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THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF PAKISTAN:Senate Polls: Secrecy Breeds Distortion

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Lesson 10
THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF PAKISTAN
Note:  As the verbal content of this lecture and the power-point presentation convey, students have been
provided with a fairly comprehensive outlined of what constitutes the framework and the institutions and
organizations of the political system of Pakistan.
The purpose of this handout is to enable students to appreciate the scope for substantive reforms of the
political system with particular reference to the mode of election to the Upper House of the Federal
Parliament and to the special importance of this legislature.
While the text of this handout has been published in a leading newspaper of Pakistan in 2003, the material has
not yet appeared in a book.
Senate Polls: Secrecy Breeds Distortion
Ideally, the Senate of Pakistan should be a directly elected forum because it is only through such a mode of
election that an Upper House can become the corner-stone of an equitable Federation. A directly elected
legislature with additional reserved seats for women, minorities and technocrats in which all four provinces
have equal representation, and which has financial authority can alone provide the balance and equilibrium in
the distribution of power. The Federation of Pakistan has always been lop-sided because one province's
population is more than that of all the other three combined.
Several attempts had to be made in the USA over many years in the early part of the 20th century before the
American Senate was also converted from an indirectly chosen forum to a directly elected House. Until the
ideal becomes possible, and while retaining an indirectly elected House, a basic, simple change in the
procedure to elect Senators can make a transforming difference to the integrity of the electoral process and to
the stature of the House as a whole.
As the new Parliament of Pakistan belatedly completes its initial, formative phase with the oath-taking of
members and the election of the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman on 12 March 2003, notwithstanding the
controversy over LFO, it is relevant to review the manner in which this particular Upper House has been
constituted.
The fact that the Awami National Party has taken the extreme step of expelling three of its own members of
the Provincial Assembly in NWFP for having "betrayed the Party" during the Senate elections is an example
of the severe distortions that marked the pre-poll phase, such severe distortions being the precise reason why
this writer also decided to retire from the election.
But the issue of severe distortions that adversely affected the elections goes far beyond an individual case.
Virtually every political party, even including the member-parties of the ruling coalition at the Centre known
as the Grand National Alliance has been affected by irregularities and malpractices. Neither the so-called
"religious parties" which are, in theory, supposed to be paragons of virtue compared to the "non-religious
parties" remained free of ethical pollution nor did those parties claiming to be the custodians of
constitutionalism and democracy which accuse the ruling coalition of various sins remain untouched by
aberrations in the pre-poll phase.
Allegations of kidnapping MPAs to secure their votes come side by side with charges of straightforward vote-
buying as also the, unwillingness of some party MPAs to abide by their party leaders' directives about which
candidates to support.
Such pre-poll distortions have compounded the intrinsic paradox which is partially the result of the first-past-
the post system used to elect the National Assembly and the Provincial Assemblies. The party that polled the
highest votes on 10 October 2002, i.e. about 25 per cent is represented in the Senate by only 11 members, i.e.
about 11 per cent.
Perhaps the root cause of the problem in the Senate polls is the secret mode of voting for candidates.
Whereas there is an essential requirement for privacy and secrecy when a voter marks a ballot in a direct
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election in favour of a party or a candidate, the use of secret voting in the indirectly elected system by which
Senators are chosen, creates the scope for both corruption and coercion.
There is a special irony of contrasts when it comes to the subjects on which votes are taken and the modes of
voting. On issues concerning fundamental national interests, be they Constitution-making or Constitution-
amending, be they matters of public policy with regard to legislation in any sphere or, for that matter, be it in
the election by the National Assembly of the Leader of the House where voting is by audible, verifiable
"ayes" or "nays" or the mode of "division", with every member having to stand, and be seen by the world
and be counted or be seated, as the case may be, when it comes to abstentions! in the case of electing
members to the Upper House, the method used is furtive and unverifiable.
In 2003, the Senate elections have also demonstrated a new crudity of intervention and manipulation by
officials claiming to act on behalf of State institutions, which, in any case, have no mandate to interfere in
political party affairs. The 1985 Senate elections held under martial law on a non-Party basis and, therefore
theoretically offering far greater scope for covert manipulation by non-political forces, remained free from the
kind of blatant, up-front role played in 2003 by officers of an intelligence organization.
Yet the decline in norms of conduct is not confined to official agencies. One sad manifestation of the
deterioration came on the very day that I was going to address a letter to the Returning Officer informing him
of my decision of retirement from the election. On walking into my office from an early morning outside
appointment, I found a lady waiting to see me. She claimed to have met me on an earlier occasion which I
could not recall. She then proceeded to say that she had come on behalf of a woman MPA who had heard of
my candidature for election to the Senate. When I acknowledged that I was still a candidate but was not aware
of why her visit was taking place, she provided the not-so-subtle hint that her MPA friend may be favourably
inclined to cast her vote for me if we could "discuss the matter further".
After thanking her for her interest, I requested her to convey my advice to her MPA friend to the effect that
the MPA should fully abide by whatever decision her party made with regard to her vote and to remember
that the votes by which she was elected and the vote that she was about to cast are sacred trusts. Immediately
after this uninvited sermon from me, when I informed the visitor of my decision to retire from the election
that very day and offered her a cup of tea, the lady had no time to spare for my hospitality though she had
previously waited patiently for me for well-over an hour!
The most disquieting aspect of the episode was that, whereas in 1985, as an independent candidate
successfully seeking support from other independent MPAs elected on a non-Party basis (even though many
MPAs were members of various factions of the Muslim League, and of the Jamaat-i-Islami, JUI, JUP, etc.)
one had never been approached by an MPA, or a representative, soliciting payment in return for a vote. But
then, time brings progress!
There is no bias intended in revealing the gender of both the person representing the MPA and the MPA
herself. The gender is entirely incidental. Some male MPAs are as, if not more, willing to sell their votes. It is
even more important to emphasize that the majority of MPAs preserved their values and practised discipline.
This is specially relevant because there is a tendency to portray legislators as being fickle and unreliable. The
weaknesses of some legislators have tainted the reputation of all those who are otherwise honourable persons,
and have sullied the electoral process.
To off-set this unseemly attempt, there was also the generous and unsolicited offer by three MPAs from two
parties other than my own to give me their first preference votes without any consideration whatsoever,
disregarding their parties' directives. For reasons that need not be detailed here, I was not willing or able to
accept their very kind offer. The point of citing this instance is to show that even while some persons were
succumbing to various temptations and pressures, there were also others willing to vote entirely by
conviction, and without any compensation.
Another disturbing trend in these Senate elections was the whimsical and capricious role played by the
leaderships of several political parties in the allocation of Party tickets and in the decisions to extend support
to particular candidates. Instead of practicing the principles of internal party democracy and consultation to
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respect the views of party workers and leaders, many tickets were allocated on the personal preferences of
party heads or of a small faction of the party favoured by the party leader. In several instances in various
parties, individuals who have served the political process with devotion for a long period and have worked
tirelessly for their respective parties were by-passed in favour of persons known only to the party leader, or
for persons who are able to make large donations to the party to secure the party ticket.
There is also a need to conduct drastic reform of the method by which political parties allocate party tickets
to candidates. Decisions should be based on the views of the respective constituency units, be that at district
or provincial level so that their binding force cannot so easily be over-ruled by a sole party leader or by a
small faction. A party leader should always have a margin to exercise individual discretionary preference, but
such a margin should be minimal, and not, as at present, maximalist.
The revelatory aspect of the final chapter in the formative phase of the new Parliament is that, despite the
previous chapters having been decisively shaped by a Party-based system that minimizes the role of individual
independent candidates, elections to the Senate in 2003 featured the weird spectacle of MPAs being directed
by their party leaders and by the covert interventionists to cast their votes for certain independent candidates
who had no previous linkage with their respective parties!
In such circumstances, it is possible to make only an informal and approximate estimate of the extent to
which these distortions affected the outcome. This writer's assessment is that about one-fourth or one-fifth
of the results were manoeuvred. To state this is not to demean the dignity of an elected forum: it is to
underline that a 20 per cent scale of distortion is quite substantial and is unwelcome. Given reforms, it is also
easily avoidable.
An open, transparent, non-secret basis for electing members of the Senate through the existing indirect
method will, at one stroke, eliminate the scope for the non-accountable use of bribery, intimidation and
manipulation. It will give unprecedented credibility to the composition of the Senate and a moral strength
that is direly needed for the Parliament of Pakistan.
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Table of Contents:
  1. THE UNIQUE NATURE OF THE PAKISTANI NATION-STATE
  2. “PAKISTAN: THE FIRST 11 YEARS 1947-1958” PART 1
  3. “PAKISTAN: THE FIRST 11 YEARS 1947-1958”PART-2
  4. ROOTS OF CHAOS: TINY ACTS OR GIANT MIS-STEPS?
  5. “FROM NEW HOPES TO SHATTERED DREAMS: 1958-1971”
  6. “RENEWING PAKISTAN: 1971-2005” PART-I: 1971-1988
  7. RENEWING PAKISTAN: PART II 1971-2005 (1988-2005)
  8. THE CONSTITUTION OF PAKISTAN, PARTS I & II
  9. THE CONSTITUTION OF PAKISTAN, PARTS I & II:Changing the Constitution
  10. THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF PAKISTAN:Senate Polls: Secrecy Breeds Distortion
  11. THE ELECTION COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN:A new role for the Election Commission
  12. “POLITICAL GROUPINGS AND ALLIANCES: ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES”
  13. THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS AND INTEREST GROUPS
  14. “THE POPULATION, EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS OF PAKISTAN”
  15. THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT POLICY 2005:Environment and Housing
  16. NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY 2005:The National Policy, Sectoral Guidelines
  17. THE CHILDREN OF PAKISTAN:Law Reforms, National Plan of Action
  18. “THE HEALTH SECTOR OF PAKISTAN”
  19. NGOS AND DEVELOPMENT
  20. “THE INFORMATION SECTOR OF PAKISTAN”
  21. MEDIA AS ELEMENTS OF NATIONAL POWER:Directions of National Security
  22. ONE GLOBE: MANY WORLDS
  23. “THE UNITED NATIONS” PART-1
  24. “THE UNITED NATIONS” PART-2
  25. “MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS)”:Excerpt
  26. “THE GLOBALIZATION: THREATS AND RESPONSES – PART-1”:The Services of Nature
  27. THE GLOBALIZATION: THREATS AND RESPONSES – PART-2”
  28. “WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO)”
  29. “THE EUROPEAN UNION”:The social dimension, Employment Policy
  30. “REGIONAL PACTS”:North America’s Second Decade, Mind the gap
  31. “OIC: ORGANIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE”
  32. “FROM SOUTH ASIA TO SAARC”:Update
  33. “THE PAKISTAN-INDIA RELATIONSHIP”
  34. “DIMENSIONS OF TERRORISM”
  35. FROM VIOLENT CONFLICT TO PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE
  36. “OIL AND BEYOND”
  37. “PAKISTAN’S FOREIGN POLICY”
  38. “EMERGING TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS”
  39. “GLOBALIZATION OF MEDIA”
  40. “GLOBALIZATION AND INDIGENIZATION OF MEDIA”
  41. “BALANCING PUBLIC INTERESTS AND COMMERCIAL INTERESTS”
  42. “CITIZENS’ MEDIA AND CITIZENS’ MEDIA DIALOGUE”
  43. “CITIZENS’ MEDIA RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES”Exclusive Membership
  44. “CITIZENS’ PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING”:Forming a Group
  45. “MEDIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY”