Legislative

While strongly supporting the parliamentary form of Government, Pakistan Freedom Movement believes that the current “First past the post” election system should be replaced by “Proportional Representation”. Such a change will help rid our politics of the menace of “electables” , and will give the leadership of the parties greater flexibility to bring forward new faces as well as candidates with technical expertise to help build capacity of the parties as well as future governments.

PFM, while agreeing with the philosophical basis of introduction of the 18th amendment, believes that inadequate implementation of “letter and spirit” of this amendment is resulting in deeper divisions between the provincial units. There is an immediate need to meaningfully devolve power to the district level (and lower) thereby ensuring greater participation of people in running their own affairs. Pakistan Freedom Movement believes that devolution of power to the doorstep of citizens shall adequately address the complicated issue of creating more provinces and, at the same time, shall give more credence to the current disposition of provinces as being “regional economic development hubs”. As we continuously monitor, evaluate and seek improvements in parliamentary rules, procedures, and standing committee systems, we shall scrutinize remuneration, legislative sessions, benefits and facilities of parliamentarians.

Our Party breaks down the legislative process into three principal functions: representation, lawmaking, and balancing the executive. We argue that, on the whole, the Pakistani legislature must be evaluated on the basis of its processes (based on transparency and focused on public good) rather than its products.