PPP’s exercise in futility

Two weeks ago, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) submitted to the Senate Secretariat a bill seeking an amendment to the Elections Act, 2017, with an aim to repeal the controversial clause that allowed a person ineligible to be elected as a lawmaker to become an office-bearer of a political party. According to PPP sources, the bill would come on the agenda on the first private member’s day in the next session of the Senate expected to begin from October 23rd, 2017. Last month, Electoral Reforms Bill 2017 was passed by the Senate despite the fact PPP and other parties were in majority. How it happened is shrouded in mystery as yet. Now, they may get the proposed passed in the Senate, but in the National Assembly PML-N has absolute majority; therefore it is unlikely to be passed by the National Assembly. Hence, it is an exercise in futility.
In Pakistan, amendments to the Constitution in the past were made with great fanfare. At least, two clauses in the Eighteenth amendment made top leaders of political parties as virtual dictators. One was the deletion of sub-clause 4 of Article 17, which had stated: “Every political party shall, subject to law, hold intra-party elections to elect its office-bearers and party leaders”. This was an effort to hoodwink the people because there is a marked difference between the requirement in the political parties act and a provision in the constitution adopted by two-third majority of the Parliament. The second one was an amendment to Article 63-A with regard to disqualification of a member on the grounds of defection by the ‘Head of the party’ instead of head of the Parliamentary Party. The self-styled custodians of democracy are in fact authoritarian leaders, who dictate party policies, because parties are run as dynasties.
The system of electoral democracy empowers the voters to take away the powers of elected members, if they fall short of popular aspirations and or grossly violate fundamental ideology. While the system adequately provides procedure to impeach the public office holders, the elected representatives go scot free. Unfortunately, Pakistani democracy depicts different ground reality, as voters after having elected their representatives virtually become subjects of powerful elite who ride a rough shod over them and shatter all hopes of voters by neglecting their problems, financial difficulties and psychological distress. Promises made during election campaign are forgotten, while perks of public offices are fully enjoyed. Irony of the fate is that same elite group gets elected over and over again and election campaigns are held as rituals, because top leaderships of the political parties have assumed unprecedented powers by amending the constitution through 18th amendment.
Economic disparity, socio-economic injustice, rampant corruption, rising crime rate, energy crisis and ineffective criminal justice system especially in lower courts are the challenges facing the nation that must be met. If measures are not taken to improve the lives of the teeming millions, the rulers could meet wrath of the people. The general thinking among politicians is that nobody should question them during their 5-year tenure in the government, taking the plea that people will reject the party if it fails to deliver. But holding elections after five years does not mean that people cannot ask the government to fulfill the promises made in the manifestos during elections. It should be borne in mind that the concept of democracy and human rights dates back to the Age of Enlightenment and French Revolution, which was revolution of capitalists against feudalists, and in its ‘time and space’ was indeed a step forward in the development of human society.