Credit: UKTIMES LONDON:

By Zubair Khan

During its continuous turbulent history, Pakistan, at times adopted Joint-Electorate System while some times it resorted to Separate Electorate System.  Currently it is sticking to Separate Electorate System for many years. An effort has been made to briefly define these systems with some apparent merits and demerits of both the system.  Similarly how minorities and human rights organisations view the Separate-Electorate System has also also been highlighted.

Separate-Electorates
In a separate electorate system, each recognized community  votes only for candidates of its own community. If the electorate is divided into recognized communities then voters from each of these communities would vote only for candidates from their own community. The quota of seats on every legislature assigned to each community is pre-determined by prior agreement among the communities. Resort to such electorate system results in to discouragement of grassroots links between different communities. That means citizens and elected representatives of one community have no  investedness in the other community. Their political  separation is institutionalized. Each community can pursue a ‘only me, myself and mine’ politics at cost of the other communities as there is little incentive for communities to make compromises with each other except at  the upper or elite levels of governance. The state,  government and polity view an  individual citizen’s  group membership (his religious or community adherence) as the primary element of his citizenship and his political identity.  The fundamental underlying assumption is  that a person’s adherence to his self-confessed community primarily defines and protects his interests Each community’s politicians compete with each other only and are assured of a sort of niche or captive vote with  no danger of competition or challenge possible  ever from politicians of other communities As the system evolves,   electorates could get  more and more fragmented with sub communities touting their claims to separatism  and their own separate electorate and seats. Under separate electorates a recognized community is not electorally accountable to another recognized community except at the governance/elite level. This keeps the division of citizens in political matters in place, which is precisely what the system of joint electorate seeks to abolish. It will also obstruct the minorities’ return to mainstream politics.

Joint-Electorates
Under joint electorates, voters of all communities select their representative from  the same set of candidates. The representative of a region is accountable to citizens of all communities. Thus citizens can make common cause across community lines at all level All citizens are politically equal in the eyes of the state. A given community can have any number of legislators, less or more than its population proportion. One community’s political voice can be co-opted by another community. The dynamics of joint electorates at the constituency level can however be seen to be both unfavorable and favorable to the representation of minority interests.

On the eve of election of 2008 the Asian Human Rights Commission in one of its report wrote; “Though Pakistan claims to provide a universal right to vote to all its citizens, which however proves to be contradictory to the facts. Indeed, the members of the Ahmadi community have been denied this fundamental right. The regulations implemented against Ahmadis are in violation of the 1973 Pakistani Constitution and the process of democracy itself. Right before the 2008 elections, the Election Commission issued instructions based on the circular [No.F.1 (6)/2001-Cord] of 17th January, 2007 to maintain a separate electoral lists system, entitled “Preparation of Separate List of Draft Electoral Rolls for Ahmadis/Quadianis”. The eighth amendment to the 1973 Constitution, enacted in 1985, imposed this separated system. Since then, elections have been held in the country with separate electoral lists for different religious groups. This system is primarily aimed at Ahmadis, the most vulnerable and discriminated minority in Pakistan. In 2008, for being registered as voters, those who claimed to be Muslims had to sign a certificate of faith and deny the veracity of the holy founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Of course no Ahmadi would agree to do so; they were thus de facto denied their right to vote.

The marginalization of Ahmadis, leading to a discriminatory electoral system based on religious beliefs is in violation of national and international legislation’s, as well as the spirit of democracy itself. Under the Pakistani Constitution, every Pakistani citizen has the right to vote irrespective of their race, religion, creed or belief. Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also states that every citizen shall have the right and opportunity to vote and to be elected. Articles 19 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights also guarantee the right to vote to every citizen. The right to vote is one of the most basic and fundamental rights that must be guaranteed to every citizen and without which a state cannot call itself a democracy. The fact is that the Pakistani legislation is discriminatory against all religious minorities in general, and against Ahmadis in particular. It is not only about the right to vote, but all aspects of public and private life. In 1984, General Zia ul Haq promulgated anti-Ahmadiyya Ordinance XX in which the Ahmadis were outlawed. The Penal Code explicitly discriminates the Ahmadi community in its section 298-C: “any person of the Quadiani group or the Lahori group (who call themselves Ahmadis or by any other name), who directly or indirectly, poses himself as a Muslim, or calls, or refers to, his faith as Islam, or preaches or propagates his faith, or invites others to accept his faith, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations, or in any manner whatsoever outrages the religious feelings of Muslims shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.” It must be reminded that Article 20 of Pakistan s Constitution guarantees each citizen s freedom to profess religion and to manage religious institutions. Article 33 gives the state the responsibility to discourage parochial, racial, tribal, sectarian and provincial prejudices among the citizens. Moreover, Article 36 ensures that the state shall safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of minorities, including their due representation in the Federal and Provincial services.”

Human Right organisations both at national, regional and International level many a times have called for significant governmental measures in order to tackle this issue and restore the democratic norms in their true spirit. The Pakistani government must repeal all discriminatory laws against religious minorities, for all Pakistani citizens must be equal before the law. The 1973 Constitution before the anti-Ahmadi amendments must be restored. Moreover, all national and international texts that guarantee fundamental rights, such as the right to vote, must be literally implemented. The electoral system based on separated lists must be outlawed and all Pakistani citizens must be treated equally, irrespective of race, religion, creed or belief. It is only through these essential steps that justice and the rule of law can be restored and that Pakistan could finally call itself a respectable democratic country.

Original Article: