NYT reported Qaim Din Khan hopes a simple message will win him re-election on Thursday in Pakistan's most hotly contested elections in years. "We installed transformers," he said. "Got streets paved." Mr. Khan's candidacy, approach and ambitions are revolutionary in Pakistan. A burly, straight-talking, 42-year-old car parts salesman with a 10th-grade education, Mr. Khan is one of 218,000 budding Pakistani politicians running in nationwide elections for the coveted new post of "nazim," the rough equivalent of a mayor in the United States. Four years ago, the offices did not exist. Today, they are a bright spot in an otherwise failed Western effort to turn Pakistan into a stable and vibrant democracy.
A bright spot is a bright spot, even in Pakistan"It's close to democracy, if not true democracy," said Abdul Rashid, a 51-year-old businessman who praised the performance of Mr. Khan and other new nazims. "Our problems are being solved." Under a system created in 2001, Mr. Khan and each of the country's 79,612 nazims, or "supervisors," receive several thousand dollars in government development funds for their tiny districts, which range from a few thousand to about 30,000 people. Then, they face a choice. They can try to win re-election by using the money for the payoffs and patronage that have dominated Pakistani politics for decades. Or they can try to win by improving the government services their constituents rely on: roads, electrical systems, schools and health clinics. During his first term in office, Mr. Khan spent $3,500 to pave 40 streets and install 10 new electrical transformers. "It's better," he said. "A person has to make his constituents happy by proposing development programs and actually working on them."
It sounds to me like Mr. Kahn has figured out how democracy works.
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