THE misdeeds of some individuals, both past and present, have led people to believe that the parliamentary form of government has failed. This is untrue. This game of hide-and-seek is not new; the political assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, who was the first and a popular prime minister, laid the foundation of the political turmoil and instability wherein Ghulam Muhammad, the then finance minister in Liaquat Ali Khan’s cabinet, became the governor-general through intrigues and drawing room politics.

There is an old saying that it is the man behind the gun who counts. Similarly, no system is bad; it becomes good or bad in the hands of the people who are behind the system and responsible for its implementation and smooth functioning.

When it comes to our parliamentary form of government, we are following the Westminster model, which is being practised successfully in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in a lot of other countries.

The Quaid-i-Azam was impressed by the Westminster democracy and its values, and considered it suitable for Pakistan. It is also enshrined in the Objectives Resolution, which was passed by the first constituent assembly and is presently a part of Constitution as its Article 2A. It is a legacy of the Father of the Nation and should not be parted with.

A great majority of our people also like the parliamentary system of government. They have had exposure to presidential dispensations during the regimes of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf, wherein they rejected the presidential form and reverted to the parliamentary system.

It is pertinent to remember the movement of Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan who fought relentlessly for the restoration of parliamentary democracy under the banner of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD).

The presidential form is not an ideal form of government. We have observed its weaknesses in the United States during the tenure of Donald Trump, especially when the Capitol Hill came under attack and the army had to be called in to restore order.

The US president cannot act unilaterally like a dictator which seems to be an inbuilt desire of our rulers; there are many checks and balances on him. It is also said that a one-man rule is like a fast train that achieves a lot, but when it meets an accident you are back to square one, whereas parliamentary democracy is an elephant which moves slowly, but every foot is a sure foot.

Notwithstanding the above, our Constitution is built around the parliamentary system. It forms the basic structure of the Constitution. It just cannot be changed on the wishful, whimsical thinking and desire of a few individuals.

Our pseudo-intellectuals must understand that the basic structure of a written Constitution, which was adopted unanimously, cannot be changed or altered easily. Let us change our mindset and we should learn to abide by the Constitution and the law of the land.

Lt-Col (retd) Syed Iftikhar Ahmed

Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2021