Price Of Power

The contrast between what the senate is supposed to represent and what it actually does indicates how democracy is being abused to suit the elite capture we have witnessed in our political system

That there is no free lunch in politics is understandable but that the lunch is extortionately expensive is unbelievable. Politics, in economic terms, is the game of imperfect competition. In democratic terms, those who enter parliament and the senate are people who represent the ordinary public and thus should be the true representative of the masses. When we look at the type of people who enter these august houses we find faces that, by no stretch of the imagination, resemble what the ordinary Pakistani represents except perhaps in one unfortunate aspect. The ordinary Pakistani is not educated and the same is the case with most of our political leaders, if we go by the generous amount of fake degrees being discovered amongst the assembly entrants. Ordinary Pakistanis can hardly afford two decent meals a day and live in abject poverty but our parliamentarians and senators live a life of abject luxury, ordinary citizens are being gunned down and bombed by mercenaries but parliamentarians ride in bulletproof cars with security people all around them to protect their precious lives, ordinary citizens, when sick, cannot find basic healthcare in public hospitals but politicians get millions of rupees in medical allowances to get healthcare in VIP hospitals abroad, ordinary citizens cannot find and afford decent education for their children but politicians go to conferences and programmes worth billions to the most exotic countries in the world and, of course, the ordinary citizen will pay huge amounts in direct and indirect taxes on his paltry income but politicians will hardly bother to register an NTN number in their name on their unlimited income.

That is why being a parliamentarian, senator or minister beats anything else as far as money, luxuries and power are concerned. That is why being elected in one of the houses is such a cutthroat and wheeling dealing business. That is why more money exchanges hands in elections than in a stock exchange. The business of elections follows the same rules of seeing how many buyers are there and is based on supply and demand price per seat formula. The current senate elections have also become a market place for the highest bidder with the starting price being so high that no ordinary man can dream of being part of this ‘upper house’. Again, the contrast between what the senate is supposed to represent and what it actually does indicates how democracy is being abused to suit the elite capture we have witnessed in our political system regardless of the form of government. The constitutional purpose of the senate is to provide a proportional representation of each province in law and policy making for the whole country. Senate elections take place in accordance with Article 59 of the Constitution. Each of the four provincial assemblies elect from the next senate election 23 members from their respective provinces that include 14 on general seats, four on seats reserved for technocrats including the ulema (clergy), four on seats reserved for women and one on the seat reserved for non-Muslims. Four members i.e. two on general seats, one technocrat including aalim and one woman, are elected from the federal capital whereas eight members are elected from the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) in such manner as the president may by order prescribe.

The senate is a permanent legislative body that symbolises a process of continuity in national affairs. The term of its members is six years. However, one-half of its members retire after every three years. A vacancy in the senate, caused by resignation, death, incapacitation, disqualification or removal of a member, is filled through elections by the respective electoral college and the member so elected holds office for the un-expired term of the member whose vacancy he has filled.

A person seeking election to the senate should not be less than 30 years of age and should be registered as a voter in an area or province from where he seeks election and should meet other qualifications prescribed under Article 62 of the Constitution. Constitutionally, the candidate’s character and background requirements are highlighted in the typical articles but politically the major requirement is just huge money and the right connections in the right lobby. Many politicians who have been denied a seat have come open with the facts that bidding price for the seat starts at Rs 250 million and can go up to three times this amount depending upon the number of aspirants for that seat.

The very fact that people have paid such astronomical amounts to enter this house makes their purpose very clear. They see this entry as a gateway to status, recognition and a high return on investment. Being a senator gives them access to the VIP culture that is extremely important for people having this great need for pomp and ceremony that elevates them politically and personally. Secondly, becoming a senator gives you the power of being at the centre of doing or not doing favours to industries, contracts and projects. That ability to influence a decision in favour or against projects worth billions makes the job of recovering your seat cost easy. Thus the desire to enter the upper house is aligned with the desire to have an upper hand at wheeling dealing billions through various lobbies and the desire to up the game of having the privileges and pleasures of a blue passport, a chance to be another head with heads of states, an opportunity to be in the limelight of the media. As far as desire to serve the country is concerned that is, of course, a very noble desire and should be versed in every public conversation but has nothing to do with the intent of most of these upper men of the upper house.

Power not only corrupts but also makes you addicted to control. The ability to buy people’s choices, influence national decision making and subjugate all men of rank to your way of thinking is a very heady combination that explains this almost insane desire to bid all for a mere seat. This then is not democracy but a form of distributed autocracy. In the autocratic system one man gains control through force while, in this form of democracy, a few people and their connected individuals through a high priced auction system ensure that power remains hoarded in a club whose membership fee makes the entry of the ordinary man impossible. When power is purchased but not earned it will never be used for the benefit of the masses. To ensure that those who truly represent the masses are the ones who enter these houses, there is a need to review the entire system of not only electing but screening candidates, for creating barriers to power pushing, for ensuring a level playing ground between power haves and power have-nots. Otherwise democracy will always be a deceptive ozone layer for power hoarders.