The Naib Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan ex-Senator Prof. Khurshid Ahmad has expressed his serious concern about the political onslaughts that are being made upon the Election Commission, particularly by the spokesmen of larger political parties in respect of the detailed nomination paper that is being prescribed by the Commission. The Law Ministry and the Presidency failed to respond to the proposals made by the Election Commission and consequently the Commission had to take a decision and go ahead with the nomination paper to ensure the elections on time. According to Prof. Khurshid Article 218(3) of the Constitution authorizes the Commission not only to take all necessary steps to ensure free, fair and just elections and safeguard against all corrupt practices but it also empowers it to make necessary regulations in that respect. This overriding power cannot be abridged by any law or government.
Two objections are being clapped-trapped. First that information about the degrees and details about family members and their assets is un-necessary and secondly the details of other development projects and programmes in one’s constituency are not only uncalled for but ill advised interference in the affairs of the members of the Parliament.
Prof. Khurshid has said that a number of insinuations are also being made about the constitutional demands for the members of the Parliament to be Sadiq and Amin. Prof. Khurshid emphasized that Sadiq and Amin are sacred Islamic concepts and efforts to mock at them are highly objectionable. Article 62 and 63 in its present form have been unanimously endorsed by the 18th Constitutional Amendment and this business of bringing in the red-hearing the name of Gen Zia ul Haq must end.
He has further said that all major works on political theory and Parliamentary government accept the principle that integrity is unbridgeable and inalienable qualification for public representation. In the political grammar integrity conveys the same meaning as is expressed more eloquently in the Islamic terms Sadiq and Amin. Throughout the world it is accepted that perjury is an unforgivable crime in politics and a number of political office holders have been impeached or forced to resign if they were found guilty of perjury. Clinton had to face the music on this count and recently a British Minister had to resign not only from the Cabinet but the Parliament and face imprisonment because he tried to attribute a traffic crime committed by him to his wife and was exposed. Prof. Khurshid observed that the information requires by the Election Commission from candidates is to ensure that anyone who in the past had been guilty of cheating on account of false degrees or false claims in respect of dual nationality or hiding or misrepresenting their own or their family’s wealth.
Similarly the Election Commission’s demand for disclosure of use of development funds in one’s constituency is extremely important to find out what discrimination has been made in the allocation of development funds between different members of the Parliament or Assembly and how public money has been used for political parties. There have been a number of members of the parliament whose development projects proposed by them were never sanctioned or financial allocations made and there are a few in powers where billions have been doled out to them. Prof. Khurshid pointed out that in principle he opposes that development project should come through the members of the Parliament but once the policy has been adopted gross discrimination and misuse is a crime in its own right. According to Prof. Khurshid Ahmad billions have been spent in the constituencies of the powerful in Multan, Nawabshah, Mardan, Lahore and Gujjar Khan Etc. and all such facts must come out and those responsible for misuse of resources and power disqualify for future participation in elections.
Prof. Khurshid has expressed his satisfaction on the stand taken by the Election Commission and expressed the hope that it will stand firm and has asked all political and religious parties to support the Election Commission so that the forthcoming elections could be fair, transparent and become instrumental in weaning out those who have played havoc with the fate of the country because of their corruption and illegal and immoral abuse of power.