Zubair Qureshi
A Pakistan-origin citizen of the United States (US) has moved Supreme Court of Pakistan for the repeal of parliamentary democracy in the country and for the court’s directive to the Prime Minister to hold a referendum for the Presidential form of the government in Pakistan.
Currently living in New York, Hafeez-ur-Rehman Chaudhry filed a Constitutional Petition through Khalid Abbas Khan advocate has prayed that the “matter in question may kindly be referred to the Prime Minister to hold a referendum in accordance with Article 48(6) of the constitution 1973 to obtain votes in Yes or No form.”
Khalid Abbas Khan, later while briefing the media outside the court said the petition has invoked the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 184(3) of the constitution.
The petition states that the enormous problems faced by the country and people of the country could only be resolved through the introduction of a presidential form of government in Pakistan.
While making federal and provincial governments respondents, the petition states that parliamentary form of the government is the source of political instability in the country. With the introduction of parliamentary form of government the people of Pakistan have been deprived of political justice, which has been promised under the provisions of the constitution.
The petition states that under the constitution “the state has to exercise its power through the chosen representatives of the people” and there is no specific provision of the constitution which restricts that the chosen representatives have to be elected under a parliamentary system of government. This could be done under a presidential form of government either.
The petition in its content has presented a complete road map of the Presidential form of government, which it argues should be implemented in the country. The petition states that if a society is deprived of political justice there is every chance that it will fail to secure social and economic justice for its people.
After the partition of India, Pakistan became an independent state and under Indian independence Act 1947, the government of India Act 1935 became the interim constitution of the country. The Act lacked certain provisions which were required for the functioning of independent government in an independent state. Therefore a constituent assembly was formed to draft a new constitution for the country. The process of constitution making started with a 9 years delay which was very disappointing.
The petition states that Pakistan came into being without a constitution and the constitutions which later implemented were illegitimate. Both 1956 and 1962 constitutions were illegitimate in the eyes of the petitioner. It states that the absence of constitution was the basic reason behind separation of East Pakistan. The petitioner says that there were structural flaws in the 1973 constitution with regards to the election of government at the federal and provincial level, and this led to repeated political crises in the country.
