Re: Long March Declaration — A post-mortem
^ in that case, military is being stupid again. It is not like military life when you order and things get done in an instant.
Things like these take time. One little reform after another and you have to struggle for every bit of rights for a long time before you get it. Democracy in India is just starting to mature after several decades of election cycles.
I don't think angels would descend from heavens to participate in the elections. And I don't think most of the 'negotiators' would pass the tests of articles 62 and 63 if applied in the 'spirit'. Personally, for me it should not be up to election commission to decide who is eligible to participate. We need an independent judiciary and a very strong independent anti-corruption body to decide if a person has committed crimes and forward the findings to election commission. Even a country like Philippines which is marred with corruption has realized this and strengthened its audit/anti-corruption department a lot. Communist Party in China, with a very strong hold on politics, economy, and military, has realized corruption is a menace. Electoral reforms would be a great step forward but still we need to keep the reforms for anti-corruption going.
Military should keep themselves to what it is supposed to do.
We are not talking about what is right and what is wrong but we are talking about what was negotiated and what is the guarantee that what is negotiated is going to get implemented or not.
Anyhow, since you raise few issues that may not be relevant to what has happened (due to long march), still let me put some of my thoughts into that.
Army should not get involved and should keep themselves to what they are supposed to do.
I believe from here you mean that army should not get involved in local politics and administration and should look after the border only.
I think you are wrong because people in the army are all voters. People in the army and their families also gets effected by corruption, nepotism, misuse of power by those in power, misconduct, shortages of opportunities and amenities in country, etc … Obviously, just like any Pakistani, they have to do everything so that Pakistan do not get looted and destroyed by anyone, especially those who hoodwink their way into parliament by hook or crook in the name of democracy, even though most do not even qualify to contest election.
That is different matter than me and you have no means to counter these thugs and army have, so they do with the means they have, for the betterment of the country (as I and most Pakistanis would have done if they had means).
You wrote that it should not be up to EC to decide who is eligible to participate in election (or not), rather it should be judiciary and anti-corruption body.
Well, it is not duty or responsibility of judiciary or anti-corruption body to interfere with election processes, rather, it is the duty and responsibility of EC to decide who should contest election after looking into their eligibility. That is why they are there in the first place. Actually, EC should investigate eligibility of every candidate wanting to contest election and for that they should be able to take help from all government bodies, including anti-corruption body, police, banking authorities, etc, etc. They can also take help from police, army and court to see that election goes through peacefully without disturbance and without any mal-practices or rigging. So, in deciding who can or cannot contest election courts or any other government body do not even come in.
[In Pakistan, EC was too weak and normally partial, care-taker government were never neutral to allow EC take help of government bodies in deciding who is eligible to contest election, and worse was that there was no requirement to check eligibility of the candidate].
You talked about democracy in India, but as far as I am concerned, I believe democracy in India is nothing but Gobar (cow-sh*t) on the wall, ready to get burned as fuel in oven so that some people can use it to cook their food and become rich. It has not helped Indian masses at all, and that is why India is deeply poor, with living standard that can rival most African poor and mismanaged countries. Indian political system stink and only God knows how it would mature. Most likely, the way things are going there, Indian communist or Marxists would gain strength and would turn the politics of India up-side down … causing lot of bloodshed and taking the country from one extreme to another.
You are right that those who did negotiation themselves may not be able to pass Article 62, 63 tests. With dual nationality even TUQ could not pass that test … but that is part of Pakistani constitution and should get implemented. But then, in country of around 180 million people, there must be many millions who would pass the test.
*
If next parliament with members fulfilling all requirements of Article 62, 63 and 218 come to power than they can decide if irrelevant clauses in those articles should stay or go. Actually, many things in those articles are good for the country but some are irrelevant as far as country is concerned, especially those that are personal in nature and does not affect anyone else, that is, it does not affects country and people living in that country, they should go, but since it is there, only next parliament can decide and if appropriate than make them go (by changing the constitution).*
