New social contract and political system

The presidential system can overcome all maladies of the parliamentary system of governance

The political system of a country must respond to the needs of the people and fulfil their aspirations by keeping overall stability in society while ensuring development in all spheres of human activity.

The success of the political system could only be ascertained by observing the extent to which it is responsive to the needs of the people and ensuring overall development and welfare of the masses. Using this criterion the political system in Pakistan can safely be said to be unresponsive to the needs of the people.

The nature and profundity of the multipronged crisis and conflict in Pakistan is such that elections or superficial political change cannot overwhelm it. Pakistan’s constitutional history is a chequered one to say the least.

There have always been continual constitutional crisis, abrogation of constitutions and running of the state institutions according to the provisions of the constitution.

The present constitution approved unanimously by the National Assembly-turned-Constituent Assembly in 1973 has always been bragged by the politicians of all shades of opinions as the best thing to happen in the political history of the country.

Though going through two martial laws the document is still there, the two military rulers, Zia ul Haq and Pervez Musharraf, introduced such amendments to it to tailor it for their own requirements.

Even the undemocratic and absolutist mentality of rulers like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif did not spare the constitution and amended it beyond repair.

So Pakistan as a country and a federation to survive and thrive needs an entirely new social contract that could put into place such a political system that would not only be functional but would address the needs of the citizens.

If the new social contract is to be really successful in addressing the grave political and social problems of the country, then it ought to be equitably beneficial for all the social classes, groups, ethnicities and genders.

Moreover, the participation and equal rights of the marginalised classes like labour, women, civil society must be ensured to make the compact really representative defender of each and every one’s rights.

Those who argue that there is no need of a new social contract and instead contend that the solution to the problems of Pakistan lies in the extant political system then they are fundamentally mistaken.

It is also noteworthy that there is an increasing cognisance among the political observers that the parliamentary political system of the country is not working and there is a need to establish a presidential political system in the country.

This is indeed an important observation. The parliamentary system in the country, instead of overcoming the problems and issues of the country, society and people has reinforced conflicts at the local, regional and national level while politically polarising the society also.

The constituency-based politics which requires factionalism among the inhabitants of the constituency has given rise to social chaos and animosities disturbing the very stability of society.

The presidential system can overcome all these maladies of the parliamentary system of governance. Moreover, it can ensure the evolution of a true federal structure in Pakistan.

No political leader could perform in the existing parliamentary form of government because he has to keep all of his party people and coalition partners appeased and satisfied and most of his energies and the state resources are spent on attaining this objective due to which governance and policymaking suffers the most.

Resultantly, the political system remained docile and unresponsive to the needs of the people. Pakistan’s problems are aggravating with each passing day. This is not that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government or Prime Minister Imran Khan are incompetent, dishonest and insincere but because the system constraints prevents them from delivering.

If this government fails too in pulling the country out of deep social, economic and political morass the result would be catastrophic. Therefore, the political leadership has to understand the fundamental problem and therefore, must agree to have a new social contract with political system change.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2019.

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