OUR latest prime minister, the 25th chief executive, Yusuf Raza Gilani is a confident tall man. He started off with a veritable bang. (There are different spellings of his name in the press — Yousaf Raza Gillani, Yousuf Raza Gilani and that used by this newspaper. Would the PM please clarify the correct spelling?)

He did well. The moment he issued his first executive order, after having been voted into office but before he was sworn in, that the confined dismissed judges should be immediately released from their confinement to their houses, the Islamabad administration, egged on by the protesting lawyers, sprang into action and within minutes the order had been executed. Its popularity can be gauged from the alacrity with which the normally supine administration acted.

The only sour note that memorable day was the sporadic misbehaviour in the august and honourable lower house. We could well have done without the hysterical screaming, shouting and sloganeering. But then that’s what our PPP jiyalas, ‘political activists’, are all about — noise and froth.

The actual swearing in was a rather grim exhibition, with the two main actors desperately trying to contain their antipathy towards each other, though when they were walking away together, after the oath taking, they did turn to each other and mumble a few words. But all in all, it was a sorry morning on March 25 — the select invitees in the Stalinesque atmosphere looked uncomfortable, as if they had unwillingly been corralled into attendance. Even the rather crabbed sanctity of the presidential palace was not spared by the rowdy jiyalas, who had their few moments of disorder.

A word, and a query, about the oath of office as administered to the prime ministers of Pakistan. Our founder and maker, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who never claimed to have made ‘sacrifices’, who was content to be simply called Mr Jinnah, and who had no wish to be a proverbial ‘shaheed’, on Aug 11, 1947 whilst instructing the would-be legislators as to the manner in which the country he had created would be governed clearly stated (to reiterate that much-quoted passage):

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that is not the business of the state … We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state.”

The ‘equal citizens’ qualification was short-lived. Just under six months after Jinnah’s death, in March 1949 the then prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, brought in the Objectives Resolution which put paid to any thoughts of equality. This resolution is both a preamble and an annex to the Constitution of 1973, as recognised by this new dispensation. One of the qualifications for membership of parliament is that a person qualified to be elected must be a person, according to Article 62(e) who “… has adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings and practices obligatory duties prescribed by Islam …” Where does this leave the members of the minorities?

The oath administered to the prime minister is also an ‘equality’ anomaly. It is clearly understood from this oath that the leader of the house cannot be a member of the minority communities as he or she is required to swear that “I … am a Muslim …” and that “I will strive to preserve the Islamic ideology which is the basis for the creation of Pakistan.” (Interestingly enough, the auditor general, the judges of the superior judiciary, the chief election commissioner, and members of the armed forces are not required to “strive to preserve the Islamic ideology of Pakistan”. No mention in their oaths is made of the ideology.)

Now, what is this amorphous Islamic ideology? The country’s maker made no reference to it. The Objectives Resolution somehow tried to formulate it, but scholars over the past 61 years have all failed to come up with an exact, precise and coherent rendition of what it exactly is.President Musharraf is an avowed secularist, though he did on far too many occasions waiver and deviate from his stand to the detriment of the country. The PPP claims to be a secular party — we are told that the forces of moderation have now taken charge of the nation. This being so, could the prime minister and his men not reconsider the ideology factor in the oath of office and make a move towards retreating to the stand made by the founder of this country and ensure that its citizens are indeed “equal citizens of one state”? That equality, much to be desired, has sadly been missing for far too long.

On the matter of executive orders as issued by the prime minister of the republic, would it not be democratic, transparent and just for Mr Gilani to rescind, as quickly as possible, an executive order issued by the founder of the PPP, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, way back in 1975 (if it has not already been killed). During the hearing of Air Marshal Asghar Khan’s Human Rights Case 19/1996 in the Supreme Court, the former army chief, Gen Aslam Beg, under oath, in an affidavit filed in court, revealed that in 1975 Bhutto issued an executive order that a ‘political cell’ be created within the ISI to deal with political and electoral matters. The subject of the case was the illegal distribution by this so-called cell of ‘public’ money to buy and influence anti-PPP politicians in the 1990 elections.

Mr Gilani’s party’s government has twice been dismissed in the 1990s, with the connivance and help of the ISI and its political cell. It is high time that the cell is disbanded and the ISI relegated to doing its originally designated job, having nothing to do with the political situation within the country. The ISI was perverted during the time of President Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who used it for his political purposes, but its political power was not officially recognised until Bhutto wittingly decided to regularise its function and bring it under his wing.

Admittedly, the executive order in question was issued by the founder of the PPP, but since it has been employed against the PPP, at least twice (and possibly many other times), the prime minister would do well to rescind this order, do away with the cell, and free politics from interference by the Inter-Services Intelligence organisation before it gets going on ousting him.

In this ‘new dawn’ when the military is slowly being relegated to its rightful place, will the prime minister, whilst cleaning his stables, issue another executive order banishing those most undemocratic and non-parliamentary offices, military secretaries and aides de camp to the prime minister as provided by the armed forces. Such trappings are abhorred by confident, upstanding democrats. Any self-respecting prime minister heading a parliamentary form of government would be ashamed to be seen with uniformed men lurking behind his shoulders.

We wish Mr Gilani luck.

arfc@cyber.net.pk