A piece of paper called the Constitution

[stingingnettle]

A piece of paper called the Constitution

The 1973 Constitution of Pakistan is the oft quoted by the PPP Government as the inviolable document of rights and responsibilities of the state. The Government goes round telling everyone that it is the champion protector of the Constitution of Pakistan and it cries foul at the slightest hint of deviation from the letter and spirit of the Constitution; so I decided to look at the last five years of this PPP Government (supported of course directly by MQM and PML Q and ‘indirectly’ by PML N) in light of compliance to some of the articles of the constitution. This
is obviously not an original idea so I am not claiming it so.

Article 25

(1) All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.

In the last five years, at the risk of stating the very very obvious, this article has been violated everyday of by the armies of VIPs who demand and live a life of complete exception to this article. So you see the rich, corrupt, infamous and the powerful, riding bullet and death proof SUVs with dark tainted windows (against the law of course) blocking roads as they whiz past the seriously aggravated people waiting on either sides to cross the road to get to work, school, hospital, home or even to a graveyard. I remember a lady gave birth to a baby whilst waiting for a VIP to drive by first. This same equality and protection is accorded to ‘All citizens’ in other aspects of their lives! It will be reasonable to conclude that in the last five years there has been little or no equality and protection offered by the Government to the citizens so this article stands violated.

Article 25 A (also see Article 11; Slavery, forced labour, etc. prohibited.)

“The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.”

In all fairness the article only says free education and not ‘good quality education’ so the Government can perhaps be forgiven for falling back to the lowest possible standard of primary and secondary education there can be. After the last five years of this lovely Government, perhaps it would be reasonable to ask any random person in any village, town or city in Pakistan their opinion about state provided education; I will not insult you by attempting answer that one for you. The millions of children working as slaves/servants in workshops, houses, factories and on the streets is enough for us to realise that this article of the constitution has no value. Those who attend a real school as opposed to a ghost school (a school that only exists on paper) do not get anything that can be called a reasonable education; it certainly is not a preparation for life.

Article 15

“Every citizen shall have the right to remain in, and, subject to any reasonable restriction imposed by law in the public interest, enter and move freely throughout Pakistan and to reside and settle in any part thereof.”

From what I can tell, the Government has confused "public interest" with very narrow party interest and hence they have imposed restrictions on free movement of citizens on a daily basis to facilitate the lives and movements of the inept armies of Z-list VIPs. Queue jumping has been raised to a new national standard if you have a piece of paper with the signature of a high enough VIP. Today the people of Islamabad are facing one such exemption to free movement as Tahir ul Qadri prepares to move his protesters, peacefully he claims, to exercise his constitutional right to move and protest. So the fact the people of Rawalpindi and Islamabad cannot carry on their legitimate business is a violation of their constitutional right despite the Government claim of the usual excuse of ‘law and order.’ Remember the same excuse was used when PTI marched to Waziristan. This excuse is never used when PPP, PML N and MQM organise their rallies to tell people about how lovey 5 years of democracy has been.

Article 15 (2)

“No person shall be subjected to torture for the purpose of extracting evidence.”

I shall not say much about this; just read about the daily business of our Police force. This Government, like previous governments, have used the Police as its personal armed servants whose job is to do the biddings of the ruling party instead of enforcing the Constitution of Pakistan. Torture is a way of life in Karachi as we all know and often (but not always) it is the Police that are used for it. Our Police stations are used as torture cells to extract ‘confessions’ from people whose only crime is to be poor and unconnected.
 

Article 10A (see also article 10)

“For the determination of his civil rights and obligations or in any criminal charge against him a person shall be entitled to a fair trial and due process.”

Either this article is intended only for the ‘super rich’ and the ‘super powerful’ so that they can get away with murder (read about Shahzeb murder) or else there has been no evidence of this in action in the last five years of lovely democracy and constitutional rule. My suggestion is not to use the word 'fair' and 'trial' in the same sentence at this point in time.

Article 9

“No person shall be deprived of life or liberty save in accordance with law.”

In the last five years we have witnessed this article being violated in the most extreme manner. The Government has totally failed to protect the life and liberty of the people of Pakistan. Today about 100 dead Hazara Pakistanis are awaiting burial in the midst of a protest in Quetta, demanding the freedom to live a life without the fear of murder. Right across the spectrum, you see the failure of this Government to implement Article 9 even it the most rudimentary sense and not surprisingly people are totally fearful of leaving their homes.

I can go on and on about all the other articles of the Constitution, sorry I meant, articles written on a piece of paper, which the Government in the last five years have completely failed in implementing. Tax thieves and proven criminals with false degrees sitting in our parliament – in violation of explicit prohibition by the Constitution. The fact that Zardari is the President makes a joke of our Constitution. Dr Shahid Masood said today that the Constitution was a contract between the citizen and the state and the Government has totally failed to keep its part of the contract; so the question is when will we, the citizens of Pakistan, rise to change this dead document into a living one? (My friend “resurrected” may have an answer to this!)

Imran Khan has correctly pointed out that we have been consistently talking about these violations of the Constitution and in his view Mr Qadri’s march on to Islamabad, might give the Government to an excuse to join the VIP ranks of political martyrs. The Sharifs prefer to talk about the Constitution as long as there is no expectation that they and their family will have to follow it or anyone will ask awkward questions about their inability to comply with it when they were in power. I personally do not like Mr Qadri and I do not agree with his tempting mix of religion and politics but one thing is certain, I will always support his right to protest and rally peacefully anywhere in Pakistan.

So what do you want to do with this piece of paper? Where do you stand?

[resurrected]

Constitution of Pakistan as it was agreed upon by all political parties in 1973 is just a piece of paper. It’s a document that has been ignored and violated by both civil and military leaders of this land again and again. The constitution, written or unwritten works only when a will to abide by principles is alive, when the value of taken oaths is realized and most of all where the masses are awake and rule of law intact.
When the elite of the land is selfish, greedy and driven by personal interests, the documents like a constitution remain but just a piece of paper that is used as toilet papper.

[Mirza Ghalib]

SN, an inspired move on your part to take a closer look at this Constitution of ours and see how greatly it has been violated from a to z. But I will say this in defence of the authorities' stance on this particular occasion. If it is clear that the right to protest and rally is open to the entire population, certain matters are still left in the hands of the government to decide (I'm talking Switzerland here): they can grant or refuse the route which is presented to them by the organisers of the protest march. And they do so regularly. As they regularly (again I mean the Swiss authorities in the capital) prevent us from reaching the Israeli or US embassy or even, at times the UK Embassy. Similarly, we have never really been allowed to reach Davos to protest against the doings of the World Economic Forum. If, on top of it all, danger of any kind is associated with the march in question, then an outright refusal is forthcoming. After yesterday's horrendous deaths, any government has the right to beg its protestors to desist from marching.

That said in the interests of objectivity, let me add that I don't think this march will take place at all. We desperately need the coming elections. Dr Qadri came with the express Intention of delaying this election. And what he's doing at the moment is giving the central govt an excuse for doing so.

Let me end by saying a revolution is not a Sunday picnic. We cannot have luxury and revolutionary activity at the same time. It's one or the other.

[stingingnettle]

resurrected and MG Sahibs;

Thank you both very much for your comments. I have to say when I read the constitution, I was totally aghast; it read like a romantic list of all those things that have not happened in Pakistan especially during the last 5 years. There is a complete disconnect between the document and the ground reality on the streets of Pakistan. When our parliamentarians disregard the Constitution so blatantly, we chance has the ordinary citizen have of respecting it. The constitution is no longer a contract in any sense at all because little or nothing from it is actually being implemented by the rulers of Pakistan. The PPP Government that claims to be the greatest fan of this document needs to read it at least.

I urge everyone to at least read a little bit of this document to understand why there is absolutely NO constitutional democracy in Pakistan.

Asma Jehangir was spitting bullets today advising all those who want change to follow the constitution; well at least I do not have to explain my intense dislike of Asma to everyone. When a senior lawyer utters such non-sense and make a deliberate attempt to mislead everyone, you can only hope that in a new Pakistan, people like her will be referred to as dinosaurs. Asma said that it is only parliament that can change the laws and constitution; well she is quite right in stating the obvious except she has deliberately ignores the fact that parliament is mostly made up up self-serving, non tax paying, fake degree holding corrupt crooks who are ineligible to be members of parliament in the first place. She also chose to ignore that fact that we have our current parliament under the auspices of the hateful NRO which was judged to be illegal; so where does that leaver her lovely parliament? In the toilet, I would suggest.

[stingingnettle]

MG Sahib;

I take your point about being sensible when it comes to demonstrations and protests. I agree that Governments must decide on routes and security matters. The difficulty is that the TuQ protest is against all those who are trying to pass judgement on whether it should go ahead or not. If the Government had even the smallest amount of credibility people would have listened but the situation here is that most ordinary people consider the Government a complete failure and hence it needs to be removed. Rallies have been happening in Pakistan for the past one month both political and religious and it is for the Govt to provide security. The Govt. is totally biased and blinded by its loyalty to the political party it represents and hence we cannot expect it to make fair decision. The government cannot allow selective political or religious rallies to be held; that is just wrong.

I do not support TuQ but I will support his right to March to Islamabad. The stupidity of the one and only Rehman Malik was evident from his latest dire and direct threats to TuQ and all those who are marching with him. I just wish we had at least two or three people in the Government with a three digit IQ! I guess I have to dream on.

[resurrected]

SN,
You have taken the most serious issues very nicely and eloquently. The problem with our country is that most of its intelligentsia is dishonest, greedy and sellable commodity. Asma Jehangir is no exception either. At times I wonder if these so called cream of the society are really that dumb as they exhibit on daily basis or if it’s that their blind ambitions have taken away their objectivity. One seldom see the men of wisdom in our country. If democracy means that few hundred demons can become almighty then I detest such form of government. A document like constitution is nothing but something that tells us how the state is to run its affairs, which principles are to be followed in governance and other important issues. I bet that our both constitutions of 62 and 73 were made by some bureaucrats/technocrats than the stupid politicians, who hardly can write their names. How can a parliament be sovereign when they can’t even pronounce the word? ”Jaisi awam , waisi hakomat aur assemblian.” It’s only the real change that can bring salvation to people and that change is inevitable. We have no choice but to strive for the true change if this country is to survive.
We have difficulty finding people with IQ 3? You are very optimist, when you talk of three digit IQ.

[stingingnettle]

resurrected;

I am sure you have noticed how the Constitution comes out when a letter needs to be written about Zar-dari to Switzerland but somehow the bastards (sorry about this, I am just too angry) who sit in the parliament never mention the constitution with the same vigour when millions of children in Pakistan do not get their constitutional right to an education. They certainly do not bark as loud when we discover that they are constitutionally ineligible for holding a public position because of their criminal record, fake degrees and tax theft, do they? I think you are right about the dishonesty of a lot of our intelligentsia because as the Americans say, everyone has a price. May be it is our love affair with money that is killing us after all, a manufacturing defect if you like.