SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
The nation is flabbergasted over the standoff between the government and the PTI and PAT, as they do not see anything for them in their narratives. To look at, it is a conflict between the parties over rigging in elections, but in fact the iniquitous system has failed. Instead of taking sides of the warring parties, it is important that causes be identified as to whyPakistan today faces multi-faceted crisis. One of the main reasons for such state of affairs is remnants of feudalism with its decadent culture that engenders ignorance, poverty, hunger and disease. This system is also responsible for intolerance, obscurantism and repression in society. Pakistan therefore will continue to face crisis in one form or another unless a great majority of the people living in the servitude of jagirdars, waderas, pirs and sardars in rural areas with more than 60 per cent of population are freed from their yoke.
Before 2013 elections, PML-N leader and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif used to warn if the system of exploitation was not done away with, there would be revolution. Tahirul Qadri also talks of the revolution, and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has agenda for change, but there is no commitment to bring about a basic change in the system. Unfortunately, the political eminences do not see the people’s anguish, their despair and despondency that are reigning in every nook and corner of the land, as they are embroiled in unnecessary tiffs and squabbles. Leaders of all political party talk about democracy, constitutionalism and rule of law; but in one way or another they all breach democratic norms, violate the constitution and consider themselves above the law. In a real democracy, people give up a part of sovereignty by casting their votes to the members of the assemblies that form the government in return of guarantee for fundamental rights and social benefits for the common people.
For smooth functioning of the state, the constitution defines the powers of the various pillars and organs of the state. In Pakistan, there are three pillars of the state: Parliament, Executive and Judiciary; and the debate rages on as to who is supreme. Some hold the view that the parliament is supreme, but in a constitutional polity, it is indeed the constitution which is supreme. It follows that none is superior over others; none is inferior to others; all are subservient to the constitution, and all are bound to follow dictates and stipulations of the constitution. No doubt, constitutional disputes and differences occur even in entrenched democracies; however incidence of such tiffs is indeed reduced to the minimum if all the state pillars respect the supremacy of the constitution and abide by it in letter and spirit. In Pakistan, unless remnants of feudalism, jagirdari system, and tribalism are done away with, there is no hope that democracy system could work.
Late General Ayub Khan had announced land reforms in 1958; late Z.A. Bhutto announced first land reforms in 1973 and second land reforms in 1977, thus further reducing ceilings on private ownership of farmland to about 100 acres of irrigated and about 200 acres of non-irrigated land. General Muhammad Ziaul Haq’s Islamisation created the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) for the first time, its aim being to review whether the law was repugnant to the injunctions of Islam. Petitions were filed in the Shariat Appellate Bench against the judgment of the Shariat Court stating the reforms were legal. The Bench comprised Mufti Taqi Usmani, Mufti Pir Karam Shah, Justice Afzal Zullah, Justice Nasim Hassan Shah and Justice Shafi-ur-Rehman. Mufti Taqi Usmani wrote the lead judgment declaring that land reform legislations were repugnant to Islam.
However, Justice Nasim Hassan Shah and Shafi-ur-Rehman put up a dissenting note stating that limit on land holdings was necessary to reform the society and alleviate poverty. But the verdict sealed the fate of land reforms, as majority of lawmakers have vested interest. There is only one way to deprive jagirdars of their power bases, and that is massive land reforms, which could unleash productive and creative forces that would work for progress, prosperity and solidarity of the country. Perhaps the full bench of the Supreme Court could undo the verdict of appellate Sharia Court by taking suo motu, or if a petition is filed against the above verdict. The political parties, that have been given the mandate to rule, should keep the welfare of the people in their minds if they have to remain relevant to the people. If they fail to deliver, they will become irrelevant to the people.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
