I BEG to differ with the contents of a letter published on April 6, supporting Article 58-2(b) of the Constitution. It is incorrect to say that if the performance of politician-led government is up to the mark, nobody would have the courage to enforce Article 58-2(b).

The said article was first injected into the 1973 Constitution by president Ziaul Haq in 1985. The civilian government, led by prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo, was working very smoothly when Article 58-2(b) was invoked by president Zia on May 29, 1988 and the governments in the centre and in the provinces were dismissed.

The reason for dismissal of the Junejo government was at least not corruption in the eyes of the people of Pakistan. Later on, president Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed the governments of Benazir Bhutto and Mohammad Nawaz Sharif in 1990 and 1993, respectively; while president Farooq Leghari dismissed the government of Benazir Bhutto in 1996.

All the governments were dismissed on corruption charges, but corruption charges could not be proved against any of them in a court of law despite spending billions of rupees of taxpayers.

Rather parties headed by Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif came victorious in the Feb 18 election. However, in the last government of Shaukat Aziz, there were many occasions when the situation warranted the invoking of Article 58-2(b) of the Constitution on corruption, but he was allowed to complete his tenure.

The utterances by stalwarts like Chaudhry Pervaiz Ilahi, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and even Kashmala Tariq prove my point.

However, the people gave their verdict against those who were protected by the establishment in the last general election. It is time Article 58-2(b) was scrapped from the Constitution, reposing confidence in the elected representatives.

JAVED AHMAD MALIK

Lahore Cantt.