The writer is a PhD Scholar at West Virginia University in the US
As far as qualifications of a candidate in developed democracies are concerned, there are only two qualifications — the lower age limit and the nationality/residency. For the voter, adult franchise is the only rule. There is no other eligibility criterion. It is also believed in Pakistan that the children of politicians should not succeed them as politicians because it is against the ideals of democracy. However, this practice is common in the West. In developed democracies, ‘political families’, such as the Rockefellers, the Kennedies and the Bushes, have played a significant part in US politics. It is also naive to think of a parliament that is packed with ‘common’ people. ‘Ordinary’ or ‘poor’ people are not found in any parliament of the world. Electoral politics is always the job of a ‘few’, not of ‘many’. The reason is simple — ordinary people have neither the money nor the time for politics.
The allegation of massive ‘rigging’ in elections is also untrue. By and large, all elections in Pakistan were fair and free, including the 1977 one. For evidence, just see the record of post-election ‘electoral complaints’ filed in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by the losing candidates. Take the example of the 2002 elections; the ruling coalition had formed the government by a one-vote margin only. In my opinion, the most crucial person who can ensure a free and fair election is not the chief election commissioner, the caretaker prime minister or governor, but the polling agent of the candidate. Rigging is technically not possible on election day if the polling agents are active and vigilant. Let me clear one more anomaly: practices that are considered illegal or unfair in Pakistan i.e., pre-poll rigging, such as the use of money, transfers, gerrymandering, jobs, development projects etc. are considered constitutional/legal in developed democracies. Ultimately, it is the discretion of the people to choose whom they like the most.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan has extra-constitutional expectations from the ECP. His demands regarding the president’s resignation and the dismissal of the ECP are unconstitutional. He basically wants the disqualification of ‘electables’ of the two major political parties, the PPP and the PML-N. Pakistan has a history of such attempts when different regimes used various tactics to disqualify politicians, such as the Public and Representative Office Disqualification Act 1949, the Elected Bodies Disqualification Act 1959, non-partisan elections by General Ziaul Haq, the degree requirement by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf and the dual nationality requirement. This time, some forces are prepared to stretch Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution in order to disqualify ‘electables’. These forces are confident that the courts will certainly disqualify President Asif Ali Zardari in the dual-office case on contempt charges after the dissolution of the assemblies.
In my opinion, the highest form of rigging is an attempt to keep people uneducated, ignorant and dependent. Election is a way to obtain the free opinion of the people. Freedom of the people takes many forms, including freedom of thought and of action. If voters are in chains everywhere, how will they be able to use their right to vote freely? I will give you one example. For people in a society like ours, the ‘vote’ is not more precious than ‘valuables’. When people can easily give their hard-earned income to extortionists, then giving their vote to these rascals is not a big deal either. But our focus is always on fair and free elections, not on fair and free voters/people.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2013.
COMMENTS (14)
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Very nice article Sir and as usual facts based article. The thing is this that we people don't understand that the child whose brought-up is done by the politician will obviously be more sharp in politics and his brain will work as a politician that is a separate issue that he wants to join politics or not or is he interested in working as a politician or not. But if that child's nourishment is being done by such politician who had always payed attention towards his own personal interests instead of being working for securing the national interests then the people are scared to vote for his child because they are more afraid to elect the modern rascal. Secondly, fair elections I totally agree with you that rigging can't be done on the day of elections but yes one can buy the voters before that during their election campaigns but it is not illegal. As its been done in others countries too that you have to convince the voter that your party is the best one in securing the national interest but the people should be enough qualified to think that what is best for them any short-term benefit or long-term facilities. People are innocent and they don't even bother to acquire education because they are busy in earning. We all specially youngsters need to change the way of thinking and we need to understand the real concept of democracy. As we are making our future yet so we can't work as a volunteer but the people who had made their earnings and are spending a retired life can work to solve such causes with their life experiences. I hope best for the future but we all need to improve the thoughts of the people before changing the system, its tough but not impossible.
Meh!! The author rightly reduces the expectations of Pakistanis regarding democracy by pointing out problems that are recognized the world over as in today's democracies. But it is a dangerous argument. Detractors of democracy in Pakistan may as well use the same argument for military dictatorship. Because according to the article, anyway the democracy in Pakistan has no hope of offering anything substantial. So why not Musharraff or Kayani?
One point though: The author goes too far in suggesting that all the elections in Pakistan were fair and free. The stated reason is that political agents were there to ensure the fairness. This is just baloney. Most of the political agents are party fan boys in their respective areas and the post is sometimes a reward for rallying voters at booth level. The agents can be easily intimidated, influenced and many a times they are illiterate and cannot even check the rolls, although they have the advantage of knowing local faces. And rigging is not a uniform process across all stations. Where the ruling party has overwhelming power that the opposition does not bother having a polling agent, it is a field day for the rulers.
Election & getting elected in Pakistan by politicians has become a business & a commercial venture....that is why no worthy work is done to take care of poor peoples problems but deteriorates after the govt of elected politicians are installed....
@Muhammad Irfan: The SC knew it,because it, itself in late 2007 ordered inclusion of about 30million votes in the electoral list which were not originally in the list of 2007 prepared after house to house check by the EC based on CNICs.
Thught provoking article.Excellent commentry on elections and what is reallity that is falsified by majority of us.. He talked about PARODA, but what was aftermath of this act..... ?? That, constitutional assembly of that time was dissolved because that was the attempt to curtail the powers of public representative and eventually Governal general.... I agree with writer that from formation of Pakistan certain reformative steps has been executed, but this is also reallity some hydra-headed evil powers came as hurdle,to which extent the implimentation of these steps are concern. MAJOR RIGGING IS TO KEEP PEOPLE IGNORANT.100 percent true notion.Because education is inevitable for success of whole country, just blaming one another does not going to make any difference,in short we have to admire positve steps too and we should continue our efforts to raise literacy rate..
This article is so disconnected from reality that I don't even know where to start from. Moving on to the issues at hand: it is true that political families are common to a certain extent in developed democracies as well, but they get ELECTED internally based on merit rather than just lineage alone. Secondly, pre-poll rigging is very much a reality contrary to the writer's perception. If you doubt it, please do ask someone from Karachi and they will be able to tell you. Thirdly, the whole idea of bribery and jobs being given in developed democracies, this is an exaggeration because enough organizational and budgetary controls exist within such government agencies to prevent such financial abuses on a mass scale. The case in point is that prior to recent U.S. elections, most of the layoffs occurred in federal / state / county level governments because govt. simply couldn't afford to keep many of these people on the payroll.
Imran Khan's demands were for illegal appointments in the ECP to be termed just that, 'illegal'. Not the dissolution of the ECP, which I think you got after reading too many newspapers and not his actual press statements. Neverthless, there's nothing wrong with asking for better performance, especially from an institution as important as the ECP. We live in a democracy, we better learn to demand better from our civilian institutions rather than shift the blame here and there. . I would support any call for better performance from the judiciary, as with any other civilian institution. In addition, it is my opinion that the present CEC has received enough pats on the back and encouragement, he should now walk the walk. Let's see if he does something (if anything) about the massive pre-poll rigging by our esteemed PM, who blatantly misused FATA's funds for pre-poll rigging and our usual loud anti-terrorism quarters remained silent, surprisingly.
Thje author has compared the democracies of developed nations with that of Pakistan where playing field is unequal. Therefore, certain check on the eligibility criteria or better said certain disqualification criteria ( as a check to enter corrupt and law breaker person having the possibility as a law maker) is required to be in place. Author is right when common men ( voter) can be coerced by using the power of muscle , money and the voter's mindset inclined per his belief without applying the rationale or lack of rationale, importance of his vote or even indifference as to whoever is going to be elected or the indifference towards the election process itself the mandate does not depict the true picture of people's desire.. So i feel the urgent requirement is to make the common men make aware of their right ( to choose the best or the least worst person as their representative depending upon the options) as well as to its result which may likely to improve the economy and also their plight.The wisdom of common men in this regard is unchallengeable. . Surely political parties are not going to do this work of awareness. Another major problem in elections is non availability of the right person to represent as money and the party organisation ( logistics to contest election) play essential role in election winning. Till the inherent flaws of present day election process is not removed we are left with no alternative but to live with it.as all other set up are worst( proved all over the globe).
Excellat article to the point.Fake leaders have no other proper way to come to power but to lie and misguide public by expoliting their ignorance.Pakistan is perhaps the leading country where ignorance level among educated class is highest.The reason behind that ignorance is that they listen too much and pay no attention to criticle thinking.
Is the writer in a state of denial??? how then the supreme court has ruled that the 2008 elections had millions of fake votes??
I believe the writer is naive to write all this...complete opposite to what actually happens in Pakistan..
Imran Khan and un-constitutional are made for each other.
Excellent analysis.
how can u say that there can be no ragging done technically by the president, PM, etc while there were more than 40% false votes out of total casted votes in just previous election.