On the 65th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence best homage to the Muslims of the subcontinent who sacrificed all they had for the creation of a separate homeland under the dynamic leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah would be to sincerely rededicate ourselves as a nation to the ideals of the founding fathers.
Pakistan was established as a nation-state with democracy as its polity in which people of Pakistan were to be the sole arbiters of power to be exercised through an elected sovereign parliament. All other institutions were to be subservient to the dictates of Parliament. None could over-ride the general will of the people as manifested in the sovereignty of the Parliament.
Today Pakistan stands at crossroads of history once again after having established an electoral democracy and supremacy of the Parliament. It is a defining moment in its chequered history. The sovereignty of the Parliament is being challenged by forces that have been in cahoots in the past in derailing democracy whenever they found it taking firmer roots.
Any independent student of Pakistan’s history would bear witness to the fact that what is happening in the country is much more of the same that it has suffered since its inception— an unending conspiracy not to allow Pakistan to become a progressive liberal democracy ensuring empowerment of the masses as sole arbiter of power expressed through an elected sovereign Parliament not subservient to any other state institution.
Our history has been a catalogue of intrigues, conspiracies and extra-constitutional interventions sanctified by the judiciary to convert Pakistan into a security state rather than allow it to get established as a social welfare nation-state.
Pakistan was pushed into a roller-coaster existence by the dismissal of the Mother Parliament by dementia-afflicted Governor General Ghulam Mohammad upheld as legal by the then Chief Justice of Pakistan late Justice Munir when Sindh High Court had declared it illegal and unconstitutional. Same was repeated by Chief Justice Munir when he sanctified first Martial Law of General Ayub Khan.
Successive dictators were supported by the Supreme Court for their acts of treason in subversion of the Constitution. The overthrow of the elected government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto by General Ziaul Haq in July 1977 was once again endorsed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan with Justice Anwarul Haq as Chief Justice.
While democracy was in the blood of our people, the Praetorian conspirators receded some what following the awakening of the masses to fight for their democratic rights.
When will we march forward from this so called "cross roads". When the so called conspirators – patriots- will be cornered? My goodness. We are sixty five years old yet we still are lurking in the same lurch that we were in on day one of our independance. Mr. Ambassidor must know that the system the nation and most importantly the establishment has matured enough not ever to take country back into the same mess which it has moved out after lots of difficulty and sacrifices. In present times messeages like this one hardly appeals. People want, on such an ocassion, messeges from our high ups full of hope, encouragement and full of passion to take the nation forward.
SHAHID HUSSEIN QABOOLPURIA,
LAHORE, PAKISTAN
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