Electables are harmful for democracy. Political parties are built around ideologies not individuals. In parliamentary democracy, every seat is counted. One has to have a simple majority in the house to become the Prime Minister (PM), who is the Chief Executive of the country. The political and executive domains should be handled separately. In a presidential form of government, the president has complete freedom to pick up his team while in our system the PM is required to form the cabinet from within the elected representatives.
In our checkered political history there have been only two representative cabinets. After detailed review of the members elected in the 1946 elections, Quaid-e-Azam picked up a cabinet of six ministers with Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan as the PM. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) also picked up a very able thirteen-member cabinet of those elected in the 1970 free and fair elections. As PMs, both worked very hard and served the nation to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately, they met tragic ends; in both cases democracy badly suffered.
In the last forty years (1977 to 2017) the cabinets of electables have been disastrous for the country. Instead of good governance and service to the people, their focus has been on strengthening their influence to maintain their electability. Compared to the small cabinets formed by Jinnah and ZAB, an army of ministers takes over which is a big burden on the national exchequer. Electability has to be replaced with merit in the PM House.
‘Kaptaan’ is almost there; he now heads the government in waiting. Will he follow the course of Quaid-e-Azam and Quaid-e-Awam by forming a small, but able cabinet that can start to deliver from day-one without any unlearning? Or will it be business as usual with the same electables and no delivery?
For the sake of good governance, electables have to be kept away from executive authority, otherwise the mismanagement will continue. They are always the first to jump the ship, and conveniently hop from party to party to ensure continuation of status-quo through their local control of administrative setup mainly through three departments: Revenue, Education and Law Enforcement. Under political interference, these departments cease to function.
At the Minar-e-Pakistan Jalsa of PTI on April 29, 2018, the electables came in droves. Perhaps they have sensed the direction of the wind. ‘Kaptaan’ is almost there; he now heads the government in waiting. Will he follow the course of Quaid-e-Azam and Quaid-e-Awam by forming a small but able cabinet that can start to deliver from day-one without any unlearning, or will it be a business as usual with the same electables and no delivery.
With their vast political experience, the electables can focus on legislation within the parliament. Policy frameworks can be improved to benefit the voters. Devolution of power will also be achieved by separating the policymakers from the implementers. It is time to strengthen the legislature by keeping the heavyweights there instead of tasking them with executive chores. In the words of ZAB, Ya mathai ki daukan nahi ha (This is not a sweet shop). The party at the cost of the nation must come to an end. Four decades and ten manipulated elections with dirty laundry in the PM House every time should be enough. Governance is too serious a business to be left with the oldies, who have been repeatedly tried but failed. A new beginning has to be made in 2018 when a fresh PM takes oath of office with an untarnished team of cabinet members.
We have been talking against the ‘Sardari Nizam’ for a long time. Wali Khan claimed that his party had suggested an amendment to end the system in the seventies which was not implemented. While ‘Sardari Nizam’ mainly affects the province of Balochistan, the other three provinces are in the control of electables. For the sake of democracy and development they have to be dealt with. ‘Sardars’ have been running their fiefdoms for decades, their control and influence is overwhelming. It will not be easy to sideline them. In United Kingdom (UK), the mother of parliamentary democracy, a ‘House of Lords’ was created to accommodate the Lordships where they could only debate and advise. It is the ‘House of Commons’, that legislates and its leader acts as the PM.
There has to be a negotiated settlement for the Waderas and other ‘same old’ electables that dominate and manipulate our politics with the connivance of the administrative machinery
There has to be a negotiated settlement for the Sardars, Waderas, Electables etc that continue to dominate and manipulate our political system with the connivance of the administrative machinery. Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seems helpless against these power centers. In the last elections of 2013, Imran Khan pointed out four test constituencies; after over four years all four of the PML-N stalwarts have been unseated, clearly indicating serious flaws in the electoral process and the available corrective remedies.
Election Tribunals are stopped by courts who grant unnecessary stay orders. The influence of electables plays a dominant role here as well. In case of Ayaz Sadiq, the Speaker, and Saad Rafique, the Minister for Railways, it took over three years to get the stay vacated from Lahore High Court.
The tribunal unseated both of them. Ayaz Sadiq went for reelection and won back his seat by using the same old tricks while Saad Rafique is still there because of a stay granted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP). The term of the current assemblies is about to end while the political rogues still remain in the system.
Now that political cleansing has started, it should continue till the system is cleansed of all rogue elements. Their containment in the parliament should be the first step. Executive authority has to be insulated from the electables to make them accountable and perishable for the will of the people to prevail in the true sense. Let the crusade begin by confining them to the parliament away from the PM House.
The Writer is Ex-Chairman, Pakistan Science Foundation. He can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, May 22nd 2018.