Is the legal course to contain corruption enough?
Every day there are many op-eds published requesting judges to punish corruption – which they should. But is the legal course to contain corruption enough? I don’t think so. The system is such that it will keep producing corrupt unless and until structural changes are made in it so that opportunity for corruption are reduced and legal barriers are created so that those that engage in it think twice. Here are some structural changes that we can focus on:
-Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should demand from political parties to adhere to the party constitutions and that party office bearers are elected by party members through a proper democratic process. Party elections should be conducted under the supervision of ECP rather than left to the mechanisation of those that control it. The sham elections conducted by PML-N and PPP has ensured iron grip of families and their loyalists of the political parties. This has to change so that there is a periodic change in party leaderships through the mandate of party members.
– Development funds for MNAs and MPAs have to be stopped as these results in misuse of funds through a collusion between elected representatives and local contractors. They have failed to deliver good schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure. If a forensic audit of development funds is done for last 10 years it can be ascertained how much of it was actually spent for the benefit of the people. Development funds should be spent through local government representatives and monitored by civic organisations.
– The first-past-the-post system results in the election of representative by just securing 13 to 15% of registered votes. This means that the parliament is not fully representative of the people as the voice of the majority is not behind it. Proportional representations are one idea that must be considered and the other option is run-off elections so that elected representatives have a majority mandate.
– Capability, quality, and organisational structure of bureaucracy require serious overhaul and political interference in it has to be stopped especially at the lower cadres. At the chief secretary level, politicians can install persons of their choice as they have to deliver on the election promises but there should be no interference at the lower level.
– The 1973 constitution has a colonial orientation and is failing to deliver on its promise of a stable social order. A major overhaul of the constitution is needed to make it more people-centric rather than state centric.
Without structural reforms, the democracy will remain weak as the elected representatives do not really have a democratic mandate and this has resulted in the breakdown of trust between them and the people. In the absence of institutional political parties there is no platform available for capable people to participate in the democratic process and hence they are isolated from the political process. Relying on judicial activism is not the solution and has actually become a platform of jostling between various players to seek the highest office. Replacing one status quo politician with the other does not help to solve the problems of the people that have just become silence spectators. They are increasingly frustrated with it and could rely on more violent means to seek change if the status quo remained for too long.
