The decision of the Supreme Court in favor of constitutional supremacy in the conduct of Senate elections is a welcome relief for Rule of Law. Nations thrive through Writ of Laws and the Will of People, otherwise they may exist geographically like Somalia, but their citizens become insecure within the country, exposed to lawlessness of rogue armed militias.
Pakistan was never destined to become a sanctuary for extremists and terrorists, a legacy of Zia junta, nor suffered the ethnic and sectarian divide endured after Musharraf. While Musharraf was a paid employee, technically subordinate to Secretary Defense, he was declared eligible to contest elections twice as President. Use of violence must be the sole monopoly of the state, exercised through disciplined uniformed services, working within their defined constitutional role and oversight by a legitimate elected government, which derives its powers through constitution. State sovereignty once compromised, exposes the country to chaos and insecurity.
If only Quaid’s advice given on 14 June 1948 at Quetta had been followed in letter and spirit and all constitutional office holders and paid employees of state upheld their oath, for superiority of the constitution, Pakistan would not have suffered the humiliation of surrender and breakup in 1971. A country that chooses to disregard the vision and legacy of the Father of nation when Justice Muneer regularized the illegitimate dismissal of the First Constituent Assembly, constituted by MAJ on 11 August 1947 in 1955 by GG. He had earlier dismissed the legitimate PM Khawaja Nazimuddin in 1954, by giving a controversial verdict on the case filed by Maulvi Tamiz-ud-Din. It was the last nail in Jinnah’s vision of a modern democratic welfare state. The Law of Necessity must be buried for the sake of posterity and the future of 220 Million citizens.
Malik Tariq Ali
Lahore
