Great national tragedy
OUR constitutional and judicial tragedies are one of the causes for the present standoff and chaos; first the Constituent Assembly failed to produce the fundamental law when the first draft constitution was presented by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1950. This received an adverse reaction from East Pakistan’s parliamentarians because the bill proposed an equal number of seats in the upper house of parliament when equal powers were contemplated for the Upper and the Lower House. They feared that the majority will be converted into a minority through this constitution as the majority of population lived in East Pakistan.
The idea of making Urdu the national language didn’t receive good response from the Bengali population either. Similarly, religious leaders were also not satisfied with the Islamic provisions of the first draft constitution. Liaquat Ali Khan showing democratic spirit suggested postponement of the Constitutional Bill to allow the public to express its opinion on the issue. The second draft bill was presented by Prime Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin before the Constituent Assembly on 22nd December 1952 incorporating principle of parity between the two wings.
This time adverse reaction came from West Pakistani parliamentarians who opposed equating East Pakistan with all other 4 provinces of the Western wing of the country. The Ulema were satisfied because wide powers were given to examine conformity or repugnance of any law with Quran and Sunnah, but again, the consideration of the bill was postponed and a third draft was presented by Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Bogra arrived from USA who settled the controversial issues of representation, language and religion. The Constitution was finally adopted by the Constituent Assembly in September 1954.
Within weeks, on 24 October 1954, Ghulam Mohammad, the then Governor General, dissolved the Constituent Assembly and the nation was deprived of the 1954 Constitution before its enforcement had been passed. After the cumbersome efforts of parliamentarians that had taken 7 years the new Constitution was scraped by the stroke of the pen after the then Chief Justice and Commander-in-Chief had shamelessly assured their support to an autocratic ruler trying to save himself and his cronies. The Speaker Molvi Tamizuddin Khan who took the matter to the court was shown the door. In 1954 the people of Pakistan were first defeated by their enemies from within and without and the (in-)famous Law of Necessity coined by Justice Mohammad Munir acting like a timid judge of the then Governor General paved the way for 1971 debacle. Our law makers, judiciary and bureaucracy did not learn any lesson from our chequered history.
Misfortune of people starting from Justice Munir’s unfortunate doctrine of necessity to the emergence of corrupt and unpatriotic progeny of law-makers, judges and bureaucrats compromising their conscience and ethics remained silent on the scrapping of the 1956 Constitution and the declaring of martial law by General Ayub Khan, who introduced his own Constitution in 1962 with basic democrats as his electoral college to rule supreme but was ably checked by the combined opposition who fielded Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah and she was defeated through election rigging in West Pakistan.
Ayub Khan stepped down after mass protests against him and after the failure of RTC and was succeeded by Gen Yahya Khan who also tried to introduce his handmade constitution drafted on Turkish pattern. But the 1971 war led to the disintegration of Pakistan and forced the removal of Yahya Khan who was replaced by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the remaining part of Pakistan, who became first civilian CMLA and then President and got a new Constitution with parliamentary democracy passed. But he suspended the fundamental rights provided in his own constitution within 24 hours of its promulgation. Then Gen. Ziaul Haq assumed the reigns, who announced the suspension of the 1973 constitution but in fact had scrapped it already on 5th July 1977 when he dissolved the Senate of Pakistan, a permanent institution of federation under the 1973 constitution to later experiment with his own religious brand of supreme law through Majlis-e-Shoora but was given strong resistance by the MRD alliance formed in 1981.
Events after 1983 including the successful court arrest movement forced him to announce the 1985 party-less election and to get article 58 (2) b inserted in the Constitution claiming it to be a safety valve. Our undemocratic lawmakers swinging their tails passed this law in spite of my party president Malik Mohammad Qasim trying to educate them about the consequences of this law. He publicly invited members of parliament on more than half a dozen dinners hosted in their honour at his residence on 6th Road, Satellite Town, Rawalpindi where more than 85 MNAs were present on a dinner he had hosted in honour of British High Commissioner in Pakistan two days before voting on this bill was to take place.
Amendment was passed. These lawmakers were surprised when Ziaul Haq dislodged his hand-selected Prime Minister and later died in a mysterious air crash in 1988 along with top military leadership and US Ambassador and a Brigadier General. Then for one decade we saw manipulation and rigged elections under the whims and caprices of a Troika of power that included President of Pakistan, Army Chief and Chief Justice of Pakistan. Gen Musharraf had also planned a coup after having personal differences after the Kargil episode in 1999 and this unlawful act was legitimized by the apex court granting him three year-time to revamp democracy and even make minor amendments in the Constitution if needed.
Intoxicated with his frontline country role after 9/11, then he tried to clip the powers of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry but failed. This gave birth to judicial activism on imported agenda. Finally, the establishment got exposed in manoeuvring the courts in the Panama Paper judgment is still continuing, the experiment of judicial engineering and open political wrangling from the court rooms may destroy our national fabric and nations future. Let serenity, courage with wisdom prevail upon decision makers to restrain from working on their vested personal interests and affiliations. Who lives if Pakistan dies and who dies if Pakistan lives. A famous saying is “The forces of status quo always protect and promote corrupt intellectual paradigm”. To Almighty may save Pakistan from foreign conspirators and bless Pakistan and humanity.
