Malik M. Ashraf<\/p>\n
Human lives have two as\u00adpects: the internal ex\u00adpressed through morals and religion and the external guided and shaped by the influence of devic\u00ades, techniques, mecha\u00adnisms, instrumental\u00adities, digitization and the advent of artificial intelligence.. The mod\u00adern man has built air\u00adplanes and spaceships that has squeezed distances and ar\u00adrested the flight of the time. He can also deservedly boast of rais\u00ading sky-scrapers, architectural marvels and behemoth bridges. He has produced thinking ma\u00adchines and instruments that peer into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space. He has within his grasp infinite vistas of scientif\u00adic and technological advancement. The hall mark of this external and modern life, with predominant\u00adly materialistic outlook, is that it has suppressed the internal fac\u00adet of human life, which is the root cause of all the problems faced by the mankind. This spiritual pov\u00aderty has landed the world into in\u00adtractable problems like injustice, poverty and conflict.
\nThe global economic order erect\u00aded on purely materialistic con\u00adsiderations is exploitative in na\u00adture and heavily tilted towards the more developed and technologi\u00adcally advanced nations. Similar\u00adly the predominance of the same materialistic philosophy within so\u00adcieties and states has created un\u00adbridgeable gulf between haves and have-nots, more so in the third world countries like Pakistan where political and economic pow\u00ader is in the hands of the landed ar\u00adistocracy and the elite classes.
\nThe system of governance, a legacy of the colonial era, has in\u00adbuilt avenues of corruption to serve the vested interests of elit\u00adist political class. They have cre\u00adated islands of affluence. They re\u00adfuse to acknowledge and accept the adage that islands of afflu\u00adence cannot exist in the oceans of poverty. They remain stubbornly oblivious to the fact that tensions generated by injustice and exploi\u00adtation always lead to conflict and emergence of fissiparous tenden\u00adcies in the society.
\nA conflict-ridden society fails to promote national integration besides undermining socio-eco\u00adnomic development. The solution lies in bridging and narrowing the gap between haves and have-nots. John F Kennedy echoed a simi\u00adlar warning in these words \u201cIf a free and democratic society can\u00adnot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich\u201d The founding father of the Na\u00adtion in his address to the constit\u00aduent assembly on 11 June 1947 had also mentioned alleviation of poverty as top most priority of the state. Pakistan needs to ad\u00address \u2018spiritual poverty\u2019 without any further loss of time and cho\u00adreograph a system of governance which is truly representative in nature and is capable of deliver\u00ading justice. People are yearning for change which can only come through breaking the hold of land\u00adlords and elite on political power.
\nElections are around the cor\u00adner and the political parties are feverishly engaged in wheeling and dealing and forming allianc\u00ades to win public franchise. Almost all the parties have issued tickets to their nominees to contest Na\u00adtional and provincial elections. A close look at the list of their can\u00addidates reveals that all the big par\u00adties have granted major chunk of their tickets to landlords and busi\u00adnessmen. Whether a single party forms the government at the cen\u00adtre and provinces or the results dictate formation of coalition gov\u00adernments, things are not going to change for better, at least for the poor segments of the society.
\nUnder the present system, no matter how many elections are held, the results will not be dif\u00adferent as it would bring back the same people to the assemblies; people with dubious credentials having myriad of skeletons in their cupboards. According to Ein\u00adstein doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results is insanity. This insanity must end now.
\nThe real issue is the way we elect our legislators. The single con\u00adstituency system prevalent in the country is the real culprit which has perpetuated the archaic co\u00adlonial system of governance and strengthened the hold of the land\u00adlords and elite classes on the polit\u00adical power. To get out of their suffo\u00adcating stranglehold, the best recipe available is to switch over to the proportional representation sys\u00adtem. Under this system the peo\u00adple vote for the parties and not in\u00addividual candidates. The parties get representation in the assem\u00adblies on the basis of the percent\u00adage of votes obtained by them in\u00addicating their real standing among the masses. The system eliminates horse-trading and change of loy\u00adalties through coercion and brib\u00adery. It enables the party leadership to nominate really competent and deserving people to the assemblies eliminating culture of black-mail by vested interests. It also ensures representation of smaller region\u00adal parties in the national politics discouraging centrifugal tenden\u00adcies. It is the best available recipe for national integration and unity. Its success decidedly depends on making the voting compulsory for every registered voter.
\nIt is time for all the political parties to give a serious thought to reforming the system rising above their narrow political agen\u00addas and use their collective wis\u00addom to compensate for their past follies if they desire to remain rel\u00adevant to the future political land\u00adscape of the country.<\/p>\n
The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at ashpak10@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malik M. Ashraf Human lives have two as\u00adpects: the internal ex\u00adpressed through morals and religion and the external guided and shaped by the influence of devic\u00ades, techniques, mecha\u00adnisms, instrumental\u00adities, digitization and the advent of artificial intelligence.. The mod\u00adern man has built air\u00adplanes and spaceships that has squeezed distances and ar\u00adrested the flight of the time. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3489],"class_list":{"0":"post-382438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-malik-m-ashraf"},"yoast_head":"\n