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THE Senate elections have once again generated intense political debate in the country on how to make the electoral process more transparent and prevent horse-trading. Though belated, the PML-N’s move to end the secret balloting failed to garner consensus among the political parties.
For sure there is a need to revisit the entire Senate election process to make it more credible and representative. But merely replacing secret voting with a show of hands does not present an answer to the broader questions about the indirect system of the Senate election itself.
Apart from the allegations of horse-trading a major issue that has contributed to making the system less credible is that the Senate is not truly representative of the people of this country. It has been noted that indirect elections make it easier for people with financial resources to get into the upper house that represents the federation.
Where the issue of representation is concerned, there have been instances where several members of one family have been in the Senate as well as the National Assembly.
One glaring example is that of Gulzar Khan and his family. A wealthy businessman, Gulzar Khan has been occupying a Senate seat simultaneously with his two sons. It doesn’t matter which party is in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, their success appears guaranteed. Gulzar Khan was first elected in 1994 as the youngest-ever member of the upper house of parliament securing the largest number of electoral votes from the provincial assembly of what was then the NWFP.
Since then, parliamentary representation has expanded to other members of the family. Not only are his two sons Waqar Khan and Ammar Khan elected to the Senate, but brother Mukhtar Ahmed Khan had also been a member of the upper house. Wife Razia Sultana too had been elected to the National Assembly on a reserved seat for women. It has been asked whether their success depends on any particular party nomination. They have won the seats with an overwhelming majority — even as independent candidates — with the alliance of religious parties, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, in power in 2003.
Waqar Khan was given the PPP ticket in 2009 elections in preference to an old guard and loyalist Farhatullah Babar. The reason, I was told by a senior party leader, was that he would have won the seat anyway. Waqar Khan who was a member of the federal cabinet in the previous PML-Q government returned as federal minister for investment in the PPP-led administration. He went on to hit the headlines a year ago when he and four family members got embroiled in a lengthy legal battle with a western bank over the ownership of a planned £100 million London mansion in a north London street known as ‘billionaires’ row’.
Trading votes for money is not unusual in Senate polls. But this time the allegations are stronger.
Of course, it may not be any problem for this powerful political dynasty to retain their presence in the house. Waqar and Ammar Khan are again in the contest for Senate seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Interestingly, their nomination papers were proposed and seconded by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and PML-N legislators. Given their previous record, they might not find it difficult to win the seats this time too.
It is quite obvious why the two archrivals the PML-N and PTI are setting aside their differences to agree on a proposed amendment to the Constitution to make the process of voting more transparent. They fear that the revolt within their party ranks may cost them several seats. But with only few days left for the polls, the change in the rule is not possible.
Seemingly, political wheeling and dealing has hit a new high as the Senate polls come close. Shocking as it may appear, the PPP and the PTI have reportedly struck a deal on two Senate seats from the KP. So much for principled politics. The PPP leaders appear confident that they may win one Senate seat from Punjab despite having very few votes in the provincial assembly there.
The PPP is now banking on the votes of disgruntled PML-N provincial legislators from southern Punjab. A similar revolt in the party ranks may cause the party to lose in KP and Balochistan as well. It is true that the majority of legislators would still go along with their party nominees, but the loss of even a few votes matters a lot in the Senate elections.
Trading votes for money is not unusual in Senate elections. But the allegation of horse trading is much more intense this time. In an article published in a national newspaper, it was estimated that billions of rupees may change hands in the run-up to the elections. That makes the legitimacy of the Senate elections highly questionable. What can one expect from future representatives who buy their seats at such an exorbitant price? Is it just for the sake of prestige or are there greater stakes involved?
The Gulzar Khan family may have set a record for getting such large representation in parliament. But there are several other examples of members of the same family being elected to the Senate from the platforms of different political parties, thus reducing democracy to a means of perpetuating the political power of an elite club.
Whatever the outcome of the Senate elections, it is not going to change the country’s current power matrix. The ongoing political wheeling and dealing and selling and buying of votes may result in an even more divided house leaving the contest for chairman of the Senate wide open. We may see intense horse-trading for that coveted post.
Politics is a high-stakes game in this country that only few can afford to play. It is imperative to reform the entire electoral system to restore the public’s faith in democracy, but more importantly it is for the political parties to end corrupt practices within their ranks.
The writer is an author and journalist.
Published in Dawn March 4th , 2015
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