Balance of power

Blobs on Pakistan's experimental glass slide indicate Politics, the Military and the Judiciary

Mercury is a solid that is perhaps the thickest of liquids. It makes it one of the most viscous. There are others like honey and oil which are truly liquids but among the most viscous. Viscosity is an inherent property in elements which ties molecules together in a close bonding. Lower viscosity means the liquid can easily spread when placed on a glass slide; more viscous will remain bonded even if it changes shape. A change of temperature or ambient conditions usually change the properties of the element. Atoms tend to loosen out as elements heat spreading out in changing shapes while retaining apparent integrity. When viscosity within an element loosens excessively the original compact is lost and elements flow off the slide.

Say we take three such blobs of the most viscous, which can truly keep shape well, and place them on the same glass slide together. If the slide is perfectly balanced each blob, even if conjoined at a point, and despite the inherent deformity in the surface of the slide, will find their mean balancing out against each other in cohesive and coexistent shapes adhered to each other at one common junction. You will easily be able to make out one from the other, their adhesion in place relevant to respective properties. Each of course has a different role ordained in nature. Who can contest what mercury, honey or oil are destined to serve per their properties as three distinct elements or compounds of nature. When steady and settled against each other these three blobs represent perfect balance.

However, and this is as important to know, when pressure and temperature change because of externally infused variation viscosity will loosen and the spread of the blob on the slide will change shape. To conclude when inherent adhesion weakens, the blob weakens, and can be easily jostled around by the other relatively still stable, more viscous, blobs. This is when the balance which was earlier almost perfect de-shapes and becomes skewed. They are still conjoined — unless one simply withers away because of excessive weakening within — but in a badly imbalanced and deformed presentation. When one blob weakens the more integrated and strongly viscous will push their way into its space. That’s the physical truth.

The same principle impacts balance of power in a state. Ideally and principally, the three state organs are the Executive, the Parliament and the Judiciary which are the three blobs on the glass slide of constitution balanced on the even keel of both perfections and imperfections in a constitution. This gives cause to the doctrine of trichotomy of power. The Pakistani State is different. Per historical experience and functional realities, the three blobs on our experimental glass slide indicate Politics — which of essence must include the parliament and the political government since it emerges out of the parliament, the Military which has been a virtual power wielder of note in most state functions and the Judiciary which intervenes every now and then to impose its own influence.

Of note then is what weakens one blob? More importantly, the politics blob since that is where from most complaints of the imbalance emerge. First things first: the politics blob weakens to leave space for others to spread deeper, both euphemistically and physically on a slide. If we can digest this lets begin the inquiry: the parties lack democracy within and hence credibility — that leaves them stale and odious for what is old and foul; they frequently seek the support of other two blobs to climb the ladder of power compromising their claim to exclusivity; they are frequent victims of fratricide in seeking power through lethally injuring the other — this weakens them irrecoverably as an establishment; their level of probity in financial handling and allegations of corruption and pilferage have reached biblical proportions adversely impacting popular perception of them and lowering their stock in this difficult game of balancing power — constitution and its commandments notwithstanding; their governance and administration historically is abysmal.

Next are the structural and functional weaknesses that impact the politics blob. The Parliament is meant to keep a government in check through debate and through its committee system. It rarely does that. Governments and the parliament share common interests and look out for each other. The sugar and the power sectors exhibit shared needs and how policies get tweaked to deliver wider favour to politicians of all hues across the political spectrum. The most recent legislation in the Parliament amending NAB laws further cements how the division between the government and the opposition fades when interests are common. The committees act as convenient subterfuge to the larger game of contriving and accumulating common favour to all. Rest is mostly proforma. This makes the political blob weak in constitution and hence easily jostled about.

Parliament itself is kept in check by the constitution but will frequently exercise the proclivity to tamper with it every now and then to carve a more favourable space for itself. This brings it in direct contention with the Judiciary which must exercise a check on what legislation is crafted and whether it challenges the basic structure of the constitution, interest of the state, fundamental rights of the citizens, and that it is not self-serving and grant undue favour to a person or an entity. The notion that Parliament is supreme is fallacious. It is the creation of the constitution like all other blobs and must adhere to the limitations and constraints as indeed the philosophy of state structure ordained in the constitution. Only the constituent assembly is sovereign. This differentiation we routinely overlook.

The disconnect in conception of the political blob is what rues its reputation which then comes in direct conflict with the other tenets of the constitution and generates its tensions with remaining pillars of the state and power wielders. That is when confrontation and imbalance emerge. The power to appoint military chiefs and intelligence heads is not always without assuring self-interest first. Politicization of the military is anathematic, yet the politicians will use the ruse to seek favour. Ditto, superior judiciary. The present Supreme Court is fighting hard to save its credibility sullied by adverse political influence. When politics becomes the staple, the courts lose out on their affinity and adhesion, and weaken. The military too has the same lesson to learn.

The most yawning culpability here is the lack of robustness in the political establishment which lacks mature and issue-based political engagement. It weakens it vis a vis the other two blobs. A government’s and parliament’s probity of conduct in function will also give the political blob far greater inherent strength to forge better balance. The imbalance in our structure is not inherent or perpetual but a consequence of not adhering to the limitations and constraints imposed by the constitution. Politicians are the more frequent violators and when the game spoils for all there are others who will relish the melee.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2023.

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