According to a news report in an Urdu daily, in the wake of the upcoming Senate elections, the price to become a Senator in the tribal areas has risen to 240 million rupees this time.
The tribal maliks with their easy millions buy votes from elected representatives who themselves have been elected mostly through foul means. I’m sure this is not what democracy was supposed to be.
To put an end to this shameful rape of democracy, indirect elections to the Senate must be done away with and direct elections be held. Better still, instead of elections, Senators should be selected through competitive exams devised for selecting most suitable candidates for the job.
In this way, we would be having best persons as Senators and corruption would be eliminated too. We need a paradigm change in the way we look at things, including democracy.
WG CDR (retd) FARDAD ALI SHAH
Chitral
