In order to save the soul and spirit of the Upper House, the government must go for direct elections for Senate, as practiced in strong democracies in the world over like Germany and the United States.
This was observed by Zafarullah Khan, Convener, Parliamentary Research Group while responding to a question at a Webinar on Understanding the Spirit of Senate of Pakistan here on Thursday.
The National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Centre of Excellence, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad arranged the webinar in connection with the forthcoming elections of Senate, scheduled to be held on March 3.
Responding to question, Zafarullah Khan said the Senate will go for elections on 48 seats-two in Islamabad, 11 each in Punjab and Sindh, and 12 each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. “On 6th of August 1973, members of the Senate took oath as members of the Upper House of the Parliament with a commitment that the two Houses of the Parliament-National Assembly and the Senate-would work together to strengthen democracy, Constitution and federation and would struggle together for the welfare and rights of people of Pakistan,” he said.
He said this was a good omen that all provinces have equal representation in the Upper House of the Parliament. Things will be in good shape when functions of institutions will be in accordance to Constitution and Rule of Law, he commented. “Theoretically, the role of the Senate is to promote national cohesion and harmony and to alleviate fears of the smaller provinces regarding domination by any one province because of its majority in the National Assembly. But over the years, a trend that is fast taking over is that some candidates are being nominated by political parties for seats belonging to the provinces/territories other than those they belong to. It is against the interests of a province to make a person from another province its representative,” Mr Khan deplored.
Khan said that Senate was an integral part of the Parliament of Pakistan and its role in legislative framework of the country by effectively guarding the rights of the federating units was highly praiseworthy. Pakistan being a federal state would flourish more when federating units had better representation at the federal level, he said. “As the Electoral College comprises members of the provincial assemblies and the seats have to be filled according to the principle of proportional representation, it is obvious which party can win how many seats in which province. Therefore, the favourites are fielded by political parties from provinces where they have good strength in the National Assembly,” observed Khan.
