Malik M Ashraf
NEEDLESS to emphasize that Pakistan is confronted with grave challenges in regards to the state of economy and threat to its security. To be able to deal with both these challenges political stability and peace in the country are absolutely imperative which regrettably remain elusive due to the confrontational politics of the opposition parties. The tragedy is that our politicians and political parties refuse to learn from history and are hell-bent to perpetuate the culture of confrontation at the cost of national interests and democracy. Pakistan is at the cross-roads due to the self-inflicted wounds by our political elite which has an irrepressible proclivity to placing their narrow political ends above the national interests. Though the military dictators are also responsible for weakening democratic institution and democracy in the country yet the fact remains that our politicians and political parties practising hereditary politics are more to blame for the current mess.
In a democratic polity the ruling party and the opposition are two sides of the same coin. The opposition is actually the government in waiting. They are the two sides of the same coin obligated to work for the common cause in their own way i.e. strengthening democracy and state institutions and promoting well-being of the people. Democracy as declared by Abraham Lincoln is a government of the people, by the people, for the people. That is also the spirit of the social contract theory for emergence of the state. Democracy can be strengthened by showing respect to the mandate of the people and allowing the party winning the franchise of the electorate to rule the country for the prescribed tenure. But regrettably it has become almost visceral for our politicians and political parties not to accept the results of the elections if they fail to obtain majority to form the government. The usual response has invariably been to accuse the winning party of being the product of rigging and unleashing efforts to dislodge it, consigning the country to perennial political instability. The current movement by the PDM, a conglomeration of eleven parties, is quintessential of that political culture of confrontation without a legitimate cause.
If the PDM parties accuse the PTI government of being a product of rigged elections, they should have sought redress of their grievances and complaints at the forums provided by the constitution ie the Election Tribunals formed by the Election Commission or knocked at the doors of the judiciary if they thought that they had not been provided justice by those forums. They actually never bothered to adopt that course. By not doing so they have actually expressed lack of faith in the constitutional arrangement in regards to holding of elections and settling electoral complaints. The ostensible reason for them coming together is to pressurize the government to abandon the process of accountability. It is universally acknowledged that accountability is the most important pillar of good governance and democratic polity. The leaders aspiring to win the franchise of the people to rule the country are supposed to stand on a higher moral pedestal with unblemished credentials of not having misused their public position for their personal gains and building fortunes at the expense of the national exchequer.
The unfortunate reality is that most of the leaders and stalwarts of the parties in the PDM are accused of massive corruption. The PTI among other things has been also mandated by the people to hold the corrupt elements accountable for their misdeeds. It is rightly refusing to be blackmailed by the opposition in that regard. Honestly speaking, the leaders charged of corruption instead of adopting negative tactics to pressurize the government must focus on clearing their names if they claim that they have not done anything wrong. They must keep their faith in the judiciary to provide justice to them. By agitating against the government to pressurize it to abandon the process of accountability they are actually insulting the mandate of the people in regards to accountability of the corrupt elements.
Honestly speaking the vicious circle of destabilization of the elected government on the accusations of rigging must stop if the country has to traverse the course envisioned by the founding father. Instead of coming onto the streets the right course for the opposition parties would have been to join hands with the government to reform the electoral system to ensure transparency and fairness and eliminating the avenues which allegedly help in organized rigging or political engineering. In fact we need to change the way we elect our representatives. The single constituency system is not suited to a multi-cultural society like Pakistan. This system is not only perpetuates an elitist culture but is also amenable to rigging and political engineering in which the electables play a pivotal role. They are easily coerced and pressurized to change sides. Keeping them in good stead by any government opens avenues of political corruption.
It is my considered view that for settling the issue of rigging and political engineering we must switch to the system of proportional representation in which people vote for the parties and the parties are allocated seats in Parliament on the basis of the percentage of votes obtained by them, on which they nominate their prospective legislators. In this system, there is zero chance of any rigging or manoeuvring by the non-democratic forces. This can be done through Parliament only by amending the Constitution. It was right time for the political parties to give serious thought to this as well as reforming the accountability apparatus eliminating chances of any sitting government to use it as an instrument of political vendetta.
— The Islamabad-based writer is former Director Administration, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation.
