NON ISSUES

AHSAN WAHEED

If Pakistan is to have a parliamentary system eventually then does it really matter who is the President? Why all this fuss over a person? It would be far better to concentrate on the balance of powers in a parliamentary democracy. This would be a struggle in which civil society and all national institutions could play their role. That is how the judiciary was restored. Another facet of this struggle should be to restore the political neutrality of the Presidency---making sure that the head or an active member of a political party is not the President. This should also apply to provincial governors. These would be seen as efforts to remove fundamental flaws that are a hurdle in political stability.

Does it really matter who has the powers to appoint service chiefs? We have repeatedly seen that tampering with the system that brings forth a service chief has always had disastrous results for those who did the tampering. A service chief once appointed becomes loyal to the men and women he commands and not to those who appointed him. A military leader who relies solely on the legal authority given to him and on his loyalties to politicians will not be accepted by his own institution. Does it also matter if the President has the power to dissolve the elected assemblies by himself and through the Governors appointed by him? Not unless the Judiciary is subverted or refuses to play its role in Constitutional matters. These are mythical powers important only because they were grossly misused in the past. In spite of this it is still very important that these powers be in the right hands.

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