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Political finance refers to all sorts of funds that are utilized for various political purposes. Such purposes may cover election campaigns, political contests, policy development by parties, and training activities and so on and so forth. The reporting of political finance involves different sources of income and particular expenditure items, for instance, offices & staff, radio, TV, advertisements via print media, campaign material and opinion polls. The effective reporting of all categories of fund raised & spent is essential for a transparent political system but unfortunately, the current scenario is totally opposite. It is very awful to realize that corruption has plagued our beloved country since its inauguration. The worst part is that with the passage of time it has become a wide spread phenomenon and government of Pakistan failed to cut it down. Corruption is constantly becoming a matter of concern. It not only damages the social contact between government and its people but also a continuous threat to the integrity of the political parties of Pakistan. The core of corruption lies in embezzling the public funds that consequently leads to violation of human rights and puts democracy at risk. Through financial and political corruption, misuse of power and nepotism, the leaders are amassing extensive private fortunes while leaving their constituents in poverty. According to a report issued in 2012 by Transparency International Pakistan, the country has become more corrupt by achieving ranking number 33 from the previous 42. A total corruption of almost Rs. 12,600 billion is estimated in past five years.
Although there are multiple anti-corruption laws yet they have certain gaps and lacking in terms of implementation. The report by TI inscribes certain features of a powerful anti-corruption legislation must have following features:
A. Transparency legislation featuring following points:

Reporting of conflicts of interests;
Disclosure of assets by state officials and politicians (before & after appointment and annually during the appointment as well);
Freedom of information law- this information should be publically accessible.
B. Corruption Legislation featuring following points:

Defining the problem;
Ensuring whistle blowing protection legislation-that is meant to protect federal whistleblowers working for the government and reporting agency misconduct. This law is violated when any agency authority retaliate personal act against any employee due to that disclosure of information.
This simple legislation outline provides the basis for the effective implementation of the relevant laws in the political finance area. The transparency in political finance can be obtained via availability as well as accessibility of the disclosure information. Enhancing transparency in political finance system will be helpful in mitigating and illuminating the influence of illegal and corrupt practices. At the same time, it will benefit those who obey rules. Pakistan stands first in introducing right to information act in South Asian countries, however legislative bodies need to make legislation stronger followed by an effective implementation of these laws. Current legislation pitfalls have frustrated Pakistanis for too long. They are now looking forward for some positive changes in legislature for justice, rights, and security in their country. The political parties in Pakistan can work on existing framework of the political finance. Based upon international best practices, it can be further revised and improved and can help leading useful foundation for an effective legislature in our country.

The views expressed by this guest blogger and the comments given by any visitor do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the pakvoter.

Ever since the war on terror began, Pakistan has been sufferring from the malaise of we cant do it. Its either we can’t meet our debts or we can’t combat these militants or we can’t fly a plane straight or we can’t take care of our own (floods 2010) The point being that negativity is at a full time high and the same mantra has been repeated again and again till is become ingrained in the back of all our minds.

So obviously when it was time for the elections this year the same old demons started rearing their heads. Initially it was hard enough getting all parties to agree on one leadership for the election commission but once Fakhruddin G Ebrahim was selected and put into place unity began to shine through the cracks of naysaying. Although the task in front of him seemed so monumental many doubted that the elections would ever take place.

Amidst desperate attempts by conspirators and talibans alike, with the background of bombs exploding and security on high alert the fact that we still managed to pull off Elections 2013 and with a 55% record turnout is nothing short of extraordinary.

Was it a perfect process though? Obviously not but what electoral process is perfect? There are gaps everywhere, some of those in the form of revoting in areas with ballot issues have already taken place and the rest are pending in the courts. By and large however all parties have accepted the mandate of the people and moved on. Why shouldn’t they? When the mandate itself seems to be completely at par with the national narrative at the moment.

For the future however the election commission needs to use more technology, even though the pictures of voters on forms this time next to names via NADRA was appreciable. Bio metric scanners need to be in place especially in districts where there is a history of electoral fraud to ensure further transparency in the electoral process. The media too needs to move beyond the drawing board scenario analysis and have exit polls which actually make any sense. Going on to announce who had won based on a 2% sample does not an exit poll make!

All being said and done, we have proven to ourselves that if there is political will a successful transition from one democracy to another is possible in this nation. Now we the people of Pakistan have to make sure that these transitions become a norm rather than a rare occurrence in the elections to come. For only through successful elections in the future can we be able to as a nation exercise our right of choice, so thank you ECP and please keep it up!

The views expressed by this guest blogger and the comments given by any visitor do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the pakvoter.

Civic education is also known as democracy education or citizen education and it broadly implies to the provision of learning experiences and knowledge to citizens in order to empower them to contribute effectively in the democratic mechanisms. The basic goal of this education is to support democratic as well as participatory governance. Civic education is manifested in many different forms including; classroom-based learning, experiential learning, informal learning & mass-media campaigns. It addresses a wide range of governance and political issues such as civic apathy/post-conflict reconciliation or corruption. In addition, it also takes social issues into account such as drug abuse, domestic violence etc. Overall, this field of study implies to civic knowledge, skills & disposition.
With specific reference to Election Day, the civic education in Pakistan has couple of major implications. First, it promotes participation of citizens in the electoral processes. It is observed generally that individuals who receive civic education, more actively participate in voting, legislation and policymaking, civil and political protests, problem solving initiatives for their community, election campaigns and accessing elected personnel. Second, students of civic education are considered to have sound knowledge about Pakistan and the basic features of its political system, structure & function of democratic bodies, civil/political rights and election timings. One of the most important aspects of civic education in Pakistan is voter education also referred to as electoral education. This type of education is imparted as a component of civic education and also in conjunction with electoral management bodies (EMB). This type of civic education is of immense importance in election context. It generally deals with the dissemination of materials, information, and programs designed to motivate and prepare individuals to participate fully in particular election process. It helps the individuals to understand more complex processes with reference to elections and highlighting significance & implications of voting, voting rights, human rights, roles, & responsibilities of voters, the conditions vital for democracy, and the relationship between democracy & elections. It also make them clear about the nature of electoral politics in Pakistan, eligibility criteria of electoral bodies, registration procedures, voting procedures or Election procedures in Pakistan.
Without civic and voter education, meaningful participation in an election process is not possible. If voters will be well aware of their rights & responsibilities, and legally valid procedures of casting ballots, the Election Day will become smooth and successful. Moreover, this education is crucial in regulating women participation in elections especially in under-developing & post-conflict countries where women do not use to play active role in elections. In this respect civic education can also play effective role by emphasizing equal rights of men and women. It can highlight the role women can play in national reconciliation and reconstruction if they possess knowledge and expertise and if they are given equal opportunities. The civic education must be equally accessible to both man & women. However, it should be ensured that during elections the government-sponsored Pakistan civic education or voter education must be accurate and neutral. It should not favor any particular party and should follow international best practices. The non-governmental bodies, media and local communities can make effective contributions in promoting civic education in election context while nourishing and strengthening all aspects of politics.

The views expressed by this guest blogger and the comments given by any visitor do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the pakvoter.

Recently held elections in Pakistan saw massive criticism due to various rigging incidents in different constituencies of the country. Observers said that at least 10 percent – or 7,000 – polling stations were reportedly rigged to influence the voters. Bogus votes, pressurizing voters, in-availability of ballot boxes, papers and various other similar problems were reported in different parts of the country.
Experts are of the view that overall elections went well and there is no way of making election 100 percent fool-proof, especially at this magnitude and they are right. To be honest, the influence of political parties on the general people is strong, especially in a city like Karachi, that one belonging to political group only needs to go to a person and demand them to vote in favour of his party. This might not have happened in every area of Karachi but I have witnesses, who have openly said that people of certain party came to their homes and demanded vote, failing to do so they will have to face severe consequences in future.
Social media even now is filled with rigging videos that took place in certain polling stations of the country. Karachi wasn’t the only city affected by it. Cities of Punjab, Baluchistan and KPK also faced the same fate. Now the question that arises is that was the electoral system of Pakistan to be blamed for it? Was the system so weak that it could be manipulated so easily? Well, in my opinion, I wouldn’t blame the system. I think that the election commission of Pakistan did a decent job in making the elections free and fair. Then what went wrong? Well, people of Karachi know exactly what went wrong.
People in this city were aware of the threats that posed to the transparency of the elections. The hunger of power, political party who claims Karachi to be their own property was, in my opinion the main reason of rigged elections in Karachi. Besides that, in Karachi every political party has their own area and they did what they could in their area to get the maximum vote out in favour of their party and they succeeded. These political parties are so powerful and their hold is so strong that the election commission cannot do anything about it.
I blame the political parties for not following the electoral system. There power for hunger is so strong that no ethic or social value means anything to them and they will do everything in their power to win. And that is what they did. One thing that needs to be applauded here is the turnout of voters on the day of elections. Despite of the threats and the targeted bombings on campaigns of political parties prior to elections, the turnout was massive. According survey, the turnout ration was 60 to 65 percent compared to the 40 percent in 2008 elections.
The only positive thing that I can take out from these elections is the motivation of people to vote and use their right. The print and electronic media played its part. The role of social media in creating awareness about the elections, and campaigns like Pak Voter, have done an excellent job in spreading the word and getting people out of their homes to vote. The ratio might be low, but at least, this nation is awaking.
Way to go Pakistan!

The views expressed by this guest blogger and the comments given by any visitor do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the pakvoter.

During the last year, we have seen immense political presence in Pakistan’s social media. It started with leaders of almost all political parties garnering an online presence to realising how to market a party as an online brand. It has not been an easy ride for these political parties because our politicians tend to be more than a bit clumsy when it comes to technology and the online crowd is pretty harsh towards anything it deems to be even slightly illogical or rude.
However, during the process of forming party lines online and the practice of select groups of trolls lashing out at detractors, a pleasant new phenomenon has taken place. I have been watching this rather closely and have observed that people have moved from talking about parties and discussing them to now holding them completely and ruthlessly accountable for their actions online.
I suppose this transition took place because educated voters realised that this is, perhaps, the best way to speak out in a system, which is hell-bent on silencing their voice. Quite frankly, today, a person in Pakistan has little or no recourse to justice or speaking out if the issue is not bolstered by social media. This is why, one sees more people holding political parties accountable online for every decision they take. This is also bolstered by the fact that finally, at least in the recent elections, most of the startling news content was produced by the citizens themselves, be it in the form of videos showing rigging taking place or status updates on when they voted and in what conditions.
While it is true that many have in the past scoffed at social media on the basis that the number of people online was too insignificant to make a difference, as per information provided by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the number of people using social media in the country is just under 30 million. Analytics companies, which make studies out of cookies that can trace a particular browser session, put this number at around 15 to 20 million. Even this is a huge number for a country like ours. To break this number down further, Facebook has around 8.6 million Pakistanis on it, while Twitter has just over a million users at present. Absolutely accurate figures cannot be given for social media simply because even as I write, more and more people are joining it, so it is a forever increasing figure. Compare this online reach with some of our mainstream print publications’ circulations and even after factoring in fake accounts, one can see an alarming gap of reach, leaning in favour of online media.
So, now that we are able to put out newsworthy content from the palm of our hand and hold our political leaders accountable, the ball lies in the political parties’ court. They can either embrace this tool more fully and form online complaint centres for people to interact with, as well as suggest public works projects to, or they can, as some currently do, ignore it all to their own doom. I say doom because this election was just a slight glimpse into what a social media-enabled generation can do. In five years, people will be using more efficient and perhaps, even securer means of communication. So, in the next election, they might go from just reporting and holding political leaders accountable to changing a candidate’s mandate by the power of their voice should he or she not fulfil their standards.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4th, 2013.
The views expressed by this guest blogger and the comments given by any visitor do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the pakvoter.

Have we become so disillusioned with the voting process and politics in general, that we have just tuned out from society at large? I have friends that have told me that their votes don’t matter and that the problems are so big that nothing can make it better, but I disagree. They say that nobody “good” runs for office anymore because politics have become so negative. That it doesn’t matter who the face is, they are basically all the same. While I agree that things have become very negative and some candidates talk more about their opponents’ weaknesses than sharing their own plans or solutions, not voting is not a solution. Even if we feel that parties in general have lost the vision, there have to be some good people still wanting to make a difference. There have to be some good people in politics who are there for the right reasons and who want to be effective leaders.

I think that it’s way too easy for us to disengage and say that we can’t make a difference. It’s too easy to say, “I don’t want to vote because things are such a mess and they will never change.” I also think that we have become a little lazy. We think that if we don’t vote that we are distancing ourselves from any responsibility. We also are too lazy to do a little homework and research to find accurate information about certain issues or certain people. How many of us have actually read the manifestos of the political parties to see what they project as our future? I hear people complaining about everything that is wrong, but none of us really make the effort to see how the various parties are looking at resolving it. We hear their speeches that highlight the important issues without having the time to go into detail, and assume that that is all there is to their party – their speeches! We should do our own research.

Media continues to show that people are disillusioned and angry at the state of affairs. Are we just so angry that we are going to blame whomever we can blame at the moment? I do

feel like we, Pakistanis, have become somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction society that reacts to the most recent headlines and scare tactics without digging deep and finding out the facts for ourselves. With all of the technology that we have at our fingertips today, it’s much easier to do our homework. We just have to take the time to do it. Take an interest. Engage.

At the minimum, take an interest in the things that directly affect our daily life. These things can change with where we are in our life and the lens that we look through on a daily basis. I want inclusive leaders who value everyone’s rights and human dignity of all and I want to vote for someone who will ensure that. What is important to you? Who do you think will fulfill your dream society? What can you do about it? Are all things perfect? No. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely.

I have made it a goal of mine to be educated and informed as possible and to be engaged in the entire political process. Because I do believe that one vote can make a difference. I believe that we, as Pakistanis need to re-engage in the process and do our homework. It’s not that difficult.

URL: http://kamaalkibaat.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/to-vote-or-not-to-vote-why-is-that-even-a-question-for-pakistani/

By Abbas Malik

Pakistan is a country where every human being is a political expert. The entire country is extremely politicized. Whether we’re in our villages, homes, on the street, at work, on Facebook or on twitter, we are always discussing politics. This is irrespective of age, occupation or financial status. Keeping this in mind, we can safely conclude that everyone wants the country to progress and prosper in peace.

Pakistan has been in a bad state for years. Governments have come and gone all saying the same thing yet no government did anything to get Pakistan out of the poor state. Prior to elections 2013, the state of the country was so poor that it made the people realize that they had to take a stand and be the change you wish to see in Pakistan. This led to people realizing their role in voting and the power they possessed in making a change happen.

During the elections 2013 there was more focus on in creating awareness about the role of voter. Campaigns were targeted in electronic and social media to get people out of their homes and vote. The youth played a decisive role in voting this time around. According to the stats revealed by the media, more than 60 percent of the people came out to vote compared to the 40 percent in the 2008 elections. This is more than enough to realize that the people of Pakistan were ready to bring about a change and change the course of the country. This should be kept in mind that elections 2013 process was threatened by the extreme groups and blasts at the gathering of political parties was a big threat to general people who were ready to vote. But the turnout was huge. The people were happy almost as if believing that the change they wanted was here. The elections 2013 result was not as people had expected, especially in a city like Karachi but the positive side of the part was that people came to vote.

Now, We already have a new government running in and things don’t seem to be different than they were in the last government. We can only hope that the new government will make its upmost effort to stabilize the country and get rid of diseases like corruption.

Pakistan Zindabad!
The views expressed by this guest blogger and the comments given by any visitor do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the pakvoter.

As Pakistani public celebrate successful transition of power from one elected government to another through 2013 general elections, some very important questions come up in my mind regarding possible participation of minorities which include Shia Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Ahmedies. Approx figures of non Muslim minorities in Pakistan range from 6 to 10 percent of total Pakistani population. Shia muslims make up to 20 to 35 percent. However, the new wave of violence against minorities in Pakistan namely Shia’s and Christians is a matter of concern. Also almost negligible participation of non Muslim minority candidates in elections depicts the trust deficit minorities have in Pakistan’s democratic system. We also did not see open support by different leading political parties for rights of minorities in Pakistan. May be this is the reason that Pakistan’s minorities did not openly support any political party and decided to vote for their local candidates based on individual preferences.

But despite all above issues, did Pakistan’s minorities participate in these elections? Well the answer can be Yes and No. If we look at voter’s turnout then there is a possibility that minorities did come out to vote, however, did they vote for safe guarding their rights? The answer is No. They voted on individual preferences and for their local Muslim candidates. Murder of Christian Federal Minister Mr Shahbaz Bhatti, attacks on Christian neighborhood in Lahore, killing of Hazara Shias in Balochistan are one of few incidents targeting minorities in Pakistan. With such attacks pacing up, Muslim and non Muslim minorities of Pakistan remain under constant threat from terrorist and fundamental elements. Non Muslim minorities know that blasphemy law can be used against them at any time leading to death sentence with minimal proof. Most of such cases were later reported to be fake and were charged for vested interests of accusers. In these circumstances, and with almost no emphasis on safe guarding rights of minorities in Pakistan by leading political parties, one finds it hard to believe that minorities voted with same zeal and commitment as their Muslim brothers and sisters did.

Both National and Provisional Assemblies of Pakistan have reserved seats for minorities and women. Candidates are nominated based on number of seats won by different political parties. These candidates enjoy equal status as of elected members of assemblies, however can be replaced by nominating political party at any time and their membership is subject to party loyalty.

Surveys have shown that there are 96 constituencies of National and Provincial Assemblies where minorities dominate voter strength and without their support it’s impossible for competing candidates to win. However, these minority voter dominated constituencies are represented by Muslim candidates in NA and PA. The security challenges did hamper minority voter turnout in Pakistan, a lot needs to be done to ensure minorities in Pakistan fully participate in electoral process of Pakistan and their immediate concerns are addressed namely security. The confidence building mechanism have to be undertaken by leading Parties. Minorities should also focus on a single platform like they had early 90’s.

The views expressed by this guest blogger and the comments given by any visitor do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the pakvoter.

After discussing so many different topics related to democracy and the electoral process, in today’s blog we’ll talk about the system of governance currently in place in Pakistan. But before we launch into the whole discussion, here’s a warning: today’s blog will be just a tad bit academic! What’s that we hear? Boring, you said? No, no, we won’t get boring just a little a-c-a-d-e-m-i-c! Bear with us just a for a few minutes of reading and we promise that you won’t be disappointed!
Now without further ado let’s try to understand how the government functions in Pakistan and what processes are followed to keep the system streamlined. The first and most important piece of information that we need to know is that Pakistan follows a system of governance commonly known as “Parliamentary Democracy”. Simply put, a parliamentary system is one in which the executive branch (i.e. in the case of Pakistan its Prime Minister who holds maximum power in the decision making process) derives its legitimacy from, and is held accountable to, the legislature (which is known as the Parliament). Still a little confused? Okay, let’s break it down into steps: in a parliamentary form of government the masses elect a group of parliamentarians. Now these parliamentarians can belong to different political parties or can be individuals. Once the entire Parliament is elected, two or more people are nominated from among the parliamentarians to be elected for the Prime Minister’s seat. The parliamentarians caste their votes and select one of the candidates for the most powerful position (or the executive branch) in the government, i.e. the Prime Minister (PM). The PM is thus dependent on the Parliament for being elected and the Parliament holds the PM responsible for his/her performance throughout the 5 years of his/her tenure. The executive and legislative branches are thus, interconnected and have to work closely woth eachother to ensure efficient and effective governance.
Another fact that is important is that the Government of Pakistan is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan. While we will be discussing the concept of “federalism” in greater detail in the coming blogs, just for understanding the federal government is responsible for governing all the four provinces of a the country, which together form the State of Pakistan.
Further, the government itself is composed of three branches: executive (led by the Prime Mnister), legislative (which forms the Parliament), and judicial (headed by the Supreme Court). The Parliament by passing new laws or amending existing laws defines how each of these branches of governance will function.
Here, we also need to understand that Pakistan consists of a bicameral Parliament. In simple terms this means that the Parliament is divided into two branches, i.e. the National Assembly (which forms the lower house) and the Senate (which forms the upper house). For any bill to be made a law, usually it is first passed by the National Assembly and is then sent to the Senate for Approval. It is only when both the houses approve a bill that it is sent for the President’s signature.
President’s signature? Feeling a little confused because the President is only suppose to be a figure head without any real executive powers? Well, while it is true that the President is a ceremonial head, he however does enjoy certain powes. For instance, the President of Pakistan can pass ordinances (laws that have not yet been approved by the Parliament but can stay in force for three months after which they will either expire or can be made laws if approved by the Parliament) and his signatures are required on any laws (that the Parliament has passed) before they can be officially enforced.
Now there are so many more elements to the functing of the Pakistani state, however we hope that this will help give you a basic understanding. Do let us know if this was helpful!

In the previous blogs we’ve spoken about how the government is run at the federal and provincial levels. In today’s blog we’ll go further down and talk about the Local government institutions, known as “local bodies” in Pakistan. Before going forward it is important to understand that while federal and provincial governments manage things more at the top tier level, it is in fact the local bodies that manage the day to day running of any district and then the tehsils and even villages within these districts.

In lay man’s language, local bodies are essential grassroots organizations that perform necessary administrative functions at the municipal level. The primary purpose of such entities is to ensure that power to manage financial and administrative matters is transferred to the district, sub-district and community level. The importance (if not success) of these institutions in Pakistan was so profound that even though two non-party-based elections took place for local bodies since their inception in 2001 under the Musharraf regime – and despite the fact that they became largely defunct after 2008 as the National and provincial assemblies reasserted their political power – these institutions now continue to operate under a bureaucratic methodology, and their ultimate control has been vested in the provincial government as per the 18th Amendment (more on the 18th Amendment in our coming posts!).

Provinces like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab chose to reinstate the “commissionerate” system – i.e. a system where a bureaucratic appointee of the government is responsible for the affairs of a district – rather than keep the democratic nature of the local bodies system alive, and hold elections to the post(s) of Nazims (mayors) for various districts.

Despite the fact that local bodies have continued to function as non-representative and centrally controlled bureaucratic entities (instead of evolving into the kind of organizations that would suit the effective administration of each district), the offices and powers of the district Nazim have been re-invested into that of the commissioner or deputy/assistant commissioner (depending on size and population of district) who now administer and control the various departments created under the 2001 local government system: with separate, district-level institutions for revenue collection, law and order, health, education, development, civil defence, etc. By forcing representative officers of local bodies to become dysfunctional during and after 2008, and by installing bureaucratic officers to district-level mayoral posts instead of holding representative elections according to the right of democratic franchise, the post-2008 democratic setup in Pakistan – especially the political parties who vowed to restore real democracy to Pakistan and rid it of dictatorship – eventually ended up combining the new local bodies with the age-old, arbitrary and unrepresentative “commissionerate” system, thereby asserting centralized control over the districts from the national (and after 2010, when the 18th Amendment was promulgated, provincial) bases of government and administration.

In the last few years there has been a growing demand by the masses to re-introduce the election based local government system in which citizens will hold the power to elect their representatives to run the affairs at the local level. The Supreme Court of Pakistan in a judgement has also called upon the government to make the local government system democratic to ensure that democracy takes roots at the community level.

Pakistan, as you well know is a Parliamentary democracy with a federal government and four provincial legislatures. In other words, there’s a federal government at the center (i.e. Islamabad) that takes care of national affairs on the whole and then there are four provincial governments that are entrusted with the welfare of the provinces. Have you ever thought why we don’t have Presidential system of governance or any other form and why this particular model was adopted to govern Pakistan? Well, in today’s blog we will discuss precisely that and specifically talk about why “federalism” is important for the country.

Let’s first establish a definition for “federalism”. Simply – but rather academically – put, “federalism refers to a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (such as states or provinces). Need for further elaboration there? No? Great, let’s move on then!

Before talking about why federalism is important for Pakistan, let’s first take a little walk down memory lane and trace its history. Pakistan gained the status of an independent country in 1947, however it took us nine years after independence to present the first institution in the Constituent Assembly. In 1954 the assembly was dissolved by the Governor General without any constitutional mandate leading to instability in the political arrangement. The constitutions of 1956 and 1962 were abrogated (i.e. in other words “scrapped”!). in all honesty, the 1962 version of the constitution deserved abrogation because it broke the democratic rules of one-man, one-voter turnout as well as adult franchise and developed a flawed federal structure under which the concept of provinces was finished and the entire country fell under the “One Unit” system! Needless to say, the over centralization of the Pakistani federation resulted in the largest province seceding from the federation. Later, sanity prevailed and the Provinces were revived and One Unit was abolished, however provinces were denied their political, economic and cultural rights resulting in distrust between the federation and the provinces on the one hand and amongst the provinces on the other.

It was in this backdrop that the 1973 Constitution came into existence with consensus amongst all political forces within parliament and the provinces. The constitution promised a federal parliamentary system with provincial autonomy in which fundamental rights and the independence of the judiciary would be ensured. Unfortunately the Constitution of 1973 was not implemented in letter and spirit and military dictatorships led to further centralization.

Thankfully, this imbalance in the federal structure was corrected through the eighteenth constitutional amendment in 2010. Pakistan is now a participatory federation with joint ownership of natural resources. It is quite a paradox that with the exception of the Constitution of 1962, all constitutional arrangements including the Government of India Act, 1935, Constitution of 1956 and the Constitution of 1973 are essentially federal in character though in practice a centralized form of government prevailed in the country. Repeated derailment of the democratic and constitutional process heightened tensions on issues of economic management, provincial autonomy and discretionary powers, particularly those vested in the office of the President of Pakistan. The Eighteenth Amendment has tried to address these issues keeping in view Pakistan’s historical context, its polity and its objective conditions. In other words the Eighteenth Amendment, throws up a Pakistani federalism that learns from the experiences of others but is rooted in the Pakistani reality. The Amendment provides ownership and participation in policy and management of natural resources, increased the legislative powers of the provincial assemblies including those on taxation. In termination, civil society organizations, journalists, politicos and other interest groups have a part to play in managing differences and creating a home grown federalism that is rooted in local polity and ensures unity in variety.

In a nutshell, it took Pakistan 67 years to devise the near perfect formula for federalism but now that it’s finally in place, it is the responsibility of each and every citizen to ensure that it prevails.

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom-Thomas Jefferson

When addressing House of Commons on November 11, 1947, Winston Churchill said that Democracy was the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that had been tried from time to time, he might have in his mind the opportunities of accountability of the rulers that the democracy provides in greater number in comparison with any other form of government. Since democracy is defined as ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people’, it can be said that a citizen plays a pivotal role in the success or otherwise of the democratic system of government in terms of putting the resources to judicious use for the greater good of the society. In other words, what sets apart democratic system of government with any other form of government is the ability of the citizens to hold their elected representatives and public officials accountable. Furthermore, we can also say that if citizens are unable to hold elected representative and public officials accountable, it would become difficult to distinguish democratic system of government from other forms of government in which rulers are unaccountable to their citizens. So, how can citizens ensure accountability of their politicians and officials and what are their responsibilities in this regard?
At the outset, it needs to be understood that each and every voter should not only cast his vote but should be able to cast his/her vote independently, in secret and with dignity to elect representatives to run affairs of the government on his/her behalf. Furthermore, citizens should make sure that they are making informed choices while electing their representatives. If citizens are able to make informed choices rather than those based on rumors, they will be able to reject those candidates who could not protect their interests and did not work for the greater good of the society or are not qualified for such a responsibility. In other words, democracy is such a system of government that allows citizens to contribute to the public accountability right from elections stage of the democratic process. Are elections only way of public accountability in democratic set-up?
Elections are but just one of many ways of public accountability in democratic form of government. In fact, it is responsibility of citizens to ensure public accountability throughout the democratic process right from one general election to the next general elections. Are political parties delivering on the promises made in their election manifestoes? Are the public resources being put to use in judicious manner? How can public accountability be ensured throughout the democratic process?
Citizens should ensure open and transparent functioning of public bodies. This can be done by putting in place procedures facilitating citizens in having access to information held by public bodies as well as proactive disclosure of information by public bodies. In other words, citizens should ensure first enactment and then implementation of right to information laws. The significance of right to information laws with regard to public accountability can be gauged from the fact that over 100 countries have enacted such laws. Furthermore, need for free, independent and responsible media for public accountability can hardly be exaggerated. That is why press is regarded as the fourth pillar of the state as journalists exercise right to information on the behalf of citizens and serve as watch-dog keeping eye on not only the other three pillars of the state i.e. judiciary, executive and legislature but also on everything else in the society which impacts public good.
This post has barely scratched the surface with regard to the significance of public accountability in a democratic set-up. Furthermore, the essential elements of public accountability need to be discussed in greater detail. For example, if it is important for citizens to cast their vote independently, in secret and with dignity to ensure public accountability, then it also needs to be discussed as to how each voter, irrespective of physical impairments, creed, color, gender and status should be able to do the same. Similarly, how it can be ensured that the media is free, independent and responsible and as to who will watch the watch-dog and how? How can citizens use right to information laws to ensure public accountability in a democratic process? These and other questions will be dealt with in other posts.

Vote by strict definition means a formal indication of a choice between two or more candidates or courses of action, expressed typically through a ballot or a show of hands. It is also termed as a choice expressed collectively by a body of electors, a specified group or an individual. In political terms, it is the right to register a choice in an election to a political office in any tier of government. Derived from the Latin word votum meaning ‘a vow or wish’, in political terms it has transformed its meaning to express one’s desire to support an individual, group or party to carry out an agenda(s) or policy(ies) which an individual voter considers appropriate for the welfare of a certain group, community or a nation. In the modern day political systems, where democracy is the most accepted and established international political standard of governance, voting is the preamble or basic foundation for edifice of such a system. Therefore, in order to have strong and effective democratic system, it must be built on strong and transparent foundations, the credibility of which is not questionable. For this to happen, an independent, free and transparent voting is the only option to ensure a strong foundation for democracy in any system. In Pakistan as well, when we urge the citizens to vote in an electoral process, the objective is to make them a part of the decision making process for the future policies to be implemented by their representatives for whom they have voted for. To realize this objective, the foremost priority is to make the citizens confident about utility of such an exercise. In other words, the voters should have faith in transparency of the exercise as well as equal opportunity for all those who participate in this exercise to get elected so that voter has a variety of choice among the candidate to be voted upon. Now two basic questions arise in such a situation particularly in case of Pakistan. First, whether the citizens have confidence in transparency of voting system so that they are sure that their voting has not been tampered with. Second, whether the voters have enough of variety of candidates to vote for a candidate he considers closest to his ideals to translate the policies as he desires appropriate for the country. Though in some sections of the society, there is a general feeling of alienation with the electoral system and unfortunately it also includes the educated and urban elite, it generates an extremely unwanted reaction by this section in the form of reluctance to vote. There is a strong opinion that those who resort to this abdicating posture are the ones who are otherwise supposed to be most active to mobilize the voters as they are likely to be the future leaders of country. Resultantly, this absence of the educated and politically aware voter from electoral arena in fact gives strength to electoral block of voters who vote on ethnic, linguistic, sectarian and tribal lines. Therefore, those having a broader understanding of the national issues and policies themselves leave the field open for the ones having little understanding of the same by leaving the field open for them. In a society divided on ethnic, sectarian, linguistic and tribal lines, any priority for vote on these lines in fact results in the election of public representatives having the same priorities as well as interests which are translated into the larger policy making of country in the form of physical and legislative development resulting in further polarization of society at the national level. Consequently what we see is that a certain group of individuals who are shortsighted with narrow thinking of just their own or their group’s interests, ultimately prevail over long term national policy formulation with patronization of the individuals having same ideas and thoughts just because they were not confronted by the votes of those who have an understanding to give a policy direction to the country. But why this happens. How can the educated elite be made to realize that by not participating in the electoral exercise, they are in fact facilitating those whom they otherwise criticize for taking wrong decisions and making the country move astray from the desired goals. In fact the trend of criticizing the government policies and decisions by just talking in drawing rooms and discussion forums and not coming out on the voting day is sign of an aversion to speak through their elected representatives. This is akin to a perpetual crime against the future generations by making democracy to fail as they say that to make democracy work; we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers as the one who does not vote has no right to complain.

Pakistan is democratic country that has witnessed intermittent elections due to repeated military takeovers. Due to this, the continuity of political processes, democratic development and institutional building in the country remained a dream. In 2013, country experienced the smooth transfer of power from one democratic regime to another because of hence to supposedly transparent, free, and fair General Elections 2013. Nevertheless, currently Pakistan is witnessing political crisis owing to alleged rigging in May 2013 General Elections invoked by some opposition political parties. The accusations and counter accusations have to be judged by the competent commission. However, the alleged or one can say a possible rigging in elections are mainly due to either non-availability or due to non-implementation of strong and effective legal framework related with electoral processes. The laws related with conduct of elections, political finances, and political parties are name of the few. The democratic development of Pakistan being in transition phase, there is need of electoral reforms that must include the requirement of enactment of new laws for political finance regulations and the steps taken to implement the existing one with letter and spirit. Pakistan legal framework for political finance regulation provides for three things, for instance, the prohibitions, limitations, and disclosure. If we review the existing laws, the legal provisions are either vague or incomplete and if available are partially implemented or mostly not implemented at all. Political parties and individual candidates spend funds on electoral campaign which are not strictly monitored according to law by concerned authority. According to law, as stipulated in sections 5 and 6 of ‘The Political Parties Order 2002, the political parties have to maintain bank accounts for party funds, contributions, and disbursement and to submit to ECP annual record. Similarly, sections 49 of the Representation of Peoples Act 1976, provides for limitation of election expenses to 1.5 million through a valid single bank account for a candidate contesting elections for National Assembly seat and limitation of election expenses of 1 million for a contesting candidate of Provincial Assembly seat. Additionally, section 50 of the ROPA 1976 provides for maintenance and return of election expenses constituted of contributions made and expenditures incurred to returning officers. As a matter of practice, after elections only few of the electoral candidates submit returns to ECP. Nevertheless, the returned candidates have to submit election expanses returns unless their official notification of being returned candidates is held by ECP. But, such returns are not counter verified during or after elections. Resultantly, there are observed several incidents of violations of election laws related with election spending. There is need to implement the existing political finance regulations and to enact the ones that are missing to make electoral process of Pakistan more robust, strong and independent of any influences. The need of enactment of new laws would be covered in subsequent blogs.

Should persons with disabilities be part of the electoral process and contribute to the public accountability of elected representatives? Although 98 census puts figures of disabled persons in the country at 2.5 % of the total population in the country, disability organizations have always contested this figure suggesting that disabled population is closer to around 10 % of the total population. This population of persons with disabilities has special needs characterized by the nature of different disabilities. Persons with disabilities have to face multiple barriers owing to their different disabilities. They can only take part in mainstream life if attitudinal, social and physical barriers are removed. Persons with disabilities can only ensure public accountability of elected representatives with regard to the realization of their special needs and creating a barrier free environment if they are able to exercise their vote power. We all know that like any other power, vote power only has value when it can be exercised. Can voters with disabilities exercise their vote power independently, in secret and with dignity like their non-disabled peers? What access barriers do voters with disabilities face while casting their votes? What is the policy of the Election Commission of Pakistan in this regard? People with disabilities face manifold barriers that hamper their participation in the political process. Some of these are attitudinal and others physical About the voting rights of the disabled persons, EC maintains, “Where an elector is blind or incapacitated and cannot vote without the assistance of a companion the presiding officer shall allow him such assistance”. This statement pays greater emphasis on the goodness of human nature rather than providing the equal opportunity environment to the voter with disabilities. It presupposes that allowance of the assistance of the presiding officer will help the disabled voter cast his vote independently, in secrecy and with dignity. This approach is a very limited one and offers assistance only at the polling station. It does not spell out off-site help to those PWDs who cannot come to the polling stations. We need to make Bill of electoral rights for citizens with disabilities part of our efforts to make electoral process inclusive for persons with disabilities. This bill was “drafted and endorsed by participants attending a four-day workshop held from 14-17 September 2002, in Sigtuna, Sweden. This bill calls on all states to meet their obligations in providing equal opportunity environment to the citizens with disabilities so that they could exercise their universal right of equal participation in the electoral process. Furthermore, Election Commission of Pakistan should adopt Standards of electoral access for citizens with disabilities. These standards can be very useful in our context and we will not have to reinvent the wheel. These standards address all issues pertaining to the voting rights of PWDs like non-discrimination, the state’s obligation to “overcome specific difficulties”, the right to a secret vote in public, providing options to the voters with disabilities in deciding the alternative ways they want to cast their votes, assistive voting, off-site voting and promulgation of instructions to the polling staff regarding voters with disabilities. [These standards can be very useful in our context and we will not have to reinvent the wheel. These standards address all issues pertaining to the voting rights of PWDs like non-discrimination, the state’s obligation to “overcome specific difficulties”, the right to a secret vote in public, providing options to the voters with disabilities in deciding the alternative ways they want to cast their votes, assistive voting, off-site voting and promulgation of instructions to the polling staff regarding voters with disabilities. Furthermore, Election Commission of Pakistan should adopt Standards of electoral access for citizens with disabilities.