Constitutional office holders, including the office of the PM, must be respected and given due courtesy and honour.
LAHORE: There is no issue involved with the fact that constitutional office holders, including the office of the prime minister, must be respected and given due courtesy and honour. The spirit of the constitution demands that these office holders should be respected and in turn those occupying these offices, must do justice with the powers entrusted to them through the various clauses of the constitution, by strictly adhering to rules in existence and laws of natural justice.
Unfortunately, the track record of people holding these constitutional offices in Pakistan is not very encouraging. It bothers me that perjury is not considered a crime in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Those holding constitutional offices in Pakistan, having sworn to uphold the constitution and rule of law, have no hesitation in giving false commitments in public, or even on the floor of the parliament. The office of PM is insulted when highly controversial and non-defensible appointments of men with conviction record are made. The most recent of such criminal appointments was the one in OGDC, where the individual had been convicted and then pardoned under the NRO, which was declared null and void by the Supreme Court. These executive appointments which fall under the discretion of the prime minister, or the president, should only be made on merit and not be given to any individual who has either been convicted in the past or who was found guilty by an in-house inquiry conducted by the government. There are innumerable such wrong choices made of man with a history of involvement in land mafia, financial wrongdoings, who do not have even the minimum qualifications for appointment as a junior executive of that organisation.
In any democratic country, public office holders have to undergo minute scrutiny before their appointment and in the event they or their family members are found involved in any transgressions of laws or rules, they are forced to resign from office. Public office holders cannot have the luxury to make mistakes that common citizens commit, because unlike the masses they decide on issues which decide the fate of this country.
Ali Malik
Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2010.
