the world by accident. The writer and reader must understand that American democracy has survived by the respect the losing candidates show after the elections. After each election the loser concedes the elections congratulates the voters and the winner and says the elections are over and people have spoken. In no way does the loser finds faults with the winner or excuses no matter how close the elections were. In other words even the losers do not try to delegitimize the next govt. On the contrary in Pakistan the opponents of ZAB never accepted his legitimacy and even celebrated his hanging. That process of delegitimizing each and every elected govt and politician continues. Unless our love for unelected sore losers does not end nothing in Pakistan would change for better.
An informative article. I think the issue is more ideological. For anyone to do research on anything or seek help on it, he / she has to assume first that he / she doesn't know enough. That is hardly the case for Pakistani politicians. Most of them think that they know enough already. There are only a handful of budding politicians (and even few from the existing ones) who like reading books.