Law and the law-makers

It seems that those with any power appear to believe they are above the law and not expected to conform to it.

The upholding of law is always welcome news in our country, given that there is often a failure to comply with the requirements laid down in books. The Election Commission's move to temporarily suspend 141 lawmakers for not declaring their assets is therefore something to be welcomed. It is true that the declaration of assets is not a particularly useful exercise, given that there is no mechanism in place to determine the authenticity of what the parliamentarians put down, but nevertheless the exercise provides us with some valuable information about those who represent us and may also place on them some degree of pressure to hold themselves accountable to electoral laws.

It is, from some perspectives at least, interesting that the leader of a major religious party, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and his brother are among those suspended. Since they are men who talk so often of morality, we expect to see them set a personal example by following the election rules laid down. The same holds true in the case of the two federal ministers on the list. We hope that this will be made clear to the errant ministers by the prime minister who must remind all members of his Cabinet to lead by example. It is worrying that so many of the men — and women — whose task it is to make laws should themselves be so lax in abiding by those that are already in place. The grace period given to them since September 30 was ignored. It seems that those with any degree of power, including members of our national and provincial assemblies, appear to believe they are above the law and are not expected to conform to what it says. The ECP action should help them recognise that this is not correct and that they need, in fact, to be the first to follow laws in order to avoid the kind of embarrassment they face now, as names appear in headlines.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2010.