After analyzing several political talk-shows about electoral system and the ground realities of the ruling parties and opposition parties that how they got elected, I found a big room for improvement and  came up with a suggestion for Election Commission and Supreme Court of Pakistan to think about improving and changing this process once and for all. This is a need of time, we want to revamp this system on emergency basis, most probably for next general election. We as a Pakistani nation cannot afford another election where fate of 180 Million Pakistanis are written by few Thugs and Illiterates who do not even represent 20% of Pakistani population.

Let me put up here some statistics about last general elections, the total population of Pakistan according to official census clock is 180,324,013 and the people who voted in last general elections were total 34,665,978 which is not even 20% of the total population. Therefore what we have today is pure representation of less than 20% of our total population sitting in parliament and playing with the lives of 180 Million.

All elections held in the past were not very different from the last election held in 2008. That is why we always got a big lot of corrupt law makers and they continuously gave us the ever-lasting fruits of Load-Shedding, Poverty, Water Crisis, Ethnic Crimes, Genocides, Extortion and Kidnapping, you name a crime and we will find that in our society.

Interesting thing to point is that our 70% of the population lives in rural and remote areas and the population here is mostly illiterate where votes are polled on family, party, ethnic basis and most of the time with force. So if we apply same statistics on the vote polled in last election then out of 34,665,978 votes 70% were polled by Illiterate and uneducated voters, who don't know the ground realities and who never ever got in a position to raise voices against the person they voted.

Using common sense, and after assessing the ground realities, I would suggest that popular votes should not be polled by people who don't know the reality and power of their votes, this is a task that should be done by a person who is free as in freedom to think, and is well educated and qualified to know what it means to vote.

Following are the suggested prerequisite for Candidate contesting general Elections and prerequisite for a voter.

Prerequisite and Restrictions for Candidature

  • The person who is going to contest a poll for general election should have at least 16 years of education, should have attained at least 70% or above passing marks, this is very important, there is a huge difference if we compare a person who got 16 years of education with passing marks 40% and the one who passed it with 70% and above.
  • The person who is candidature for a general election should be a tax payer, have valid National Tax Number (NTN), showing that what he had earned, so that people can easily compare after 5 years how much he had grabbed.
  • The remuneration package and facilities should be very low, so that person contesting a poll should have a clear picture that he is not going to have a smooth/leisure ride in terms of earning after getting elected, this will help in a long run, only person who's motive is only social service will enter in this field. We don't want people to get elected to earn money out of this field, should be pure people service and highly accountable.

Prerequisite and Restrictions for Voters

  • The person who is going to vote aged above 18 years and below 22 years should have done at least and at minimum 12 years of education, we as an overseas Pakistani and Educated Pakistani do not want illiterate people to vote and decide the fate of our country.
  • The person who is going to vote and is above 22 years of age, must have to be a tax payer with valid National Tax Number (NTN). Person who is paying taxes will never vote for a person who loots and utilize his/her tax money on personal gains.

Osman (not verified) Wed, 2012-08-01 03:24

Dear Qandi,

It is pleasure to know that the youth of Pakistan is worried about its future and can spare time from their busy schedules to think about solutions, heart warming indeed. A few observations:

  1. You are suggesting to keep the payouts to our elected members at min to stop wastage of money; do you think it is their source of income after being elected, and is it comparable to the money they are earning otherwise. The very reason that a person goes to election is to make money, that is why they spend so much money on elections. The change has to come in the way elections are conducted, so that a person who has no money but very good intentions can come to office.
  2. NTN; this whole system of tax collection in itself is a very big question mark. The 22 year old voter that u are talking about, i would say 90% of them wont even know what an NTN is. In my view; the only way is the pathan way "mita ke shuru se shuru kare ga". The whole system needs to be dumped and a complete new system has to be built and put in place. The only way to do that is by revolution and a lot of bloodshed. Because the people who are currently running the system are benefiting from it and why do you think they would let anyone change that system, when they have the power to stop anyone from doing so. So, there would be a clash and that clash would result in a massive bloodshed and there is no other way. I will quote a hadees here "aur jab ALLAH un se naraz hota hai to un mein sab se bure logon ko un per hukumran bana deta hai aur un ko azab aise deta hai ke woh apas mein larte hain aur ek dusre ko qatal karte hain". I would appreciate your views on the above ....

Salaam OH

admin Fri, 2012-08-03 06:05

In reply to by Osman (not verified)

Osman bhai,

I really appreciate that you read and added 2 cents to my post, here are my views about your comments:

I suggested to bring down the luxurious wage, remuneration and benefits for the elected member, so that person who is going to contest an election should think twice that it is not going to be HALWA and he is not going to earn any thing out of it.

In addition to this we should emphasis on a system that they should declare their assets including the expenses they will incur in their election campaign well before the elections so that people know how much they have left and after completion of their tenure the report should be made public that what is his present worth. indeed this can be done only if we have a very transparent system.

You are 100% right that this is only achievable through revolution or in my opinion this definitely has to be initiated through an honest leader which unfortunately we do not have, but still we can pray that present leader get some Positive direction and repent to their original duties that is pure public service.

I still believe in change, there was only one quote that really motivates me in each and every segment of my life that "There is nothing permanent but CHANGE", I am very positive that we might see some change in coming years. Inshallah.