SPEAKER National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and the Parliamentary Advisory Committee headed by seasoned parliamentarian Senator Mian Raza Rabbani surely deserve credit for chalking out a month-long calendar of events to celebrate the golden jubilee of the 1973 Constitution to highlight the founding principles of federal parliamentary democracy, social justice and equality. The activities not only included foundation-stone laying of the Constitution Monument at famous D-Chowk and an exhibition showcasing rare pictures of the framers of the Constitution but also events involving people from different walks of life like National Constitution Convention, speech contests in educational institutions, quiz competitions, special programmes by electronic and print media as well as an International Constitution Convention.
The decision to celebrate the golden jubilee of the Constitution is perfectly timed as there is near-consensus that almost all problems confronting the nation owe their existence to constitutional deviations, tendency to treat it as a mere piece of paper, gross interference of the pillars of the state and institutions into the domains of others and inability of Parliament to assert itself as envisaged in the otherwise sacred document. The 1973 Constitution is a comprehensive document with signatures of all the parties that were represented in Parliament at that time giving it status of a consensus roadmap for all-round development, progress and prosperity. It envisages a parliamentary form of government where the executive authority of the state vests with the elected Prime Minister, President represents unity of the Republic, bicameral system of legislature ensures safeguarding of rights of the federating units irrespective of their population or geographical area, guarantees provincial autonomy and contains provisions to strengthen and promote Islamic identity of the country. The document also comprehensively deals with important and sensitive matters like powers and functions of the state pillars as well as federation and the federating units. In short, it has all the elements to help realize the cherished dream of every citizen – to make Pakistan a truly Islamic welfare state. It is, however, regrettable that the country witnessed glaring violations of the Constitution as at times it was held in abeyance to legitimize supra-constitutional interventions, judiciary provided shoulders to legitimize unconstitutional deviations, amendments were made to the consensus document to grab undue powers and authority and no movements were made by the successive governments to realize even the fundamental objectives of the Constitution and that is why we see hardly any worthwhile progress to make Urdu as official language or transform all laws in accordance with the spirit of Islamic injunctions. In this backdrop, it is hoped that the golden jubilee celebrations would help generate a healthy national debate on how to proceed further. The national and international conventions would offer an opportunity to prominent figures from different walks of life to deliberate on not just achievements but also failures. They are expected to offer fruitful suggestions that should serve as an input to Parliament and the Government to draw policies and plans aimed at strengthening parliamentary democracy and ensuring that the system delivers to the people as per their expectations. The country suffered a lot due to numerous experiments carried out by both civilian and military rulers which resolved no problem and created more. It is time we discard once for all the useless debate about the system of governance – parliamentary or presidential and the kind of local government system the country needs. We have been emphasizing all along in these columns that there was nothing wrong with the system of governance, powers of Parliament, powers and roles of the President and the Prime Minister, independence of the judiciary and the Election Commission of Pakistan. Problems arise when relevant constitutional provisions are deliberately ignored, judiciary oversteps to rewrite the Constitution (which is sole prerogative of Parliament), centre ignores legitimate concerns, apprehensions and demands of the provinces and scant respect is shown to the rule of law. While paying tributes to the framers of the consensus Constitution and those who rendered sacrifices for restoration of the original Constitution, we would urge all stakeholders to commit themselves to strict adherence to the documents as it is the only solution to the problems, challenges and crises facing the country.
