ISLAMABAD: Chaudhry Riffat Javed owns a grand farmhouse in Chak Shahzad, an area reserved for the rich of the federal capital. He is into the property business.
However, when it came to grab power, he became a landless farmworker to claim a councillor’s seat reserved for the peasants and workers in order to give them voice in the first-ever local government introduced in Islamabad.
The brother-in-law of Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, State Minister for Capital Administration and Development, Riffat used that seat of peasants to seize power. There was space for one deputy mayor in the Islamabad Capital Local Government Ordinance 2015 and candidates were more than one, using the power of money and political muscle to get the coveted position.
The ordinance was thus amended for adding two more slots. Riffat is one of the beneficiaries of this amendment, rising from the position of a peasant councillor to that of deputy mayor. He’s not the only one who manoeuvred the system and usurped the right of landless farmworkers in the absence of any scrutiny from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
A study conducted by The News, in collaboration with Patten Development Organisation, has found about the entry of many property dealers, lawyers and landowners into the Islamabad’s local government system, pretending to be either landless farmworkers or labourers.
Interviews of 37 winners and the examination of election papers of as many as 41 councillors who won on peasant/workers seats have drawn interesting results, which determine how the poor class has been deprived of their right to become a part of a representative government that is headed by a mayor who himself was selected against the only technocrat seat.
Among the peasant/worker councillors examined for this report, 35 percent are businessmen, 15 percent are property dealers, eight percent are professionals like lawyers and only 11 percent are farmers who somewhat qualify for the definition of peasant defined by the ICT Ordinance for LG elections for a candidate to become eligible for this seat.
The nomination papers of 16 such councillors were not available.
There were three reserved seats for peasants/workers in the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation and 50 seats in as many union councils. The formers were selected and the latter were elected.
Neither political parties made any effort during the selection process nor the ECP scrutinised the credentials of contestants in order to bring ahead only the real representatives of this downtrodden class. When the nomination papers were submitted, these councillors declared their occupation as ‘business’, ‘lawyer’, ‘farming’ and agriculturalists. Hardly anyone claimed himself to be a landless farmworker or a labourer. Nevertheless, the returning officers failed in holding them accountable as to how they could contest on the seats they didn’t deserve.
Who is a farmer and who is a worker eligible for the respective seats? This has clearly been defined in the ICT Local Government Act 2015.
Peasant is “a landless farm worker or, a person, who during the period of five years preceding the year in which the election is held, owning less than five acres of land as sole owner for subsistence living.” And worker is “a person directly engaged in work or is dependent on personal labour for subsistence living and includes a worker as defined in the Industrial Relations Acts 2012 (X of 2012).
The Industrial Relations Act 2012 has defined a worker as “a person not falling within the definition of employer.” The employer, as defined by this Act, is “an establishment, any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, who or which employs workers in the establishment under a contract of employment.” Any person responsible for the management and control of the establishment has also been defined as employer.
Even Riasat Ali, who describes himself a washerman in his nomination papers, submitted for the slot of worker councillor, for example, doesn’t fit in the defined category. He is an employer of 13 workers and owns a Honda City car.
Haji Abdul Rahim Janjua, another worker councillor, runs his own property business by the name of Janjua Associates. Raja Saghir Ahmed from Union Council number 8 is the owner of Raja Builders and Property Advisers. The Islamabad Property Centre is owned by Rizwan Ahmed, a peasant councillor from union council number 19. Frontline Property Advisers belong to Muhammad Shafiq Hashmi, a peasant councillor from union council number 45. Abdul Hameed comes to the district assembly sessions on Land Rover jeep but made it as peasant councillor from union council number 49.
There are hardly a few peasants/workers councillors who fall under the defined category. Nevertheless, the majority was elected unchecked as occurred in the general elections of 2013 when many tax defaulters made it to parliament as half of those who were voted to the National Assembly had declared they didn’t file income tax returns.
Riffat, the deputy mayor, didn’t qualify for the selection on the peasant seat by his own admission in the nomination papers. He declared his occupation as “farming” not as a landless farm worker. Further scrutiny determined that he was a lawyer and did property business.
Sajid Abbasi, PML-N Secretary General of Islamabad Chapter, was also selected as a peasant councillor, notwithstanding the fact he’s into the property business. Both of them didn’t return calls when repeatedly contacted for version.
This manipulation is not only limited to the PML-N that together with the PTI are major parties in Islamabad’s local government set-up. As many as 18 peasant/worker councillors won on the PML-N tickets and as many on the PTI tickets.
As the nomination papers for the peasants/workers are now being invited in Punjab, non-deserving individuals are likely to usurp the right of this downtrodden community in absence of any scrutiny by returning officers.
