Out there to get ya, again
And verily only those who abstain from major sins and are sagacious, righteous and ameen would be the ones who shall enter that sacred dome.
By a margin of twist the above is not a verse from any divine scripture but holy enough that they remain basic words of our law, the real grundnorm, and now seemingly enforceable part of our national sacred writings, which we the people have given to ourselves through our chosen representatives, somehow. These commandments wouldn’t have mattered so much if they might have remained dormant normative references in the eyes of law, not to be invoked and judicially deliberated upon but stayed the way plethora of other legal substance remain i.e., non-living things. Then why do such legal texts should be drafted or even exist in the first place? The questions of morality, law and jurisprudential wisdom behind these guiding provisions of constitution and its interpretations are the talk under sun.
But first things first.
This all started in 2008, when the illegitimately legitimised power centre was compelled or perhaps by choice decided to cede. A year before that, the Caesar found his unnerving Brutus just next door who for actual reasons unknown finally didn’t agree to act on the script handed over to him and instead decided to ride on some public will and in the course saved that grand chair of his from which one could appear as lord to the downtrodden. The best part: this he did and turned clear and atoned. In the last ditch effort to save the grace, Caesar made hell in the little empire.
The oracles eventually decided to give some space to the ordinary ones. And so frequently has it happened in history that each time the hoi polloi come to power, they see tempting islands and try to conquer them. The commoners rushed to the castles, had a royal bite and to date ruling it in an unruly way, as if like the last of times this too shall pass and come to yet another ignoble end. The sort of ends they are too familiar with. Either the end that typically ensures the subsistence of executioners or that of noble knights with heavy armours and lands who arrest premiers and host cold nights for them in incarceration where the only permissible guests are flesh-eating rats, before eventually putting them into exile till further order from the only above.
However, this time, in another unlikely change of cycle, the demos did reach that last lap from where they could transfer the beacon to the next representative class. A notion too startling and fearfully astonishing to the nation who since birth has practically been deprived of it: smooth and orderly transition of power, without a patronage, from one elected regime to the next one, as per the law. But how could it happen so smoothly? Many beneficiaries and interested gangs of the past, like the past, still think this is already a nightmare that redistribution of resources has happened against their interest, hate what these politicians do to each other but they have reached sort of a consensus to run the state permanently without their involvement and could at a later stage check their long unaccounted bills. To them, this is not what may be a suitable prescription for the national health and if that election line is crossed this time without the conditions they would like to assert and sureties they have demanded, it will propel the juggernaut of democratic culture in this republic.
A new power smuggling racket is thus being hatched through reliance on conventional forces: non-elected state institutions and religious camarilla. But then why not give these traditional quarters benefit of doubt and admit that they do have the ability to reform and mature with time? For many, such may be the case but the way the trumpets blow across the land these days, even with the new sounds, it clearly suggests that the trumpeters are the same old usual suspects. The belligerent temple of justice, more in the self-proclaimed fourth estate, those who spy and some of those who have the coup caps, many who are both civil and superior, and those who are all popular Ts: Taliban, tribal by Thought, the many on Twitter, those inspired by Tahrir Square and now the latest one from Canada, Tahir, and who is ready to march like Moses with a staff and almost a Persian headgear.
Not being guilty of generalisation, most of the above, reformed or unreformed, uniformed or cloaked, religious or non-religious ones, militarised or virtually socialised and/or plain puritans who unendingly appear on the television, they all seemingly desire, in one way or the other, that those who must now contest the elections should pass through the litmus test that is being written in the first line here, nay in the Constitution. The way they interpret it and the manner in which they desire to implement this text would even put Shylock to shame.
An unspoken environment of fear is being created to vex the people that if this system continues unabated, the corrupt mafia of politicians who are rural, uneducated and smell like old cheese will come to rule again and continue to deprive them of civic necessities which are particularly indispensable to those who have oversized abodes and who sojourn in the five stars. As everywhere, the failures of politicians dwarf their accomplishments. The inherent struggle to come to power will continue to create space between political class as a whole and some in the middle of them would be ready, like in the past, to exploit or get exploited by those who should now rather accept the new rules of coming into power. These after all are new times.
The upcoming march to the capital and the demand to enforce the sort of above constitutional provisions have one underlining core: this flock of 200 million has to be tamed and led in a specific direction. Some are above the law and have divinely ordained attributes to run the state. The aristocracy, technocracy, theocracy, corporatocracy and krytocracy are better than what is at hand today or what might continue if allowed unchecked.
Behold! For, if not the people, whosoever shall have the last laugh it might crack the walls of this citadel. Perhaps the only chance is to show contentment with these corruptible sinners who knock our doors with sly smiles and ask for votes. Else, the merchants have already decided to get this republic again.
The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore and can be reached at [email protected], Twitter: @LegalSubtleties
