Amending the Constitution
THE government now seems determined to make amendments to the Constitution before the nation goes to the polls later this year. A confirmation of what the nation has been hearing for long came on Friday when President Pervez Musharraf said his government would make “essential” amendments before October. Specifically, he referred to a National Security Council that would acquire constitutional status, but hastened to add at his press conference that he did not wish to dilute the prime minister’s powers. Instead, he claimed, the proposed changes would “reinforce” the prime minister’s powers. Yet, he insisted that he was keen to introduce “checks and balances” in the Constitution. Ignoring the contradictions inherent in the remarks, it is becoming clearer that the military government would like to give the president more or less the same powers which the head of state enjoyed after Ziaul Haq carried out his arbitrary amendments to the Constitution.
Unlike Ayub Khan, who had no prime minister to deal with, Ziaul Haq wanted a puppet prime minister. His amendments, therefore, created a prime minister who was more or less powerless. For his survival, he was dependent less on his parliamentary majority and more on the president’s goodwill. The late Mr Junejo was sacked because he fell foul of Ziaul Haq on a number of issues that were of vital importance to the nation. For instance, on the Afghan issue, he did not see eye to eye with Ziaul Haq, and on the Ojhri camp disaster, he wanted to take action against the generals responsible for the blast in the ammunition dump. While Ziaul Haq wanted to hush up the inquiry, the prime minister felt it was in the national interest to unmask the faces behind the disaster that rocked the federal capital. Zia then decided in the narrow interest of the ruling military oligarchy to sack the prime minister and dissolve the elected assembly. If the proposed amendments again seek to provide for a puppet prime minister, then there will be seeds of continued friction between the head of the executive and the head of state. As a result, national interests will suffer if a premier attaches more importance to his stay in office than to pursuing policies the president may be at variance with.
The National Security Council is a controversial proposition. The presence of the generals on the council will merely serve to subordinate the elected civilian leadership to the military. That could mean that national interests could suffer if an elected prime minister and his aides chose to be on the right side of the military. Besides, there is no guarantee that the generals will subordinate their parochial interests to the larger good of the nation.
One fails to understand why the president is in a hurry to amend the Constitution. If certain articles do need changes, then certainly those amendments could still be effected after the general election. Processed through the national assembly and the senate, the amendments would be honed and chiselled after being examined from every point of view by the two houses representing all sections of the people. Besides, there is the question of the amendments’ survivability. Enacted through the due constitutional process, the amendments will have a longer life expectancy and will in all probability survive long after the present set of generals has passed into history. Done in Ziaul Haq’s fashion, the amendments would be discarded by a future government just as Ziaul Haq’s own protege, Nawaz Sharif, ditched his mentor’s amendments in a matter of half an hour.
Nothing ‘swift’ about it
COMPLAINTS against Nadra’s inefficiency mount as it fails to deliver the computerized identity cards in time. A particular case in point is the Swift Registration Centre in Karachi, where the queues are long, fees nearly twice the prescribed Rs 35, and the applicants’ ordeal no less than at a regular Nadra outlet. The swift centre was set up in February to ease the applicants’ rush at the Nadra offices and to cut short the delays. An urgent counter was also set up to process an application within ten days for Rs 180 — five times the regular fee. But the applicants complain they have to wait for several weeks, which negates the purpose of the urgent fee, as indeed that of a swift centre. The problem is that all the data collected in Karachi is sent to Nadra’s central databank in Islamabad, which is the only office authorized to issue a computerized NIC.
Ironically, one applies for a CNIC through a swift centre at a higher fee and has to collect it oneself, because the post office will only deliver those applied through the regular channel. Because there are delays in the delivery of the cards from Islamabad, one has to queue up at the swift centre several times before a card can be obtained. In case there is an error in a card the correction process is just as long, as the card has to go back to Islamabad. The swift centre’s database is linked to Nadra’s office in Islamabad to which it transfers the data collected here electronically. It would make life much easier for hundreds of applicants on a daily basis if the cards are issued by the swift centre in Karachi. Setting up such centres does not help much if it is still Islamabad that has to process each and every application.
Welcoming the new daily
PAKISTAN has a new English language newspaper which began publication last week. The Daily Times, which made a quiet debut, will be widely welcomed on the media scene. The need of the day is a variety of publications which offer versatile fare to the readers. Although English is a language read by a minority in Pakistan, it is the language of power, as the renowned linguist, Dr Tariq Rahman, would say. Hence the prestige and influence which the English language press enjoys, its relatively small circulation figures notwithstanding. It is, therefore, a positive development that there is one more organ to disseminate news and views to the English-speaking readers and the policy makers.
The Daily Times should provide an element of healthy competition, which is a plus factor in an open society. By offering choices to the readers, this publication should lead to greater vibrancy and dynamism in the Pakistani press. This is something to be welcomed not just from the readers’ point of view. It should also be beneficial for the press as an institution. The infusion of new blood facilitates the process of change without which no society can really grow. Besides, pluralism and multiplicity of choices are the essence of a democratic dispensation the achievement of which should be our goal.
Admittedly, the press in Pakistan is still under a degree of constraints. But one feels relieved to note the distance we have travelled since the days the government could prevent with the stroke of a pen the birth of a new publication under the hated Press and Publications Ordinance. There has been speculation that some draconian laws are in the offing. A new entrant to swell the ranks of the newspapers will hopefully give strength to the struggle for press freedom.