It appears our Constitution has s serious lacuna in not having a provision for meeting an emergency like faced today about the absence of PM from his normal duties due to a major operation. Our Constitution is more of a royal style with P.M. being raised to a level of an immortal being or godlike that he could never be incapacitated. One thing is that the sooner this lacuna is removed by a Constitutional amendment, the better. Moreover there ought to be some stop gap arrangement like the case of President or Chief Justice of Supreme Court that an acting person is appointed to look after the duties of incumbent during his absence from office. Nomination of Federal Finance Minster to look after the duties of PM is not a satisfactory way of operation when he is a close relation of PM which can raise eye brows of other contenders of job of PM. Human frailty ought to be the deciding factor in such a situation in determining the future course of action. Humans are not godlike. They can be ill or incapacitated. To except that P.M. who was in a major operation would be in normal state to attend to his onerous duties from sick bed in London is a far stretched position and may not be nurtured by his well wishers because this is not promoting his health.
Dr. Muhammad Yaqoob Bhatti
