Choice before the Nation

Satan while addressing a worldwide convention of his followers said, ” We cannot keep the Muslims from going to Mosque. We can keep them from reading Quran and knowing the Truth. We can’t even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience with Allah. If they gain that connection with Allah, our power over them is broken. So, keep the people of Allah busy. THAT IS TO SAY BEING BUSY UNDER SATAN’s YOKE ( BUSY.)” So, this is being busy Pakistani style. Firstly tempt them to spend lavishly so that they borrow more and more and be under the burden of foreign debts till the last straw breaks our back. This was one of the many sermons, which Satan gave to his followers and this is coming true in Pakistan today in the garb of IMF and World Bank.

I won’t be far wrong when I say that this congregation of the followers of Satan was also attended by the rulers of Pakistan right from Ghulam Mohammed down to Nawaz Sharif.

Providence offered quite a few chances to the nation to mend their fate and elect right people to the law making body. It is also been enjoined in Quran that unless people mend their fate Allah Almighty is not going to help them. Pakistan was ruled and guided by the followers of Satan. Then came the last chance for the survival of Pakistan in October 1999. Never had any Commander in Chief been removed in a surreptitious manner in which General Pervez Musharraf was shown on T.V that fateful afternoon, but Allah has his own scheme of things – “Tadbeer kunnad Banda, Taqdeer Zannad Khanda.” Man proposes and God disposes, within an hour Nawaz Sharif was removed from his seat of power and landed in jail. Pakistan was saved. Since then starts the rebuilding of Pakistan and the nation has reached that stage which has been aptly described by President Musharraf in his television broadcast on 5th April 2002. If nothing else people will agree with me that corruption has been arrested at the highest level. The government functionaries would not be able to live in right royal style in America, Canada and Dubai.

In his last address to the nation President has declared a referendum to be held in the first week of May 2002, seeking the nations mandate whether or not he is needed for Pakistan at this juncture of transition to democracy. There is no alternative, the nation cannot afford to bring back the followers of Satan, who have ruled Pakistan for decades in the past and plundered the country, but also landed it into a quagmire of foreign debts, so much so that every Pakistani in indebted to repay the debt, which mostly went into the personal coffers, which mostly went into the coffers of the ruling junta. The nation can not afford another ruler in the form of Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Sharif. One question arises in the mind of the people, that how General Pervez Musharraf is going to debar these two contenders to power from participating in the elections. Can they not be elected in absentia? The nation eagerly waits to see the shape of things to come as a result of an honest referendum.

I am very much inspired by my mentor, and teacher Professor M. Rashid of Government College Lahore, who has admirably described ” Who is sovereign?” and it is because of this sovereignty that President Pervez Musharraf is seeking a mandate from the nation. Prof. M. Rashid writes ( Dawn-7th April, 2002.) “é. Politically speaking citizen’s participation signifies that the people have the right to influence policy directly. I am convinced that things can change for the better. But for that it is necessary that each citizen must participate to build the new democratic culture.” It is all the more reason that every citizen of Pakistan above the age of eighteen must participate in the forthcoming referendum and express his independent views freely and fairly.

Pakistan has gone through a checkered history of so-called democracy in the last more than fifty years. The parliamentary form of government does not suit the temperament of the people of Pakistan, nor it is viable administratively. The thesis of sharing of power in the troika is in itself an un-practicable situation. The power must be in the hands of one man and one man only, the Chief of Army Staff in America can not imagine to conspire much less disobey the President of United States of America, who is also the Commander in Chief of the Armed forces of America. It is because of that the President of USA is the most powerful individual on earth.

Unity of command is the essential ingredient of good governance; probably that is why the Ayub regime is known to be the golden period of Pakistan. Pakistan should have presidential system, in which the President of Pakistan is elected directly by the people and there are no establishments to direct his actions as is being done now in our existing parliamentary system. The 1973 constitution, which is now being considered by the disgruntled politicians as a sacred book was amended six times immediately after its adoption. The ambitious Prime Minister made the President a rubber stamp by making an amendment in the constitution that any act of parliament sent to the President for his assent and is kept in the LBW tray of the President for more than seven days, will be considered to have received the assent of the President. The position of the Prime Minister in the 1973 constitution without any checks and balances was described by Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani as the “Ghantta Ghar of Lyallpur (Faisalabad). ” Moreover, the Prime Minister himself was not very comfortable in his number two position in the country’s political hierarchy and rigged the March 1977 general elections to obtain absolute majority to convert the Parliamentary form of government into Presidential form to style himself as President of Pakistan. This may sound bitter to our politicians but this is a fact, which they cannot deny if they look back honestly.

There is much talk about the referendum being un-constitutional in as much as it is supposed to be for the election of General Pervez Musharraf as President of Pakistan for next five years. But this is not a fact; he only wants a mandate from the nation that he is needed for Pakistan during the period of transition to democracy. The nation can not afford to change horses in the mid stream of transition. Armed with the nations confidence he will proceed to bring about such changes in the constitutional and administrative machinery as is required in his best judgment in the interest of the country and the nation. The present system of elections has failed miserably in Pakistan, which resulted in horse trading and induced Nawaz Sharif to convert the parliament into a rubber stamp. This is not the purpose of democracy, after having converted the parliament into a rubber stamp he forced the President of Pakistan out of office and not only that but also converted himself into an Ameerul Momineen reporting to Allah and not to the parliament and the nation, is this democracy? Surely this is not.

The only alternative therefore is to convert the system of election into a Proportional Representation System of election, which is in vogue in many countries including France, where elections are held to elect the true people representatives to administer the system, under proportional representation system election are held in two tiers and parties are given votes and not the individual candidates, in the first round all those parties, which do not secure five percent of the total cast vote in national general elections are debarred from contesting election in second round. As a result of the second round all the contesting parties are given the number of seats in parliament according to the total parentage of votes secured by each party in second round to nominate their representatives in the Assemblies. It is this system in which you can expect talented members of these political parties coming forward to play their role in nation building program and I am sure this will also keep the horse traders out of the political arena.