I WONDER why the authorities don’t have time to find a simple way of voting. All stakeholders agree that democracy is the most suitable political system for the prosperity and progress of the country and it is the people’s rights to elect their rulers by their vote.
Now the voters we know are more than 60 per cent and are living in rural part of the country with a very low literacy level. Those who are living in cities, the majority of them is having a better level of education and much freedom to choose their representative. As we have seen for the last three decades, the MQM is the major political party in Karachi winning the maximum number of seats in the city which has an estimated population of 20 million of different ethnic identities.
Now the Supreme Court judges have ordered that the Election Commission of Pakistan should verify the voters of Karachi by making a door-to-door visit with the help of the Pakistan army.
I suggest politicians and the ECP should adopt an out-of-the-box system of voting and replace the constituency-based election by the proportional voting system in which the voters cast their vote for political parties instead of voting for the constituency candidate.
The registered voters should cast their vote anywhere throughout the country even if the voter’s permanent and present residence addresses on the national identity card are different.
The number of votes received by a political party will then determine on a district basis its number of elected MNAs and MPAs. The more the party secures votes the more its MNAs and MPAs will be considered elected for assemblies. There will be no need for demarcation of constituencies.
There will be no violence or armed clashes between contestants. This system will also help to remove the feudal families which have been dominating for the last 65 years.
SYED TASADUQLahore