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ISLAMABAD: Elections in Pakistan have forever been rich men’s affairs. Be it union councils, provincial assemblies, the National Assembly or the Senate, it is unthinkable for anyone without sufficient funds and resources to contest elections. Even political parties, which harp on about democracy and winds of change, would rather award their tickets to those who are willing to part with a small fortune.
In the past, the influence yielded by money was most palpable in the Senate though. “The Senate elections with some exceptions virtually mean bankrolling by the candidates for members of its electoral college or to their parties. Though never made public, wealthy candidates are asked to provide funds to their respective parties,” claimed a top government functionary, who has been a witness to all sorts of elections since 1970 onward.
“The involvement of money in Senate elections started after the 1985 non-party basis elections conducted by former military dictator General Zia, which later on continued in the realm of politics,” said Senator Mushahidullah Khan, the chief spokesperson for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). “However, it is good that political parties are waking up to this reality and minimising the use of money in politics,” he added.
According to Article 59 of the Constitution, the Senate comprises 104 members — 23 each from the four federating units, eight from Fata and four from Islamabad. The 23 seats allocated to a province comprise 14 general seats, four reserved for women, four for technocrats and one for minority member. The term of a senator is six years, but 50 per cent of the total members retire after every three years and elections are held for new senators. The Fata senators are elected by the members of the National Assembly from the area whereas the four senators on the reserved seats from Islamabad are elected by the members of the National Assembly. Therefore, the Senate elections always depend on the party positions in the four provincial assemblies and the National Assembly.
In the next Senate, there will be some changes: unlike the current Senate of 100 members, the new strength will be 104.
According to the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the provincial assemblies will be sending one minority member each to the upper house. In the past if one had enough money at his disposal, securing a Senate seat was easy. This trend was and still is particularly pervasive in smaller provinces, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), where a candidate had to grease lesser numbers of palms to secure his ballot papers.
This roundabout came after 2009 when political parties started to accept their numbers in the national and provincial assemblies, which led to a significant number of Senate seats being filled without actually going into elections: political parties filed their candidates proportionate to their presence in the provincial and national assemblies who eventually got elected unopposed.
There are fears that with the upcoming Senate election on March 2 for 54 seats, when half of Senate members are completing their 6-year term, a similar trend of selection rather than elections will be witnessed in some areas of the country. While in Punjab and Sindh political parties have agreed to return their respective candidates to the Senate unopposed, the situation is unclear in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, since the lawmakers from there cast their votes on the basis of their personal liking and disliking, and not on party lines.
Former senator Farhatullah Babar, who lost his re-election bid to the Senate in 2006 to similar back-channel give-and-take among the provincial lawmakers and the candidates, is now once again contesting Senate election as a PPP candidate from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. “Considering the PPP’s strength in 2006, I was sure I would win the Senate election but results proved otherwise,” Mr Babar told Dawn.
He added: “Like Punjab and Sindh, we are also trying to reach a similar agreement among political parties of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly so that there may be a secret balloting among the contesting candidates. We would also agree to the mutual agreement between the PPP and the PML-N in Punjab and the PPP and MQM in Sindh to send candidates unopposed to the Senate.”
However, money will continue to play a significant factor for election to the Senate from the Fata, where the rule of thumb continues to be the blatant use of power and money. “Comprising an electoral college of just 12 members of National Assembly who elect four senators every three years, it’s all about number of millions which a candidate can distribute,” shared a sitting MNA who requested not to be named. “Why is this so – simply because all MNAs from Fata are independently elected and don’t have to follow their party guidelines. Hence, they are totally free to cast their votes as they please,” he explained.
Senator Mushahidullah Khan of the PML-N opined that ideally elections should involve secret balloting. “Unfortunately, Senate elections in the country have been marred by the menace of worst horse-trading, thus, it is not a bad thing if the political parties agree to file candidates as per their strength in the national and provincial assemblies,” he commented.
