The modern political scientists say the Constitution is a social contract to determine the people’s relationship with the state. It is adopted by the people’s representatives elected for this purpose. Its adoption gives it the status of a living object or entity that provides continuous guidance for the management of state affairs and for monitoring the relationships between the people and the state, and among the organs of the state and national institutions. It is treasonous to deviate from the modus operandi provided in the Constitution in the state’s affairs.
The governments created out of the people’s elected representatives have to follow it strictly. It could be amended by an Assembly of the people’s representatives elected in a fair, free and non-controversial manner as sanctioned by it. An Assembly of doubtful credentials could not tamper with its provisions whimsically or make any person-specific amendment to it.
All Constitutions profess an abiding loyalty to the people and create systems of governance and institutions for the well-being and collective good of the people. They bind governments to provide all necessities of life to the people, including protection from external aggression; security of life and livelihood through the rule of law and equality before law; education; health; and fundamental rights and freedoms, including freedom to travel, assemble, express, criticise, profess and follow a faith.
In return, the people defray the expenses of governance, follow laws, remain loyal to the state, and discharge their duties for the collective well-being of the nation. This is how the constitutional systems, more or less, are perceived and practised in social democracies. There are very few countries in the Muslim world which may pass these minimum benchmarks for democracy, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Senegal.
The coalition government that came into being as a result of the highly controversial elections of February 2024 has embarked on a spree of constitutional amendments, upsetting the critically significant constitutional equilibrium between the organs of the state. The apex courts of the country have been reduced to a pale shadow of their previously robust beings and rendered as adjuncts to the executive, vested with powers to appoint, transfer and elevate judges to higher positions through the Judicial Commission of Pakistan, where it has manipulated a precarious majority.
The Federal Constitutional Court, with an amenable Chief Justice, is being filled with favoured judges. Now there will be no check on the arbitrary exercise of powers by the executive in violation of the fundamental rights and constitutional freedoms of the people. The delicate balance between all three organs of the state, legislative, executive and judiciary, as originally provided in the Constitution, has been tilted towards the executive.
The aura of democracy we have had in the country has evaporated
The last nail in the coffin of democracy was hammered by giving constitutional immunity to the President and the Chiefs of the Armed Forces from accountability and prosecution. This is a unique amendment and could hardly be found in the annals of the constitutional evolution of modern states. No such immunity exists in natural law, any religion or any moral philosophy the human being has ever known.
Accountability is a sine qua non for holding public office. Executive power unaccountable to the laws of the land can easily turn into plunder, tyranny and barbarity; the sword unsheathed by unaccountable hands could kill justice, rights and freedoms of the people, leaving them to gasp for fresh air, run from dawn to dusk for two meals, and suffer in disease, poverty, social and economic injustice.
The people of Pakistan deserve fairer treatment. We have chronically lacked good governance, rule of law, peace and security, good education, population control, good healthcare, equality before law, social and economic justice, respect for human rights and human freedoms, gender equality, etc. Not a single effort has been made for the equitable distribution of the state’s resources in the past seven decades. The elite have been usurping state resources. We inherited landlords, tribal chiefs, Sardars, Pirs and Fakirs, and Sajjada Nashins from the British Raj. Their insatiable hunger for privileges and concessions consumes over 17.5 billion dollars of the poor national kitty. The amount consumed by the elite in concessions must now be much higher.
The aura of democracy we have had in the country has evaporated. Former military dictators who plundered their countries and disappeared into the limbo of history were maliciously smiling after having a whiff of the stinking air of authoritarianism wafting from the plains, mountains and shores of Pakistan. Conspicuous by prominence among this bunch were Idi Amin of Uganda, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Manuel Noriega of Panama, Sani Abacha of Nigeria, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, Captain Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso and General Zia of Pakistan.
These generals tore the Constitutions of their countries into pieces; exercised the state’s coercive powers ruthlessly; held the people in the grip of their bloody claws for decades, oppressing and tyrannising them; played havoc with their nations’ precious resources; stole and amassed wealth and property with impunity; and considered themselves above the law.
The wheel of life kept spinning; their people and lands survived them, and resumed their struggle with renewed vigour while they were ignominiously reduced to criminals in the dustbin of history. They should have served as a historic example for the new generation of dictators, but the treacherous game of thrones renders players intoxicated, deaf, dumb and blind to the reality of life. For power seekers, human blood has been valueless.
The consequences of the constitutional amendments adopted without thorough deliberation are long-lasting and detrimental to the health of the state. We have the experience of earlier amendments to the Constitution. It took us over 25 years to get rid of the Eighth Amendment. The recent amendments will also stay with us for a long time until an Assembly of true democrats is elected in a fairer election to restore the Constitution in its original spirit, or the people of Pakistan may miraculously force Parliament to reverse the amendments.