RECENT political developments have made one thing very clear: Pakistani citizens lack the knowledge of how various government institutions function. Hence, they are prone to believing the disinformation peddled by political and state actors that can push the narrative in whatever direction they please to delegitimise the system of governance as it exists today.

While the importance of the smooth functioning of the system cannot be diluted, it is also critical to question the underlying assumptions we operate under, in discussing civilian supremacy, democracy and adherence to the Constitution, especially when there are multiple power structures at play.

The 1973 Constitution was designed to ensure the separation of powers in the state between parliament, the judiciary, and the executive which derives its authority from the majority in parliament. Under this system, a political party must win at least 172 seats in the National Assembly in the general elections to form government (the executive). If no political party wins a majority, as happened in the last general elections, a coalition is formed by multiple parties. This way, the smaller political parties get a disproportionate say in matters of government and cabinet positions in exchange for support to the party with a large number of seats.

Often times, political parties created by or close to the establishment hold this power and switch loyalties depending on relations between the establishment and the political party in question. This includes the PML-Q — military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s ‘king’s party’, the MQM-P, the Balochistan Awami Party created before the last elections, and the Grand Democratic Alliance, also created before the last elections.

It is of utmost importance for Pakistani citizens to learn and understand how the system functions.

The judiciary is comprised of judges appointed by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan which is composed of the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan who is the chairperson of the commission, the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, a former chief justice or judge of the Supreme Court, the federal law minister, the attorney general of Pakistan, and a senior advocate of the Supreme Court. The nominee of the commission then has to be approved by a parliamentary committee comprising four members of the Senate and four of the National Assembly, with two in each category from the government and opposition parties. Such a system with diverse stakeholders ensures several layers of accountability in the appointment of judges to reduce controversy and encourage consensus.

Parliament is made up of the National Assembly that houses elected members from all constituencies of Pakistan. There are also reserved seats for women and religious minorities. These 372 members elect the prime minister. Pakistanis do not vote directly for the prime minister or the president. The latter is elected by all elected members of the National Assembly, the Senate, and the four provincial assemblies, but it is largely a ceremonial role with few powers after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

The — de facto — most powerful institution in Pakistan is the military that has ruled over Pakistan for extended periods for almost half the country’s age; most recently from 1999 to 2008 under Musharraf. Although an army chief is appointed by the prime minister, comes under the defence ministry and is a senior bureaucrat, his influence, along with that of the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has been disproportionately high in our history and beyond the legal ambit of the Constitution, especially when it comes to interference in politics, which leads to questions about the system’s actual strength. The Supreme Court has tried to address this abuse of authority over time, with incremental effect.

The media — with the increasing power of the people through social media — has become progressively more influential in keeping a check on the power of all institutions. At the end of the day, it is most important that power does not lie with one individual or institution, but is spread across, with a strong system of accountability.

However, what has been observed is that the accountability narrative has been restricted to politicians who, of course, have to be held accountable through the courts and the people’s courts in the form of elections every five years. But there has been little accountability of individuals from other arms of the state. This has skewed the narrative against the political class that represent the people and shifted power to unelected officials of the state who may act with impunity and little accountability.

Additionally, there have been concerted efforts to delegitimise the constitutional system of checks and balances by casting doubt over the sincerity and professionalism of all institutions of the state. Such a project is dangerous for it undermines the very systems that exist and need to be strengthened rather than weakened further, in order for there to be accountability and progress in Pakistan. If that turns out to be the case, and there have been suggestions from anti-democratic forces for Pakistan to adopt a presidential system with power concentrated in the hands of one individual, then such excess of power can be damaging, for, as the saying goes, ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.

In order to move forward, it is of utmost importance for Pakistani citizens to learn and understand how the system functions, how the balance of power is maintained, how the law works, what the basic rights guaranteed are, how 172 constituencies have to be won in elections to form a government, how courts function, how the police works, what the role of each institution is, and how checks can be maintained on all of them, so that the taxes that citizens pay to run the state do not go to waste and the votes they cast have a meaningful impact.

Civic education must be made part of the curriculum so that citizens do not fall victim to disinformation, can hold institutions accountable, and cannot be manipulated into losing respect for the systems of accountability by political leaders and state actors that desire impunity.

The writer is director of Bolo Bhi, an advocacy forum for digital rights.

Twitter: @UsamaKhilji

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2022