Daily Times

The ‘simple’ majority of Punjab in the National Assembly has been one of the ‘irritants’ fomenting discontent in the smaller federating units, especially Balochistan. It would be pertinent at this point to recall two examples from our history, one from the pre-partition and the other from the post-partition period. In the united Punjab, Muslims, despite constituting 55 percent of the population, voluntarily settled for 45 percent share of seats in the legislature, in the interests of inter-communal harmony in the province. The other example, a patently negative one, was the imposition of the so-called Parity Formula (1956-70) by which the majority status of East Pakistan was forcibly subverted and brought at par with West Pakistan’s. It is noteworthy, however, that the former Punjab province (after its merger into One Unit of West Pakistan) had agreed to accept 40 percent of the total seats in the then West Pakistan assembly.

In the united Punjab, it was done to ensure inter-communal harmony. In the framework of West Pakistan, it was done for the sake of ‘strengthening’ One Unit. If Punjab today once again demonstrates the same large-heartedness as it did twice in the past and agrees to 48 percent of the total seats instead of its population-based entitlement of 53.4 percent, it will amount to making a significant contribution to strengthening inter-provincial harmony and national unity. The 5.4 percent seats thus made available should be allotted to Balochistan, raising its total from five percent to 10.4 percent (i.e. raising its seats from 17 to 36). Consequently, the number of the National and provincial Assembly constituencies in the province will need to be correspondingly increased. Such a gesture will help to provide the people of Balochistan a fairly balanced representation in the National Assembly and a sense of participation in Pakistan’s parliamentary democratic process. Eventually, it will help Pakistan to emerge as a vibrant, progressive and parliamentary democratic state.

There should be a suggestion for increase in the number of seats in the National and provincial Assemblies, and a rationalisation of budgetary provisions for MNAs and MPAs. Ensuring full, inclusive representation of the entire people of the country in the elected bodies is the prime objective of a free and fair democratic election. Presently, the strength of the National Assembly (342 seats) is too small to meet this requirement. It will be in the fitness of things if the number of seats in the National Assembly is raised to 500 and of the provincial Assemblies in the same proportion. This would ensure a fair and equitable representation to the people of all the federating units on the one hand and all the marginalised and deprived sections of society — labour, peasants, women, non-Muslims, etc, on the other.

By rationalising the budgetary provisions for MNAs and MPAs covering their travel, accommodation and other facilities, sufficient funds can be generated to take care of the legitimate needs of the increased number of MNAs and MPAs. The best way to achieve this objective is to apply certain restrictions on the free of charge facilities availed by MNAs and MPAs, who possess more than sufficient means to fend for themselves. This should apply to members whose authenticated incomes exceed the minimum taxable annual income or five times the national minimum wage in vogue. Such members should be content with a reasonable allowance to compensate for their attendance in Assembly sessions. For instance, from Multan, Lahore and Peshawar, MNAs can travel to Islamabad by road instead of by air and those owning their own apartments/bungalows in Islamabad-Rawalpindi would surely not need accommodation in parliament lodges and MNA hostels. The same reasoning can apply to MPAs travelling to their respective provincial capitals and to their accommodation during Assembly sessions.

Amends may be made for the demographic disorientation of Sindh caused by the incessant inflow of migrants from outside, which threatens to numerically overrun the Sindhi population, apart from effective measures by government to regulate/control/restrict it. In the National Assembly, 55 percent of the seats from Sindh and a similar percentage of seats in the provincial Assembly shall remain permanently allocated to indigenous Sindhis, with iron-tight constitutional guarantees against its violation.

Some essential steps to promote participatory democracy and federalism:

1) Proportional representation and a party list system.

The system of proportional representation has its roots in the recognition of the fact that power and wealth in most societies are always unevenly distributed and this imbalance prevents a vast section of society from being represented in parliament and other elected bodies, thus negating the principle of democratic representation and participatory governance. It is thus meant to institutionally regulate and eventually moderate the role of power and wealth in the electoral process, through direct participation of the less privileged and marginalised sections of society in the process of legislation and policy-making.

Ideally, in a country like Pakistan, if one wants to correct the existing state of imbalances and anomalies, the entire election should be held on the basis of proportional representation. It may not be possible to adopt this system in toto for the coming election, which is fast approaching. To pave the way for such healthy changes in the system of elections in the future, the following steps are suggested:

Elections for 50 percent of the seats shall be constituency-based, which would naturally mean representation of the elite class who alone could afford to contest the constituency-based seats.

In order to facilitate the participation of persons with limited or no means — the marginalised sections of society — the election to the remaining 50 percent seats shall be conducted on the basis of proportional representation/party list.

The formula of 33 percent labour-peasants and 33 percent women in all elections and elected bodies shall be ensured. Alternately or until necessary constitutional, legal and administrative mechanisms are put in place, the political parties committed to a democratic political order shall voluntarily ensure that their nominated candidates shall comprise 33 percent labour-peasants and 33 percent women.

2) Participatory democracy at grassroots level.

A genuine federal democratic system is incomplete without the establishment of a truly democratic local government system, empowered to address people’s problems at the local ‘grassroots level, free from bureaucratic meddling and red-tape. The anomaly in Pakistan has been that the local government system has been misused by dictatorial rulers to serve their vested interests at the cost of its defined task of serving the people at the lowest tier of the social structure. On the other hand, the elected political governments have displayed a studied apathy for the institution itself as they apparently regarded it as an encroachment on the freedom of action of the elected members of the provincial Assembly. The bureaucracy has its own axe to grind in not allowing a genuine representative local government system to function freely as that would erode their dominant status in the overall administrative system of the province. It is, therefore, imperative to give the local government system its due place in the democratic polity and provide it iron-clad constitutional protection to prevent its blatant misuse by dictatorial regimes and calculated disuse by elected political governments.

Seats of non-Muslims.

Non-Muslims have been raising their genuine grievance that while the total number of seats in the National and provincial Assemblies have been increased from time to time, automatically raising the number of seats of Muslims, the number of seats allocated to non-Muslims has remained static at 10. This anomaly needs to be rectified and the seats for non-Muslims should be increased in all representative bodies in the same proportion as the seats of the majority community have been increased.

(Concluded)

The writers are veteran political and labour activists associated with PILER, Karachi