03-12-2008, 07:23 PM
<b>Caste an important factor in pakistan election</b>
The role of castes and the biradari system in Pakistani politics also needs to be re-evaluated.
I checked the outcome of the elections in my village in Sahiwal district. The population is almost completely Arain, yet a Syed from PMLN beat the other two candidates by a crushing margin. The Arain candidate from the PPP came third with a negligible number of votes. The story was repeated in neighbouring villages, which are dominated by similar castes. A similar description will be applicable to rest of the Punjab, to say the least.
If this episodic evidence is not sufficient, let us take the overall figures of the winning candidates.
<b>According to the figures published by the Daily Times on February 25, 2008, 34 candidates who are Syed and 8 who are Qureshi won national assembly seats. They jointly won 42 seats or 16 percent of the National Assembly seats while their share in the population may not even be 5 percent.</b>
<b>Syed and Qureshi are the upper caste of muslim society.</b>
The role of castes and the biradari system in Pakistani politics also needs to be re-evaluated.
I checked the outcome of the elections in my village in Sahiwal district. The population is almost completely Arain, yet a Syed from PMLN beat the other two candidates by a crushing margin. The Arain candidate from the PPP came third with a negligible number of votes. The story was repeated in neighbouring villages, which are dominated by similar castes. A similar description will be applicable to rest of the Punjab, to say the least.
If this episodic evidence is not sufficient, let us take the overall figures of the winning candidates.
<b>According to the figures published by the Daily Times on February 25, 2008, 34 candidates who are Syed and 8 who are Qureshi won national assembly seats. They jointly won 42 seats or 16 percent of the National Assembly seats while their share in the population may not even be 5 percent.</b>
<b>Syed and Qureshi are the upper caste of muslim society.</b>