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Thursday March 28, 2024

The best job in the country

Arguably the happiest occasion for members of the national and provincial assemblies in Pakistan is the holding of elections for the Senate. Those happy days are here again. MNAs and MPAs will soon be exercising the right to elect members of the Upper House of parliament. They have the choice

By Rahimullah Yusufzai
February 08, 2015
Arguably the happiest occasion for members of the national and provincial assemblies in Pakistan is the holding of elections for the Senate. Those happy days are here again. MNAs and MPAs will soon be exercising the right to elect members of the Upper House of parliament. They have the choice to vote for any candidate as it is a secret ballot even though the majority will, as in the past, vote for candidates put up by their parties.
Unlike the MPAs, the MNAs don’t have much room to manoeuvre as they only get to elect the four members of the Senate from the federal capital, Islamabad, as the party strength in the National Assembly is clear and there cannot be any vote-buying.
This has been an agonising wait for the assembly members because around Independence Day last year there was real concern that democracy could get derailed leading to a military takeover due to the long protest campaign of ‘dharnas’ by the PTI led by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri’s PAT. That didn’t happen and the legislators heaved a sigh of relief. Now those elected to the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies in the May 2013 general elections are getting their first chance to enjoy their vote-power and elect members of the Senate.
Suddenly, they are in demand. Their vote has become a precious commodity. Those contesting for the Senate have been approaching them to seek their vote by whatever means possible. If they happen to belong to a political party, their leadership gives them unprecedented importance so that they vote for the party candidates. Being an independent lawmaker provides an assembly member a free hand to bargain for whatever fancies him/her – a possible berth in the cabinet or the job of an adviser, development funds for their constituencies, jobs for their kith and kin or, more often, money in return for their votes.
This is Pakistani democracy at its worst. The sale of votes in Senate polls has taken place in the past and can happen again. It is called horsetrading, with men and women traded instead of horses. Wealthy candidates have won Senate seats in the past even though they contested as independents or were fielded by political parties with weak representation in the national and provincial assemblies. Everyone knew that their victory was bought by buying the votes of unscrupulous MPAs and yet no action was ever taken against those who traded in ballots.
‘Looking the other way’ aptly applies to the ruling political elite and also the law-enforcement and secret agencies that should be taking action against those buying and selling votes, which amounts to putting up for sale the conscience of the person and the future of the nation. There have been exceptions though as certain parties, particularly the ANP, questioned their MPAs accused of selling their votes and punished them by exposing their misdeed, expelling them from the party and seeking their disqualification.
Candidates related to party leaders or good at appeasement have a better chance of getting tickets for the Senate contest. It is not that good candidates don’t get tickets because those loyal to a party and those who have offered sacrifices in the struggle for democracy have also been rewarded with berths in the Senate. Those well-versed in the law and in the working of parliament along with those known for their oratory and intellect have also made it to the Senate in Pakistan. However, the use of money in Senate polls has forced many parties to nominate moneyed candidates able to buy votes and even sometimes pay lawmakers from their own parties.
Some of the buyers and sellers may term it donation or ‘chai-pani’ to justify the payment. Such payments are primarily aimed at pre-empting party lawmakers from falling prey to the tempting offers of money by well-off candidates of other parties or the filthy rich independent contestants. In fact, there have been instances of less resourceful candidates pulling out from past Senate elections despite getting party tickets as they found out that their party’s legislators also expected them to pay to offset their ‘losses’ for rejecting huge offers of cash by other contestants for their votes.
If the MNAs and MPAs are lucky, or luckier one may say, the happy occasion of Senate polls could occur twice during their five-year term. The Senate polls are held after half the senators have completed their terms. The short lifespan of assemblies in the past deprived many lawmakers of the chance to vote in the Senate election. It was certainly a huge loss for them in every sense of the word.
The elections for 52 seats of the Senate that have just become vacant will be contested on March 3. This constitutes half the seats in the 104-member Senate and the outcome will change its complexion not only in terms of the members but also the party position. The PPP, after its poor performance in the May 2013 polls, could lose its dominance in the Senate while the PML-N would make significant gains.
All the parties that fared poorly in the last general elections stand to lose representation in the Senate. It would be a just outcome as these parties have been rejected by the electorate. The PTI’s case is unique as it would make its first appearance in the Senate by winning seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at a time when its directly elected lawmakers have resigned from the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Sindh. Uniqueness truly defines the PTI and its founder chairman Imran Khan, who was the first one to alert everyone that the rate for a single vote in the Senate elections had already reached Rs20 million. His proposal for holding open ballot instead of secret vote to prevent horsetrading also needs to be considered during the consultation for electoral reforms.
Being a senator is probably the best job in Pakistan. The Senate isn’t subject to dissolution and its members are entitled to development funds. Senators don’t have any constituency like the MNAs and MPAs who are held accountable by the electorate almost on a daily basis and chased all the time by voters whose requests and demands aren’t – or cannot – be met. The senators aren’t answerable even to the legislators who may have voted for them. They only need to keep their party leaders amused in whatever way feasible, including sharing their development funds with them.
The Senate, with equal representation from the four provinces along with eight members from Fata, is supposed to protect the interests of the federating units of the country. It has been discharging this task with some degree of success, particularly with regard to defending the rights of the three smaller provinces. However, its role would become more effective if its members are men and women of calibre and are nominated on the basis of their achievements, scholarship and prominence in different walks of life. Those elected on the basis of money would care for their own rather than national interest.
The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar.
Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com