As in other developing countries, Pakistan’s election system is also blamed for not guaranteeing legitimate representation of the people. First, the system of first-past-the-post election does not always result in elected bodies representing the will of majority. For many years the desirability of switching over to the system of proportional representation (PR) has been agitated by a section of public opinion. The critics of the PR system, however, argue that it requires a more mature electorate than what is demanded by a simpler first-past-the-post system.

Besides, the PR system depends heavily on political parties which are democratically structured, which have means of ensuring collective decisions and which have a tradition of political work in periods between elections. Since none of these conditions exist, election on PR basis will be whimsically drawn up by party bosses and their coteries. However, it is being argued that the PR system offers the only possibility for creating space for sections and elements of society that will otherwise go unrepresented, such as women, academics, professionals, religious / ethnic minorities.

The suggestion that has found considerable favour with the public is to leave the existing seats in all directly elected legislatures to be filled on the present constituency-wise first-past-the-post basis and create additional seats to be filled through proportional representation.

Democracy must prove that it serves the common good and that it is responsive to the will of the people. It must allow real participation in which all are equal and there are no privileges. To be sustainable, the democratic order of a State must be authentic and reflect the culture, history and political experience of its citizens. Democracy must be seen as a process that requires much more than the conduct of elections.

Our idea is to contribute to the promotion of representative democracy, so that the democratic wave evident in many parts of the world does not get reversed and that our political regime becomes capable of engineering the needed economic and social transformation. For this, in the least, elections should provide not only political legitimacy to government but also ensure that the outcomes would, in fact, reflect the will of the electorate, thus contributing to the fulfilment of their aspirations. The concept of public accountability can also assume practical meaning and value only under these conditions.