| August 3, 2002 | Saturday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 23,1423 |
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THE president has promulgated yet another ordinance, providing for further changes in the Constitution. Called the Conduct of General Elections (Fourth Amendment) Order 2002, it restores the original system of election to the Senate. At the same time, it abolishes the proposed technocrats’ quota for the National Assembly, restores the seats reserved for minorities and reduces the overall strength of the lower house to 342 instead of 357 proposed earlier. Similar changes have been made in the provincial assemblies, whose total strength will go down from 758 to 728. Despite the restoration of the seats for minorities, however, the joint electorate system will stay in place.
What, however, is most shocking about the ordinance is a new provision added to the long list of reasons that disqualify a person from contesting elections. Short of naming Benazir Bhutto, it says a person will not be qualified to contest an election if “he has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for having absconded by a competent court under any law for the time being in force.” This is blatantly person-specific, being clearly directed against the PPP chief and former prime minister. This is making a mockery of law-making. Laws are made for a nation with a view to its betterment. To make a law only to keep a particular person out of the political or electoral process is to negate the very concept of democracy and a fair election. No wonder, the politicians have begun accusing the government of pre-poll rigging.
In these columns, we have gone into details about the constitutional changes proposed by the government and have had occasion to comment on specific provisions such as those relating to the National Security Council, the lack of balance between the powers of the president and the prime minister, the revival of Article 58(2)B in a modified form, the method of appointment of armed forces’ chiefs and provincial governors, and other provisions. This time, however, what we would like to emphasize is the frequency and nonchalance with which amendments to the Constitution are being made, re-made, modified or abandoned as if the Constitution is a plaything. It was General Ziaul Haq, not President Musharraf, who had uttered the infamous words to the effect that the Constitution was nothing but a piece of paper which he could tear up and throw into the waste-paper basket if he wanted. The nation had better expectations from President Musharraf. However, the frequency with which the amendments to the Constitution are being made and re-made makes one wonder whether the generals attach any sanctity at all to the nation’s Basic Law. The entire process also shows a lack of clarity among the brains behind the whole exercise. Originally, there were supposed to be two “packages.” However, in addition to these, many other orders and ordinances have been promulgated, thus reducing the entire exercise to a farce.
In this context, we would also like to draw attention to the state-controlled TV’s war on politicians. Interviews and discussion programmes are often designed only to lampoon and denigrate politicians as a group. Similarly, some personalities are being overprojected. This is a manifest misuse of the official media for partisan purposes. If all politicians are bad, why prettify the chosen lot and blacken the rest? After all, the generals have pledged to hand over power to the people’s representatives called politicians. Then what purpose does it serve to lambaste the politicians, while at the same time pledging a return to civilian rule?
WITH the formal handing over of five Super Mushshak basic trainer aircraft to the Royal Air Force of Oman on Thursday, Pakistan has joined the ranks of a handful of nations that manufacture and export aircraft. Unveiled at the country’s first-ever military hardware exposition, Ideas 2000, two years ago, Super Mushshak is a single-engine military training aircraft with a seating capacity of two to three persons. The Pakistan Army and the PAF have been using the aircraft for two years now and it has shown a remarkable safety record and dependability. Constructed under licence from a Swedish aeronautical company, Mushshak was completely designed and developed by the local engineers at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, Kamra. Its overall quality, safety rating and performance are judged to be on a par with the highest technological standards being pursued by the more advanced countries making similar training aircraft.
The PAC itself is no small feat. Set up some thirty years ago, it has a number of manufacturing and overhauling facilities whose many products and services can be compared with those offered by the best aeronautical facilities anywhere in the world. Already selling its products and services to a host of friendly countries in the region, the PAC is capable of overhauling, manufacturing and upgrading spare parts of a host of combat aircraft and radar, including the F-16s and Mirage 111s. The delivery of the Super Mushshak aircraft to Oman marks a new milestone of progress for the PAC as an aircraft manufacturer. This should help further bolster the facility’s standing as a quality manufacturer and service provider that the international buyers will be interested in knowing more about when they come to attend the Ideas 2002 exhibition of military hardware being held in Karachi next month.
THE traditionally cordial ties between Pakistan and Sri Lanka received a further boost following President Pervez Musharraf’s recent visit to the island nation. During his brief visit, a number of important agreements were reached aimed at boosting trade between the two countries. On Thursday, a free trade deal was signed by the commerce ministers of the two countries, which will ease access to markets in Sri Lanka and Pakistan for exporters. Sri Lanka hopes to find markets in Pakistan for its tea, garments, textiles and engineering and electronics goods. The Pakistanis, for their part, will get access to Sri Lankan markets for their engineering goods, vehicles and agricultural produce, particularly fruit. As the Sri Lankan commerce minister pointed out, trade would benefit both countries without hurting the industry of either country. The two countries have also signed an agreement to end all trade barriers between them by 2005.
At present, bilateral trade amounts to a meagre 130 million dollars. The balance is heavily tilted in Pakistan’s favour because of its being an important supplier of military hardware to Sri Lanka. The signing of the recent agreements is likely to increase the volume of trade significantly — to the benefit of both countries, particularly Sri Lanka, whose economy has suffered a great deal because of the prolonged and bloody civil war. Besides trade, the two countries have also pledged to increase cooperation in a number of other fields, including science, technology, tourism, culture and archaeology. President Musharraf’s visit to Bangladesh also yielded a number of important trade agreements, reflecting Pakistan’s desire to boost economic relations with individual countries in the region in the absence of an all-embracing South Asian free trade agreement. Like much else in the region, such an agreement has been a hostage to the tense relations between the region’s two big powers, India and Pakistan.