Many have written on the subject of the supreme judiciary when it was suspended and black coats were actively trying to restore it. Today again the situation is far worse and the economy is on the verge of collapse and “highly vulnerable” as warned by IMF on the Feb 7, clearly indicating that this need is far badly imminent today than at any time before. This vulnerable position is mainly caused by extremely high corruption, adding $11.3bn foreign debts, during the short period of four years, clearly indicating the immediate need to evolve a viable political system to save the country from the imminent economic collapse, involving possible danger of losing its very independence as over 90 percent resources go in debt servicing.
Leaders, like Imran Khan, are promising to end corruption within weeks and months, as if they can do so with some magic wand, which to a lay man appears impossible, especially through the existing corruption prone parliamentary system. In this system, corruption starts with the high election cost, which is usually retrieved through corruption and ministerial position, after more expensive horse trading. The situation is even worse in a hung parliament.
Thus the only system which can stop political corruption is presidential system, like the US, where the elected members are barred from seeking ministerial position. The chances of political corruption can be further reduced in case the election system is made less costly and clean.
This is possible if the qualifications of the candidates for the assemblies as specified in the Constitution (Art 20-31, 43, 63 etc) are very strictly adhered to by the Election Commission. Art 2-A offers a simple way to overcome all such problems and deserves to be enforced to save the country from any further damage through corruption and political malpractices, as it does not require any amendment, being an integral part of the constitution itself.
S M H RIZVI
Karachi
