Trichotomy of power: Senators lament ceding of powers by parliament

Handful senators attended debate on distribution of power between legislature, executive and judiciary

ISLAMABAD: The senators on Thursday lamented continued ceding of parliament’s ‘inherent’ authority against other state institutions.

Only a dozen senators of the 103-member house were present during a rare debate on distribution of power between legislature, executive and judiciary. Most of them were speakers on the cerebral subject.

The discussion took place hardly a day after Law Minister Zahid Hamid’s pronouncement that all political parties had agreed to exclude armed forces and the judiciary from the ambit of the proposed accountability watchdog to replace the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).



Wednesday’s development on the proposed National Accountability Commission had prompted Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani to remark “what has been the need for the new law now. Better amend NAB law”.

His remarks came when Senator Farhatullah Babar, in his speech, avowed that he was shocked when his party (PPP) also retreated from its ‘accountability of all’ stance, despite repeated public rhetoric.

Babar was a member of the parliamentary panel that worked on draft of the new law.

On Thursday, most senators blamed parliament for abdicating its powers, others blamed judiciary for encroachment, while Babar had a different take.

He believed power had been systemically shifted from Islamabad to Rawalpindi – a reference to the military general headquarters.



He cited a quote by former army chief General Jahangir Karamat: “The Legal Framework Order [of Pervez Musharraf] represents the longstanding desire of the military to re-write the civil-military equation on military’s terms.”

The actual issue, he said, was the systematic and deliberate shifting of locus of control from Islamabad to Rawalpindi and worse was that the new locus was not accountable.

“There are institutional mechanisms in place to address a mere imbalance within the constitutional trichotomy of power, but the current situation is far worse,” he added.

“Today the state is like a vehicle where the driver has no control over the main controls. Sooner or later such a vehicle is bound to meet a disastrous accident,” he warned.

He also mentioned a report published in the Times of London on January 17 about a Garrison meeting.

The report talked about tensions with officers concerned that their powerful army was losing its superiority and standing, threatening its supremacy which had dominated the country politically since its birth, he said.

Giving examples of lack of accountability, he said Musharraf admitted in his book of having handed over hundreds of people captured to the CIA and made millions of dollars, but no questions were asked.

Musharraf had admitted that a network of nuclear proliferation had transferred several tonnes of nuclear material to Iran, Libya and North Korea, but no investigation was conducted, he said.



Musharraf used to tell the world that Osama Bin Laden had died of kidney ailment but Osama was found in a cantonment, even then no heads rolled, he added.

He said it was true that political parties and judiciary were also responsible for the mess, but they had made some amends.

While the judiciary had buried the concept of Provisional Constitutional Order judges, the political parties had joined hands in the Charter of Democracy vowing never to invite intervention of undemocratic elements.

He expressed grief and shock over failure of parliament to enact a law of across-the-board accountability of all.

He said his proposal in the parliamentary committee was based on what he believed was party policy and quoted from a press statement of the party’s chairman demanding across-the-board accountability of all.

Ruling party’s senator Javed Abbasi said trichotomy of power enshrined in the Constitution had never been implemented in the country. Holding parliamentarians responsible for it, he said lawmakers had been passing legislations with great alacrity to appease the executive.

“The parliament remained subservient to executive or judiciary,” he said, adding that soon after the 18th Amendment a new amendment was passed when the judiciary objected over the procedure approved for appointment of judges.

Senator Mohsin Leghari, another ruling party member, said seriousness of parliament could be assessed by the thin presence of members in the house on such an important debate. There was no minister present on the front row during the entire discussion.

“It will be wrong to say judiciary is infringing into the executive’s domain. In fact, it is the parliament which is not performing its due role,” Leghari said.

Senators Sassi Palijo, Taj Haider, Usman Kakar and Jahanzaib Jamaldini also spoke on the subject.

The debate will continue today (Friday).