Time has come to re-think our Constitution. There is no denying the fact that our constitution didn’t descend from the heavens and is man-made. To attach divinity to any man-made object is against the spirit of the Faith we declare our allegiance to.
This constitution was put into force in 1973-74 after the ‘remains’ of the dead mandate of 1970 passed it through ‘consensus’ among various political families that supposedly constituted the Will of the People. Technically the Will of the people had been massacred through the events that culminated in the breakup of Pakistan.
The new ‘WILL’ was never asked for—never sought—and never taken into account. Was the Constitution agreed between ZA Bhutto and his adversaries put to referendum? No. The referendum if had been conducted would have given the 1973 Constitution (as it is known) some sanctity. Ideally Bhutto should have conducted elections in 1972 to form a Constituent Assembly, which should have given the Nation a Constitution to be granted sanctity through referendum.
Ironically this is not even 1973 Constitution. The number of amendments made in it since its birth makes a mockery of its originality. Bhutto made seven amendments himself, leaving the 8th to General Zia ul Haque.
Eventually the 18th amendment made the Constitution a guarantee for the ruling families, to rule the country FOREVER.
These are hard facts that even the most diehard of the purists of ‘so-called constitutionalism’ cannot deny.
Today the very fact that the Nation is looking towards the Army and the Judiciary for a ‘rescue act’ is a clear proof of how miserably this constitution has failed to deliver.
Doesn’t today Pakistan need Military Courts to defeat Terrorism? And isn’t a reduced-to-ashes party like the PPP, because of its majority in the Senate, holding the nation a hostage?
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