KARACHI: The Charter of Democracy has been getting a lot of bad press lately. This is because of a recent decision of the Pakistan Peoples Party, one of the architects of the CoD, to end its policy of reconciliation, meaning it would no longer be supporting the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government whenever it is in a crisis.

Also a section of the media has been highlighting several provisions of the CoD that continue to remain unimplemented as it was created with the PML-N on May 14, 2006. However, as scholar Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed argued on Thursday during the First Benazir Bhutto Memorial Lecture held at the arts auditorium of Karachi University, the CoD signed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in London in 2006 was one of the milestones that paved the way for the democratisation of the state and society in Pakistan.

Several of its provisions were incorporated in the 18th Constitutional Amendment which led to the expansion of provincial autonomy that became a prominent feature of political discourse.

Giving a lecture on ‘The Imperatives of a New Social Contract: Building on the Charter of Democracy and the 18th Constitutional Amendment’, he began by highlighting the role of Benazir Bhutto in the restoration of democracy. He said: “Taking the mantle of leadership from her father, she emerged as a symbol of defiance and one of the most vocal voices for the restoration of democracy. Her belief in the power of the people enabled her to contest the might of a brutal military rule.”

Raising the question of why civilian regimes had failed in Pakistan, he called for doing a “historical audit of our” politics. “Political parties have been weak, they have been ruled more by individuals rather than their constitutions. Political parties either spend time in agitational politics or point scoring against one another. Their leaders are lured by power, they have not shown strong immunity to corruption and their record in governance,” he explained.

But the suggestion that the extra-political and extra-constitutional interventions were hence not only logical but also moral did not hold ground, he contended. “Why did all the military regimes resign in favour of civilian dispensations? If the panacea lay in military regimes, then why did they also fail? What has been the legacy of these authoritarian rulers?” Ayub Khan widened the cleavage between East and West Pakistan, his successor, Yahya Khan, dismembered the country, Ziaul Haq launched in Afghanistan a CIA-funded campaign leading to weaponisation, heroin addiction, religious and sectarian extremism. Pervez Musharraf was no better for he opened the floodgates of suicide attacks, religious extremism and insurgency in Balochistan.

It is these wrongdoings committed by the ‘Bonapartes’ that the document such as the CoD was crucial in correcting them and strengthening democracy, Dr Ahmed said. “If today anything good is there in Pakistan, it is a few consensual agreements and other documents that have sustained the federation despite all odds. Despite their weaknesses these provided the basis for the restoration of democracy and making the system more parliamentary and devolved.” The agreements and documents include the original 1973 Constitution, CoD, Seventh National Finance Commission and 18th Amendment.

He then drew everyone’s attention to the main points of the CoD and said: “Provision of joint electorate, reserved seats for the minorities and women, lowering of the voting age. The recommendations for the appointment of the judges were directed to ensure the independence of the judiciary. It endorsed the demand for the abolition of the Concurrent List. It proposed to strengthen the Senate and give representation to the religious minorities in it. Fata was suggested to be included in the NWFP. Local bodies elections were recommended to be held on a party basis.”

The CoD also enlisted a number of undertakings to make the political culture more reconciliatory and democratic such as: abolition of the National Security Council and replacing it by the cabinet’s defence committee and headed by the PM. The establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Leaders of the opposition in the national and provincial assemblies would appoint the chairmen of the Public Accounts Committees. All military and judicial officers would be required to file their income declarations just like the parliamentarians. Other sections of the CoD pertained to proposals for free and fair elections and correcting the civil-military relations.

In the light of these proposals in the CoD, the newly elected parliament of 2008 appointed an All Party Constitutional Reforms Committee, which led to the 18th Amendment, which “amounted to a paradigm shift in the federal system”.

Dr Ahmed was aware that a lot more needed to be done. “Reforms within the system is a continuous process. Over the years considerations of further democratisation of the system brought to the fore in the new constitutional provisions had become inevitable.”

He suggested that the Senate members be directly elected, parliament be empowered to control the military budget, political parties needed to reform their practices, and there was a need to expand the concept of rights to include children and transgenders. Earlier in her introductory remarks, Sahar Gul, the chairperson of the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Chair at the KU, said the chair had been in existence since November 2008. Initially it was set up as a research centre but now it intended to organise memorial lectures, bring out an annual journal and begin an internship programme.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2015

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