Local bodies and more

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has decided to allocate 30 percent of development funds to the local government

The holding of local bodies elections was quite an event. The fact that it was held after almost 10 years in the country was a milestone everybody thought was worth celebrating. The fact that it turned out to be a gigantic exercise of facilitating nearly 42,000 seats was also debatable. The fact that it was contested with a lot more zeal and noise than the general elections was also mentionable. The fact that lives were lost made it more controversial. The fact that every election turns out to be an election commission and political parties’ feud is normal. Despite all this, these elections are heralded as finally a victory for democracy and grassroots empowerment.

The fact that these elections have surprised many in terms of complexity and engagement is due to the fact that very few understand local bodies elections held in Pakistan. The previous two major exercises were carried out by dictators and were more designed to support their own power than power at the grassroots level. The other misconception that people have is that since local government is the third tier of government it is not as complex and important as the national and provincial elections; reality is to the contrary. Therefore, most problems of perception and practice have occurred because never before has an exercise so large and so grassroots been held in the country and thus the election commission, provincial government and political parties were all underprepared for the enormity of the scale, issues, involvement and reaction.

Some would say that Balochistan had already held them and we should have learned from its experience. However, the Balochistan experience was not really a comparable one. A total of 6,682 seats were contested compared to nearly 42,000 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. At least 2,332 candidates were elected unopposed in Balochistan and only 4,350 seats were contested in the local government elections held on December 7, 2013. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa there were almost 84,000 candidates who were contesting these elections. The reason given for such low participation and interest in local bodies in Balochistan was that the Local Government Act was weak and vested powers in the hands of the province, while the Act in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa devolved power to the village council and mobilised people at all levels to participate. The Election Assessment Mission (EAM) by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) gathered information and undertook analysis in Balochistan of its compliance with Pakistan’s international law obligations to which the government of Pakistan has committed itself. Most of the reports done on these elections concluded that the legal framework gave excessive powers and discretion to the provincial government. Delimitation was completed late, information was not sufficiently publicly available and there were extreme inequalities of the vote. Returning officers lacked training and oversight by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and necessary election materials were not always available. Not enough electoral information was gathered and made public. No official result numbers were published. Furthermore, there was lack of scrutiny from the media, no observation by civil society and an unclear system of dispute resolution.

Factually speaking, the Balochistan elections were more about seat adjustment between the major parties than an open transparent tier-by-tier contest. According to reported ECP commentary in the media, a total of 22,274 nominations were accepted, with rejections reportedly primarily due to constituency mistakes. Approximately 20 percent of the candidates then withdrew, as local agreements were reached. In total, seven percent of seats had no candidates, 35 percent had only one candidate and, thus, elections only took place in 58 percent of wards. Khyber Pakhtunkwa’s elections were not just contested between parties but the fact that the second biggest winners were independent candidates is also an indicator of the trust of the people in the system that empowers people right to the village level. The major difference in the two elections is also the fact that, unlike Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has decided to allocate 30 percent of development funds to the local government with each village council getting two million rupees. Village councils will have not only money but authority to monitor and report that development has taken place or not. That is the reason these elections were fiercely and furiously contested. With no electoral reforms, an ECP not even capable of handling 800 plus seats in the general elections leaves aside 41,000 plus of local bodies, a provincial government underprepared for the cut throat competition from its own allies and political parties desperate to gain propaganda and grassroots advantage, historical elections became a predictable victim of mismanagement and political desperation.

However, anything of this scale and complexity done for the first time will always face problems and resistance. What we need to analyse is the lessons learnt and develop a road map of improvement. It would also be useful for media and civil society to do an analysis of the one and a half years of Balochistan’s local bodies and their impact of transferring power to the grassroots. So, if their elections were more manageable, have they really made a difference at the grassroots? So far, the impact has been invisible. In fact, the latest indicators on education and health in Balochistan,which should have been the major beneficiaries of the local government system, have shown deterioration and stagnation at the bottom of the list. Thus, there are three parts to making a local government successful: firstly, a local government bill and legislation that ensures transfer of power from federal and provincial levels to the local level. Secondly, holding an election that ensures free and fair participation of people and a mandate representing the real choice of the people. Thirdly, effective capacity building of the chosen representatives and a monitoring system that ensures local government effectiveness.

While Balochistan local bodies have not made their presence felt either in terms of legislation or elections, Khyber Pakhtunkwa distinguished itself by having the best legislation but needs to analyse all loopholes in the management of elections. However, to keep this important form of democracy alive it is imperative that all disputes of election irregularities should be resolved at the earliest. Similarly, Khyber Pakhtunkwa’s government should make a comprehensive plan of capacity building for the newly elected councillors. This exercise will have to cover a wide array of skills both soft and technical as almost all the representatives will be exposed to this type of role for the first time in their lives. Training needs to have its own criteria of quality assurance as an untrained representative will be as lethal to local bodies as an untrained returning officer was to the elections. For democracy to take root and to ensure the implementation of local bodies’ elections in Punjab and Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s elections should become a great model to learn from and move ahead.

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Re-branding Pakistan

Pakistan is an example of how to market negativity so much that positive events become overshadowed

After some twists and turns international cricket has made a comeback in Pakistan. The sheer joy of seeing Qaddafi stadium full of people from all parts and segments of Pakistan waving, singing and enjoying was a reflection of how strong is the feeling in Pakistani hearts to make this country look and feel normal. The love for the Zimbabwean team for believing in Pakistan was seen in the way they were greeted, appreciated and applauded. These images of Pakistan through the electronic and social media will make the country be seen from a positive angle after a long time.

But is this enough? Is this the only thing we can do? Are there no other events and happenings that can be constantly marketed to make people living elsewhere doubt their negativity about this country? The general answer from most analysts is that there is very little happening to show off to the rest of the world. However, that may be a statement made out of sweeping cynicism rather than actual facts. Consider this case: not only did Zimbabwe visit Pakistan but almost at the same time Peter Oborne, the famous English cricket writer who has written the book on Pakistani cricket, Wounded Tigers, was also in Pakistan. He brought with him English club cricketers and played cricket in Chitral but nobody really knows about this, which is a real shame. This event had huge marketing value. Peter Oborne is an authority on cricket and his word counts internationally. The English club team played eight matches against Chitral 11, Kailash 11 and many other local teams. They were enthralled by the beauty of the place and floored by the hospitality and warmth of the people .

This tour should have been covered by the media extensively. Testimonials by Peter Oborne and other cricketers should have been made viral on social media, especially considering the fact that weeks ago this place was infamous due to the helicopter crash carrying the diplomats. However, all this needs a comprehensive marketing plan where the government of Pakistan makes a focused effort on showing positive things about the country. India, as those who go there know, is not half of what it projects itself to be. However, the Indian government actually allocates a brand equity fund in its annual budget that is used to promote the ‘Incredible India’ brand, launched in 2002. India’s image was down with war in Afghanistan, a terrorist attack on Indian parliament and ethnic and border clashes with Pakistan. The Incredible India campaign, managed by Amitabh Kant, the joint secretary at the ministry of tourism at that time, was launched aimed at: 1) extending international business and leisure travellers’ length of stay and yield in India, 2) promoting domestic tourism, all the while positioning India away from being a low cost destination to one of luxury, and 3) promoting India as a safe haven despite terrorist incidents.

Since 2002, this campaign has been government-led and is a multi-million dollar global endeavour. The campaign sought to produce a unique and unified brand that would effectively “pervade all forms of communication and stimulate the travel/investor’s consumer behaviour and decision-making process to competitively position India in the global market place.” The campaign had targets and exceeded them. It is deemed responsible for the rise in foreign exchange earnings, which grew from $ 3,460 million in 2000 to $ 11,747 million in 2008. The campaign was also considered to be largely responsible for the increase in tourist arrivals to India, a figure that rose from 2.65 million in 2000 to 5.38 million in 2008. In 2002, India’s position in FutureBrand’s Country Brand Index was 29 out of a total of 45 countries. By 2006, India was amongst the top 10 country brands. In 2011, it was ranked 16th in the world for tourism with an increase of 32 percent in visitor arrivals, scoring highly on ‘heritage and culture’.

This improvement in image despite the fact that there are more churches being burned in India than in Pakistan is due to planned strategy. Four churches in India have recently been targets of vandalism. Christian Today reports that all four churches were located in the Indian capital city of New Delhi and took place over the last seven weeks but there were no reports in the Economist, CNN or BBC. This is due to the Indian marketing machine that lobbies in all the big media houses globally and ensures that such news is suppressed while their local media shies away from showing such events. Compare that to our own media showing church attacks and taking pride in their visuals being picked and relayed by foreign media, and we understand how we have let things run out of control.

Pakistan is an example of how to market negativity so much that positive events become overshadowed by this breaking news virus. India on the other hand is a master at projecting the image of a modern, peaceful and progressive country. How well they have crafted this image is evident by the fact that their prime minister, Narendra Modi, whose infamous image of being responsible for burning 2,000 Muslims in the Gujarat train event had made his entry into US difficult, has now become an epitome of peace and prosperity in the eyes of the US and the world.

Sri Lanka was a terrorist country for over two decades. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were responsible for numerous terrorist bombings directed against politicians and civilian targets. In July 2001, an LTTE suicide squad attacked the Bandaranaike International Airport and destroyed a large number of military and civilian aircraft. Terrorist incidents occurred in Colombo, the capital, and other cities throughout the country. However, cricket and tourism continued and the Sri Lankan government’s campaign on ‘Refreshingly Sri Lanka’ kept on showing the positive side to the world. Malaysia’s ‘Malaysia, Truly Asia’ and Singapore’s ‘Uniquely Singapore’ are all government-led initiatives that have reaped huge benefit for positioning these countries as models of prosperity.

Thus, in this budget, the government should allocate special funds for brand Pakistan where image positioning should be crafted and a slogan like ‘Pakistan, Naturally Beautiful’ should be made a buzzword on all forms of media and lobbying platforms. Re-branding Pakistan needs an integrated marketing communication plan at the highest level or, as they say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

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Governing High places

History has shown that presidents with spunk have used their power of dissolving the government effectively

Governors in government have a governing dilemma. Their jobs are defined but their qualifications are undefined. The same goes for presidents in this parliamentary system. To be qualified for these posts the main criteria seems to be to have a nondescript personality, to be mostly on mute on public issues and to be blatantly promoting party agendas. When questions are raised as to what exactly they do aside from inaugural addresses and signing off documents, the answer inevitably is that these are ceremonial posts. It is interesting to note how historically the British Empire ruled the subcontinent with its model of governor general who had the highest powers to govern. Lord Mountbatten and so many other names come to mind when we think of how the word governor meant the head of the state. In 1947, Pakistan became a dominion within the British Commonwealth with the British monarch as head of state, represented by the governor general of Pakistan. In 1956, Pakistan established its first Constitution and became a republic, and the positions of queen and governor general were replaced by the president.

Pakistan’s first president was Iskander Mirza who was also the last governor general. In 1958, he abrogated the Constitution and declared martial law. A few weeks later, he was overthrown in a bloodless coup d’état by General Ayub Khan, who then declared himself president. The Constitution was revised and the president became the ruler of Pakistan. The story of the Bhutto revolt against this political system, his win in 1970 and later revision in the Constitution to give more powers to the Prime Minister (PM) than the president, is fairly well known. The pattern of who pulled more strings depended on who came into power. Ziaul Haq and other dictators like Musharraf made constitutional amendments to make the presidential post all empowering, while democratic leaders like Nawaz Sharif and Benazir reverted the control lever back to the PM.

Though the president’s role was pretty much reduced to a figurehead, history has shown that presidents with spunk have used their power of dissolving the government effectively. President Ghulam Ishaque Khan dissolving Nawaz Sharif’s government and President Farooq Laghari dissolving Benazir’s government are examples of where the tables can be turned against the ruling party despite many constitutional amendments. Thus the moral of the story goes that it is less about the power of the laws and more about the power of the personality that will determine whether these ceremonial posts are taken just as political décor or actual political muscle. The recent example of President Zardari pulling the strings while PMs were made sacrificial lambs is a case in point. Thus, the personality cults defining the roles of president and governor is the story that unfortunately keeps on undermining all constitutional powers wrested in these positions. That is why these positions are supposed to be unbiased and neutral. As they do not represent a party but the federation, they inevitably end up being promoters of party or personal interests rather than national interests. The governor is appointed by the president and has the power of dissolving the provincial assembly or imposing governor’s rule as was done by the PPP government. Thus the choice of governors is by no means an accident and deliberately moulded to customise it to suit the purposes of the ruling party. The governor has to give his assent to all bills and budgets of the provincial assembly and, like the president, can promulgate ordinances for provinces in extraordinary circumstances. He is the chancellor of public universities and thus the most prominent place he is seen is on convocations awarding degrees to candidates.

The post of governor has become of prime interest in this country not because he will play a revolutionary role in transforming it but because it is access to a high luxury job where the lavish governor houses and rest houses present prestige and comforts unimaginable. Parties normally give such posts as a reward to party loyalists who are benign sponsors or loyalists of the party. The PML-N chose Chaudhry Sarwar as a reward for his services to the party overseas. However, Chaudhry Sarwar, bred on English politics, found it difficult to make it through entrenched party ranks and his stay in the rather ostentatious Governor House, unexciting. As he started speaking against this political imprisonment he became disqualified to continue. This time, the PML-N has taken its time now to come up with a more submissive version of loyalist in the name of Rafique Rajwana. On the other hand, the governor of Sindh is a classic case of being blatantly used for one thing: furthering Altaf Hussain/MQM interests. He is the evergreen governor whose presence ensures pressure on the federal government from Karachi. He has so far done a remarkable job by being this quiet behind the scenes, effective messenger of the MQM and PPP pacts. However, in the latest episode of resigning, removing and reinstating people, the MQM has now asked Ishratul Ibad to resign. The reason for the resignation is unabashedly his inability to protect party interests in the shape of not intervening to prevent arrests of workers who are themselves confessing heinous crimes.

Thus, the type of personality and the interest of the party governs the choice of people in these posts. Another twist to the story of choosing people for these high ceremonial posts is that they do not have a financial corruption record and are nice gentlemen. However, they have to be non-assertive, docile and willing to play the role of his master’s voice to perfection. President Mamnoon fits the bill well, though the jokingly quoted criterion of his knowing how to make dahi bhallas exactly as the PM likes added to his suitability.

Similarly, the new governor of Punjab is the type of man who would be a governor for a decade and still not make his presence felt. The choice of governors who represent the interests of the party rather than the interests of the province creates friction between the federal and provincial government. The smaller provinces like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have already started raising voice against deprivations and inequity. The federal representatives sitting in these provinces are treated as implants of the ruling party rather than stakeholders of provincial development. This creates within provinces a council of uncommon interests. Appointment to these posts are on the majority party’s decisions. However, if the provinces are consulted on various choices of the names under consideration, it would definitely save many precious hours and resources spent on trying to develop consensus on issues, issues that would never arise if an atmosphere of trust is restored between the federal and provincial governments.

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Napping on NAP

The reluctance to act upon steps that need above board actions comes from vested interests, lobbies and lack of political will

Karachi bleeds again. This time the Ismaili community was targeted. Shock, red alert, arrests, committees, enquiries, more plans, more inaction. After the Army Public School (APS) massacre, with every single party and person in Pakistan agreeing to a complete elimination of terrorism, how come we keep facing attacks on churches and minorities again and again? The fact that it was not a suicide bombing, the fact that it was in broad daylight at the centre of a market place, the fact that it went on for three to four minutes and nobody came to the rescue, the fact that the police station nearby was empty, are all questions that will be debated on talk shows, discussed on social media and then submerged under the next breaking news.

Act or be acted upon. Whether it is economic plans or security plans, the fault lies less with the planning and more with execution. Pakistan’s history is full of it being a pioneer in many planning innovations. The Koreans, in the 1960s, came to study the five-year planning model we developed. We have a separate planning wing, planning department and planning commission. However, despite all this focus on planning, very little has been achieved according to the plans. Each year, annual plans are made and remain as plans. The importance and respect given to plans is minimal. The budget is a plan for the year and is not even a few months old before mini-budgets are made to render the annual plan invalid. Within the budget the most important plan is the public spending development plan (PSDP) that is made and religiously slashed at will. Tax collection targets and plans are also more of a balancing act than any concrete achievement. That is why, when the All Parties Conference (APC) was held and the National Action Plan (NAP) was made the first fear was it being another exercise in pacifying the outrage of the nation.

Unfortunately, the reluctance to act upon steps that need above board and across the board actions comes from vested interests, lobbies and lack of political will. That is why plans remain fancy presentations rather than result-oriented execution. The APC, after the APS incident, outlined 20 areas that need to be acted upon if this menace of terrorism is to be controlled. This exercise was comprehensive and seemed to cover many areas that were considered untouchable previously. Considering action against armed wings of political parties and banning banned organisations operating with other names was also brought under the umbrella of this plan. The million-dollar question was: who will bell the cat? “I will personally supervise the implementation of NAP and will make sure that it is swift and effective,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said during an initial meeting on the plan. Some 15 committees were formed to oversee the execution of these 20 areas and the man of NAP was Chaudhry Nisar, supervising 11 of the 15 committees. Other members assisting him were the same as those who have assisted the PM on every plan, i.e. Ahsan Iqbal, Pervez Rashid, Khawaja Asif and Sartaj Aziz.

The committees also included ministers, senior government officials and top army officials such as the Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and that of military operations. However, the military was to focus primarily on anti-terrorist matters and thus army representatives were not featured on the committees tasked to deal with matters such as the persecution of religious minorities, registration of seminaries, sectarianism and media curbs. That, unfortunately, also explains why the only achievement has been terrorists’ arrests and executions, and not much on preventing and uprooting the real pipelines of terrorist breeding.

To carry out a strategy you need a structure. Committees loosely defined and given policy guidelines can never provide a cohesive structure focused on ensuring action. The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) was supposed to be that structure, an umbrella for all these committees but, instead, what we saw was that NACTA just became a coordination member of the committee just like so many other members. One of the key requirements for empowering NACTA was the setting up of the joint intelligence directorate. The only progress on this supremely important matter in six months is that a proposal has been made, an odd meeting has been held. This is because of the huge trust deficit between the civilian Intelligence Bureau and the military-led ISI that is keeping the authority from becoming an effective and fully operational agency. There was talk of separate budget allocation for NACTA and empowerment to make decisions but it seems that this authority has no authority to do anything other than act as a post office for meetings and some publications.

The most impressive part of NAP is the number of ‘suspects’ arrested for crimes, hate speech and illegal money transfers but do these leads lead to the tracing down of the masterminds behind these attacks? While frequent talks have resulted in better coordination with Afghanistan to prevent cross-border infiltration by groups, no progress has been shared on groups funded by other countries. There have been consistent reports that RAW has been funding groups and political parties to carry out these activities; what action has been taken to deal with this on the military, political and even media level? Blocking financial pipelines is the responsibility of the head of the State Bank. No real progress has happened. Seminaries are still being funded by overseas sponsors. Despite a denial by Chaudhry Nisar that there are seminaries in Punjab receiving funding, the Special Branch of the Punjab police admitted that at least 1,000 seminaries in Punjab were still being funded by overseas sponsors.

Action plans without deadlines on tasks, clear-cut responsibility and reporting on progress are as good as maps without roads and cities. Road maps of any serious action plan require tasks, deadlines, individual responsibility and accountability. For all the 15 areas determined in NAP there should be a list of actions, their specific deadline of completion and the person who will report on them. It is heartening to note that after the Karachi incident weekly meetings are going to be held to monitor progress but then a weekly scoreboard showing actions done or still in process needs to be made to help stakeholders and the public know that the action plan is being acted upon. It is serious inaction in the past that has encouraged repetitive and increasing terrorism and it is serious non-discriminatory action on all fronts in the future that is the only option for the security and safety of the citizens of this country.

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Election Crossroads

Politics is easy business and politicians are not directly dependent on the public to get them into political office

Democracy, as a system, empowers people to choose at will. It is a system that gives people the right to accept and reject leaders, policies and programmes. General elections are the vehicle through which these choices are exercised. This is the basic difference from countries that are controlled by either dictators or monarchies that take away this power from the people and wrest it in their own hands. Research shows that sustainable development is only possible under systems that engage, involve and serve those who elect them. There are many examples of democratic countries versus not so democratic countries developing at a different pace. While India is the largest democracy in the world, China has done far better for its people than India. Thus, there is more to the story than just professing a certain type of political system.

Pakistan is a case study of many political theories. With most of its neighbouring countries ahead of it in terms of development, one of the main reasons given for this development failure is that for half of its history it has been governed by dictators. Interestingly, development in times of autocratic leaders has been much higher than in times of democratic leaders. The average growth rate in Musharraf’s nine years was 6-7 percent while in the last seven years of democratic government it has been three to four percent. Some of the reasons given are that democracy was not given its full reign, dictators did not do long term planning and the masses are not educated enough to make educated choices while choosing their leaders. While all these arguments have some validity, Pakistan is a troubling case of non-development in a system that has proved a big vehicle of development in the world, and thus needs further examination.

Democracy in common terms is described as “with the people, by the people and for the people”. A lot of what has not worked in Pakistan and in some other countries despite claimed democracy can be explained by going by this rather simplistic definition. A democratic system has to ensure that the public is involved in political decision making at all levels. Thus, three forms of government are mandatory to fulfil this requirement: federal, provincial and local. The third tier is the most important to devolve power at the grassroots level. However, most democratic governments in Pakistan have been shy of holding local body elections while dictators have been more forthcoming in this regard. Again, the reason quoted is that dictators use it to gain grassroots control, missing due to their political illegitimacy. In a true democracy, federal and provincial governments are policy and law makers and should not have development funds while local governments should be the ones using these funds for developing their local constituencies. As politics in Pakistan has been more of a money and power game, MNAs and MPAs are extremely reluctant to let go of billions of rupees.

This leads to the question why are they reluctant to let go of this money. One of the main reasons is that politics is easy business and, secondly, they are not directly dependent on the public to get them into political office. That is why the definition of democracy being for the people does not hold true in this country. The consistent deterioration in every single economic and social indicator in the country is evidence of how “for the people” has really been thrown in the dustbin. Secondly, “by the people” is not exactly the absolute truth as far as the election system is concerned. That is why this debate on elections being fair and free, and as per the constitutional description of representing the mandate of the people has become so dominant and vocal.

The first fair and free general elections were held in Pakistan in 1970 by General Yahya Khan. Out of 24 parties, the Awami League of East Pakistan and the PPP in West Pakistan scored the maximum seats. These elections were supposedly the cleanest elections as General Yahya never expected any party to score enough seats to form a strong government and thus did not bother to rig. After this, general elections were held by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977 in which the PPP faced an alliance of nine parties called the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). The results were again unexpected as the PPP who, by that time was down in popularity, gained maximum seats of 155 while the PNA got only 36. Protests and riots took place in the country and General Ziaul Haq took over, arresting and later hanging Bhutto on murder charges. Martial law was imposed until 1985 and then, finally, Ziaul Haq was killed in a plane crash in 1988. Thereafter, the two-year revolving door democracy started with Benazir Bhutto managing a controversial win in the 1988 elections only to be dismissed on corruption charges in 1990. The pattern continued of the PPP and PML-N coming into power every two years with heavy allegations of rigging until 1999 when martial law returned with Musharraf in charge. The 2002 elections were termed a military exercise for democratic acceptability and 2008 as an election conducted on a voter list that was 45 percent bogus. The 2013 elections, after a full term of democracy, were supposed to be more representative and fair but, to date, remain controversial.

Why has it always been this cycle of new government, same corruption, same rigging and then the cycle starts all over again? Primarily because every time a new government comes there are some select cases of corruption of the previous government but none whatsoever on electoral rigging. The election commission is accepted as incompetent, voter lists are never cleaned up enough to give a chance to every single person to cast their own vote and pre-poll, during polls and post-poll rigging is screamed against but never penalised. Therein lies the problem of why elections have become a farce and why politicians have become a joke. Trust in the institutions and people running those institutions are at an all time low and accountability of performance is non-existent. For democracy to be effective, institutions like the election commission and various tribunals have to be made accountable for their performance and penalised for irregularities. To absolve wrongdoers by classifying an irregularity as not really corruption and, thus, not really punishable is wrong. Incompetence and dishonesty both tarnish the quality of work and are equally reprehensible and punishable. As Norman D Palmer, who has undertaken extensive research on South Asian politics, concluded: “The never ending political crisis in Pakistan is the product of electoral corruption.” Without dealing with this entrenched virus, democracy will be just a political slogan.

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