LAHORE, Aug 3: Arbitrary use of discretionary powers by the presidents and prime ministers of Pakistan has been the main cause of political crises in Pakistan, said Federal Law Minister Dr Khalid Ranjha here on Saturday.
He was speaking at a seminar on “Strong Pakistan is the need of the hour” held by two private enterprises at a local hotel. Former supreme court and national Kashmir Committee member Raja Afrasiab Khan was in the chair.
Dr Khalid Ranjha said that unless there were necessary checks and balances on the manner of using the discretionary powers of the president and prime minister there could be no guarantee of preventing them from becoming dictators and checking the army intervention in the affairs of the state.
Referring to the last prime minister, he said that it was the misuse of his discretionary powers that he had got passed amendments in the constitution depriving the president of the powers to dissolve the assembly and empowering himself to dismiss any member of his party who dared to express his dissent in or outside the assembly.
Similarly, the presidents had been taking undue advantage of their discretionary powers of dissolving the assemblies on one pretext or the other. He said that in fact it was the mentality of arbitrary use of discretionary powers which needed to be changed “if we want to make Pakistan a strong and a stable country.”
Another problem which had contributed to weaken Pakistan, he said, was the bad habit of flattery of the leaders by their workers for the purpose of seeking undue favours and personal gains. “We are by nature a nation of flatterers,” he remarked and said that unless the culture of flattery prevailed there was no possibility of the people of Pakistan becoming a nation nor could their country become a strong and stable.
He said that it was unfortunate that the basic issue of a suitable form of government could not be solved during the past 55 years and the nation was groping in the dark. Sometimes the constitutions were dissolved and new ones framed, or presidential or parliamentary forms were discussed, sometimes democracies were established while military interventions were sought at other times.
He said that while discussing the national affairs the people took what he called micro view of the things and criticise the minor issues and gloss over big national issues. “They don’t have macro view of the national affairs.” He said that nor religion, nor language could bind the people into one nation.
In his presidential address, Raja Afrasiab Khan said that there were five ‘enemies’ of Pakistan which were the main cause of weakening the country. The biggest of them was India which had not reconciled itself with the reality of Pakistan during the past 55 years.
He said that India had got East Pakistan separated in 1971 by hatching a conspiracy and now it was conspiring and putting international pressure on Pakistan to give up Kashmir. He warned that if India succeeded in its evil design to deprive Pakistan of Kashmir, very existence of Pakistan would be in jeopardy as India’s next move, he feared, would be to make a confederation of the two countries which would ultimately lead to complete merger of Pakistan into India.
He said that the people of Kashmir had offered great sacrifices during the 55 years of struggle against India and armed struggle during the past 13 years. He said that Indian security forces had killed over 80,000 Kashmiris, raped over 30,000 Kashmiri Muslim women and destroyed over 100,000 houses and shops.
The other enemies, he said, were the growing poverty, increasing ignorance due to lack of educational facilities for the masses, increasing incidence of diseases due to lack of health care facilities for the people and growing unemployment. He said that unless an Islamic revolution was brought about it was not possible to combat the enemies of Pakistan.
He said that the government must probe into the reports that why a huge amount of Rs 20 billion of Zakat fund had remained undistributed among the deserving people for the past many years.