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Thursday March 28, 2024

Why democracy is still a better system

The participation of over 10 million people in the keenly contested local bodies elections, the first held on a party basis in the worst terror-hit Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province, reflected the confidence of the people in democracy. If politics goes to the grassroots level in the coming years it may break the

By Mazhar Abbas
June 02, 2015
The participation of over 10 million people in the keenly contested local bodies elections, the first held on a party basis in the worst terror-hit Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province, reflected the confidence of the people in democracy. If politics goes to the grassroots level in the coming years it may break the centuries old feudal, sardari and tribal system, which still has its grip despite rise of middle class. The key question still remains as how much powers including financial powers are transferred to the UC and village level? And secondly, what is the check on corrupt practices?
The very fact that some 83,000 candidates stood for 43,000 seats made these elections different and reflected people’s sense of understanding democracy and its importance.While Imran Khan and PTI claimed credit of holding elections, its ally - Jamaat-e-Islami, which also holds the portfolio of local bodies, has criticized the provincial government and leveled allegations of rigging. This has put Imran and his party in a highly embarrassing position.
Local bodies are the only nurseries left for bringing political workers in the mainstream after the “illegal ban” on student unions since 1984. Several local bodies elections held on non-party basis had depoliticized the system and as a result the culture of family legacies and birdari strengthened.
It is an irony that successive military regimes used local bodies, councillors nazims for their own interest while the political parties, who always participated in these elections, hardly held LG elections when they came to power.
Some political parties dominated by strong families, feudals and sardars opposed the grassroots level politics. Therefore, one must give credit to Imran and his party. The other parties, which brought leadership from local bodies, are Jamaat-e-Islami and Muttahidda Qaumi Movement.
The rise of Imran Khan after 2008 and his charisma has changed the political climate in the country. Though he belongs to Minawali his party’s main strength came from Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa.
There is no doubt that it was one of the biggest political exercises in the recent past and despite many weaknesses, which need to be corrected, the government did it best to hold free and fair elections. Around 20 people have died in the poll-related violence in the last three days but in the end democracy triumphed.
PTI’s own performance was not up to mark and Imran himself has conceded that they did not get the desired results. But, they are still the leading party, which indicate that PTI has struck roots in the masses.
The incident of arrest of ANP’s most respected leader, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, has damaged Imran and PTI politically and the sympathy wave has gone in favour of ANP. It became difficult for Imran and PTI to defend the “rule of law” in case of Mian Iftikhar, particularly after the victim’s father said that he had never accused Mian Iftikhar in this case. Earlier, the PTI leadership and police said he was arrested on the basis of FIR.
Imran or chief minister Pervez Khattack should not intervene in police work but what they must need to know how such an important leader of an opposition party was arrested, even when even his name was not mentioned in the FIR.
It is good that police remain free from political interference but what they did in Mian Iftikhar’s case was highly non-professional. The concept of “neigbourhood” and “villages” is new to the local bodies system and if properly implemented could bring positive results at the lower level.
The Election Commission should have allowed polling till 9 p.m. as one voter took at least 10 minutes to cast his or her vote since there were seven ballot papers of different colours and each paper carried names of dozens of candidates.
Secondly, the security arrangements were poor, especially when seen in the context of around one dozen people killed in firing incidents. The law and order was the responsibility of the provincial government and the entire blame cannot be placed on the election commission.
Yes, Imran can rightly claim the credit of holding local bodies polls, but it was not for the first time such polls were held by any civilian government. Only months back, local bodies elections were held in Balochistan.
It is true that the record of civilian governments, particularly of PPP, is very poor when it comes to local bodies. For instance, since 1977 three local bodies elections were held under General Zia, two when he was Chief Martial Law Administrator (1979, 1983) and one in 1987.
Later, PPP’s first government did not hold local bodies elections while PML (N) did hold local bodies polls but not in all provinces. Another military dictator, Pervez Musharraf, held local bodies elections in 2001.
Although, it is true that the local bodies elections were held on the directive of the Supreme Court, but PTI had never asked for postponement of polls and wanted to hold it in December, 2013.
The people of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa have once again showed political maturity by not relying on one party or one leader. Some opposition parties particularly Awami National Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam have regained some of their lost position. ANP was completely wiped out from the province in the 2013 elections but has staged an impressive comeback in the local government elections.
The performance of JUI (F) has also improved, while PPP still needs to work hard to regain its position in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa.Can PPP stage a comeback with the return of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari? It is perhaps its only hope provided he really gets power and authority to deliver.
Not much time is left for PPP before the local bodies elections in Punjab in October followed by Sindh. If Bilawal spends some time in Punjab and reorganises the party, one may expect some forward movement for PPP in Punjab.
The LG elections in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa showed why democracy is still a much better system and elections are the best method of accountability.The writer is the senior analyst and columnist of GEO, The News and Jang.