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On June 5, 1979, Finance Minister Ghulam Ishaq Khan announced the annual budget. Public expectations were that maximum relief will be provided to the citizenry, but to the dismay of many, a “Babu’s budget,” complete with new taxes, had been imposed on them.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) immediately raised its voice and rejected the budget, with new party chief, Benazir Bhutto, addressing protest rallies. The Pakistan National Alliance (PNA), suffering from weariness, did not take notice immediately but soon followed suit with protests on July 5.
Amidst widespread disapproval and mounting public pressure, General Ziaul Haq addressed the nation on July 27, and withdrew the additional taxes levied in the June 5 budget. But there was another bombshell that the General was about to drop.
General Zia unveils a new ploy intended to deny a majority to elected representatives
Declaring Pakistan’s electoral system as defective, Gen Zia unveiled a proposal for a “Proportional Representation” (PR) system of democracy. In a nutshell, under the PR system, voters do not directly poll for a candidate but cast their votes to a party and its programme. After polling is over, the number of votes bagged by all parties is counted and seats distributed to each party accordingly. The respective party then allocates a seat to its candidate.
The General, in his televised address, said that he had written to politicians seeking their opinions by August 14. By informing the people through the press and electronic mediums, the General assumed, the proposed PR system would be carried out without any difficulty.
He was utterly mistaken.
The General, in his televised address, said that he had written to politicians seeking their opinions by Aug 14. By informing the people through the press and electronic mediums, the General assumed, the proposed PR system would be carried out without any difficulty. He was utterly mistaken.
In fact, Gen Zia had already asked the administrative machinery to undertake a complete propagation of the PR system through Radio Pakistan, Pakistan Television, as well as National Press Trust newspapers. They duly began drumming up the virtues of PR system. Meanwhile, the country’s bureaucracy, as always, made all sorts of claims about the PR system being the “only solution” to all of the country’s ills.
The real objective behind the PR system move was to lengthen the rule of Gen Zia. The idea was for him to join a right-wing party and get it to win national polls through a changed system of election. It was later discovered that Jamaat-i-Islami had pointed to Gen Zia that they could win big if things could be manipulated through the PR system. Basing its argument on previous election results, the party calculated that it would exceed the number of seats that it had been bagging before if the new system was put into operation.
In Pakistan’s political history, in 1970, a total of 56,941,500 votes were cast. Awami League bagged 33, 004, 065 votes with 160 seats. PPP won 6,148,923 votes with 81 seats. JI got 1,989,461 votes with seven seats. Had there been a PR formula at play, Jamaat would have cut into Awami League and PPP constituencies.
In the 1993 elections, the PPP-led alliance bagged 7,578,635 votes with 159 seats. The PML-Nawaz bagged 7, 980,229 votes (and 137 seats), more than the PPP-led alliance, and yet, the PPP formed a government. This infuriated Nawaz, to the extent that he then demanded adopting the PR system.
In 2001, when military dictator General Pervez Musharraf, succumbing to pressure, decided to hold elections, he also thought of introducing the PR system in the hope of staying in power. But he too gave up.
In fact, the PR system works best in situations where voters are politically aware and educated, where party manifestos are lucid, and parties honest enough to send the peoples’ real leaders to the house.
In Pakistan’s peculiar socio-economic pattern, where feudal and biradri systems prevail, the PR system would have only legitimised dictatorship. If Gen Zia would have held elections under this system, things would have been manoeuvred to have some right-wing party bag the majority in the National Assembly. In that case, major parties and their voters were bound to suffer.
While Jamaat supported the PR system, other politicians and political observers rejected it. The dissidents included Pir Pagara, Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and Pakistan National Party.
On Aug 5, Asghar Khan convened a press conference in Rawalpindi to criticise Gen Zia and oppose the PR system. He termed the system as being against the law and constitution, and warned that this controversy might delay the Nov 17 polls.
The PNA leadership met in Lahore on Aug 10. It reaffirmed its opposition to any local bodies elections before general elections. It also resolved that if local bodies polls were held before general elections, the Alliance would snub them.
While political parties were rejecting local bodies polls, provincial governments had already begun preparations for holding polls.
But the Alliance was sticking to its guns. On Aug 18, PNA leaders all met again. The proposed PR system was rejected outright and it was demanded of Gen Zia that he immediately announce the schedule of general elections.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, March 22nd, 2015
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