The Parliament is perhaps the only pillar of state which has not tried over the last three years to trespass its limits. Despite this, it has made solid though belated progress to strengthen itself and its system of committees. The PML(N) now wants to bypass the Parliament by seeking to hold an unusual conference comprising politicians, serving judges and generals. The agenda of the conference as spelled out by Mian Shahbaz Sharif is to discuss the challenges faced by the country. Why cant these challenges be taken up for debate in Parliament?
During the last three years, the Parliament and its committees have developed an institutional network for interaction with both the judiciary and the military. Why not to use the same to create a consensus among different organs of the state?
The 19th Amendment was introduced after the Supreme Court sent back the 18th Amendment Bill to the Parliament for review. The Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms duly took up the matter. While grey areas might still exist in the 19th amendment, these can be removed by convening the committee to decide whether the Judicial Commission or Parliamentary Commission is to play the decisive role in the appointment of judges. Matters left unresolved could be taken to Parliament which represents the 170 million-strong population and has the exclusive right to legislate.
There is no way calling on sitting judges who are reviewing cases against politicians and holding generals accountable to attend a round table conference to give advice that can turn them from independent justices into participants in decisions that are likely to come up for review before them
Institutional methods are available to Parliament to receive inputs from the armed forces also. In October 2009, the Parliament received a two day long in-camera briefing on the security situation from DG ISI Lt Gen Shuja Pasha. A year later, on October 16, 2009 the COAS explained the need for an operation in South Waziristan to the parliamentary leaders, which led the Parliament to give a go-ahead to a military operation.
Similar briefings to parliament or its committees can be arranged if needed from time to time. Meanwhile the Defence Committee of the cabinet provides another forum to the military top brass to appraise the administration of is concerns. The generals can express themselves freely in these meetings without coming under the limelight or becoming a subject of controversy.
Some of the parliamentary committees have done wonderful work during the last three years. They have settled some of the thorny issues hanging fire for years, debated vital national security matters and provided useful feed backs to the FO which had so far been, and still largely is, rubberstamping policy decisions taken by the national security apparatus.
The Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Reforms prepared the draft proposals for the 18th and 19th Amendments. It was a momentous task to come up with a consensus on the amendment of around 100 articles of Pakistans constitution in nine months The passage of the 18th Amendment led to the removal of the constitutional distortions introduced by Zia and Pervez Musharraf thus bringing back the system to its original parliamentary form for the first time after 1977. All this was done through a process of consensus making through talks and an open mind. The task could only be performed in a democratic system. Of course what many would consider ideal cannot be achieved in one go when consensus building is given priority. But this is how things move in a democracy which is the least defective the systems tried so far by mankind
There were other committees which removed the cobwebs left by decades of military and civilian misrule. They have created confidence in their working and a hope that if left undisturbed the political system is capable of putting the country on a path that leads to good governance.
Like an efficient watchdog the Pubic Accounts Committee of the National Assembly has left few sacred cows untouched to establish the supremacy of Parliament on all public bodies. It has probed financial irregularities on the part of the high and mighty in the government and civil and military bureaucracy.
The Parliamentary Committee on National Security is another outstanding body. It has arranged briefings to its members for providing informed inputs to related ministries and Parliament.
Despite the limitations Parliament has suffered on account of the quasi-Presidential system it had inherited which continued to prevail for nearly two years and a half, Parliament and its committees have developed particularly well and contribute a lot in their stead. The lesson: Let the institutions grow and prosper as they resolve national issues instead of bringing in serving judges and generals and politicians on a platform unheard of in any functioning democracy.
The writer is a former academic and a political analyst.
