Constitution & monuments of incompetence

People of Pakistan are rightly questioning: what have we done to deserve these Monuments of Incompetence?'

This extract from Senator Mushahid Hussain's tweet titled 'Regime's Midnight Waterloo' yet again exposed the dark side of our politics. But Mushahid, my journalism career's mentor, still put it mildly for the act that was about to be committed on the people of Pakistan.

I would go a step further: the nearly 278 Members of the National Assembly and the Senate - those of the PML-N, PPP and MQM in particular - are not incompetent. In fact, they are clever and docile and are guarding their own interests. Would you say those begging of Maulana Fazlur Rahman to vote in favour of the proposed amendments deserve to be listed in the hall of shame? With their acquiescence, these MPs of the three parties indeed turned the two houses of the parliament into halls of shame under the gaze Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Bereft of integrity and self-respect these members allowed themselves to be used in one of the most brazen acts.

I would not touch on Ishaq Dar, Azam Nazeer Tarar or Barrister Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha because of their blind loyalty to Sharifs. Another 275 or so MPs were craving to play along, albeit blind-folded.

I would nevertheless call out Syed Naveed Qamar of PPP who opposed some of the proposed amendments but then accompanied Bilawal Zardari to Maulana Fazlur Rahman's residence.

They were about to drop the axe on some key fundamental rights - which are globally recognised and protected.

Constitution and laws should be dynamic and subject to change whenever necessary. But the manner of this change - not enough numbers in the parliament, and alll members blind-folded as far as the draft was concerned - is not only debatable but also condemnable.

Regardless of the spin Bilawal tried to put on his meeting with the Maulana (at two beyond midnight), he should realise that hoodwinking common people is not possible any more. PPP members expressed their reservations but all that came to a naught when he implored the Maulana saying "there are compulsions" , as publicly stated by Senator Kamran Murtaza.

The narrative that Bilawal peddled - as did PML-N lawmakers - was that the constitutional court was needed to lessen the burden on the Supreme Court. It essentially meant adding to the financial burden on the economy of a country gasping for funds.

Instead of indulging in self-serving frivolous defence they have some questions to ask.

A few submissions for consideration of all elites:

The bulk of the petitions sitting with the Supreme Court are not constitutional. Interpretation of Article 63-A and the controversy over PTI seats do qualify to be constitutional issues, but the rest of over 50,000 cases are just a reflection of an obsolete, decadent governance as evident in other segments of life - mostly because of the expediency of all those who occupy places in the parliament and cabinets.

Seconly, the pendency of all courts - over 90 per cent - relates to indecision on petitions by courts. All courts, under existing laws, are bound to conclude cases withon a few weeks but they mostly linger on because judges don't adjudicate matters that are raised on the stay order. In fact over a trillion rupees - that essentially belongs to the government after favourable decrees - are stuck because of the scourge of the stay order.

Thirdly, the 1898 criminal procedures act sits at the heart of the judicial crisis. It bestowes unlimited powers to the police. The First Registration Report (FIR) is the primary tool for exploiting political opponents and social criminals.

Fourth, and this is linked to the third point, is the abuse of FIR with which you want to pin down, tease and torture. The pendency even in the Supreme Court stems from external interference through cases built on false or motivated charges. It obviously keeps occupying the courts with politically motivated cases.

Lastly, we don't need yet another court; we need integrity of those who matter. They set up the MPs for a coup against fundamental rights. Instead of being rueful, most of the wheelers and dealers within the government don't seem to have lost hope and continue coming up with skewed defence of the proposed amendments.

Will they have the cheek to impress their scions and grandchildren - if they still carry some traces of conscientious - studying at Oxford, Harvard and Law Schools in the UK, the US with their remarkable contribution to the truncation of fundamental rights? People still remember what these parliamentaries did in August 2023 - the last month of the PDM government.

Just to save job, and decimate one party, you don't push the entire nation into slavery. Don't circumvent the real issue for your cold-blooded selfish motive. We need an end to misleading interpretations of law. The case in point is Speaker Ayaz Sadiq's letter to the Supreme Court. It reminds the court of the Election (2nd Amendment) Bill 2024 that was passed by the National Assembly and the Senate. As if in a state of emergency, the President signed the bill into law.

The Speaker says since the Act is in "the field" and applies retrospectively, the Election Commission cannot allocate 41 seats to PTI.

It is bizarrest logic the Speaker has come up with and implies that the government can violate laws, criminalise an opposition party and then come with a simple Act of Parliament to exonerate itself of those crimes.

Everybody knows that the February 8 elections were held in extremely debilitating circumstances. This is what the majority judges of the Supreme Court considered in their judgement.

History will have few kinder words for those who are ready to bargain conscience and self-respect for positions of power.