Reform, Not Ruin

Am I committing a sacrilege if I were to suggest that the Constitution of Pakistan needs a major overhaul? It is not only that it has been amended so many times and in ways that undermine its very basics, but also that the original document is confusing and contradictory.

Firstly, it declares the state to be Islamic (even though states are not supposed to have religions); at the same time, it declares all citizens equal. Can a Christian, Hindu, or Zoroastrian become the Prime Minister, President, or Chief of Army Staff?

Secondly, it says that democracy will prevail in the country and that it shall be a federation. Yet the structure of the centre and provinces is such as to enable the creation of a unitary state. There are emergency provisions that allow the centre to take over the rule of provinces. It mandates provinces to establish local government systems, thus bypassing the authority of the former.

The establishment of the Federal Shariat Court allows any law to be declared repugnant to Islamic ideology (as interpreted by the judge in charge), thereby creating a judicial system parallel to that of the Supreme Court.

It is vague in the extreme and thus has lent itself to varying interpretations and amendments that have created a state on its way to a totalitarian form of governance. The most recent Amendments, the 26th and the 27th, have stripped the Supreme Court of its powers and rendered it toothless, with judges hand-picked by the executive, and suppressed any form of dissent under the guise of being against the state, the army and the ideology of Pakistan.

Thirdly, the media has been brought under control through the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), which allows anyone to be arrested and held. Mere tweets and harmless messages on social media have led to the arrest, conviction, and sentencing of lawyers, journalists, and ordinary citizens. Dissent has been so demonised that people are afraid to come out on the streets even for legitimate demands. Any sort of protest or demonstration is met with shooting at close range, as was seen in recent clashes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) between people demanding freedom of speech, the right to determine their own future and discuss issues of governance. Civil society groups have been proscribed and declared “terrorists”.

Pakistan is already moving towards becoming a regime characterised by totalitarian governance. It is ruled with an iron hand by the establishment with a civilian government only to provide a “soft” image.

Pakistan needs drastic reforms. It needs to first repeal the 26th and 27th Amendments and have the Constitution re-envisioned and redrafted. Its economic and social structures need to take a longer-term vision and move beyond the shackles of IMF programmes and short-sighted budget formulation that is merely an exercise in accounting. There is talk of a 28th Amendment, one that would allow the creation of more provinces without the legislation currently required by provincial assemblies. It will, supposedly, alter the nature of the National Finance Commission (NFC) to allow more resources to flow to the centre rather than the provinces. Another proposal under the 28th Amendment is to raise the voting age from 18 to 25, presumably to disfranchise the youth, who are overwhelmingly supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Instead of piecemeal destruction of the Constitution, what is required is a fresh look at its basic structure and a reformulation

The Constitution needs to protect structural reforms in the economic sector, the continuation of policies, and federal oversight of the agricultural industry. This is necessary to make it difficult to overturn previous governments’ policies. The Constitution needs to protect the lowest social strata: it needs to ensure that poor, ordinary citizens become the country’s rulers, not the subjects of a dictatorship. It needs to keep the army out of politics. It needs to provide checks and balances against self-serving politicians and ambitious men beyond the ballot. The Constitution needs to be carved out as a new social contract between the citizen and the state.

The government is focusing on stabilising the economy and projecting GDP growth of 4%, led by export orientation. However, think tanks such as the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) disagree. They argue for a longer-term vision with a target of 7-9% annual growth over the next three decades. The Pakistan Business Council touches a sensitive issue, one that no government has agreed to address: the huge, ungainly, elitist civil service that buries ordinary citizens under mounds of bureaucratic hurdles. The two organisations call for market deregulation and reduced reliance on imported capital to drive growth. PIDE wants to focus on job creation and structural reforms that are difficult to undo, rather than on regular IMF bailouts.

The government continues to tax the already heavily taxed salaried class, whereas PIDE and other economic institutions insist on widening the tax network to include agricultural landlords, many of whom sit in the assemblies, and the real estate sector. The government also relies on taxes that discourage local industry from growing, whereas the Business Council advocates a “Make in Pakistan” strategy that focuses on value addition, lowering the cost of doing business, and supporting efficient export industries. The government spends on physical infrastructure, high-priced imported equipment and administrative management. PIDE says the government should spend only on essentials and act as an enabler rather than a growth generator.

The budget recently announced is supposedly meant to drive growth, but it does so by increasing consumption rather than instituting reforms in the industrial sector. Economic reforms are still off the radar, and the 28th Amendment looms ahead. If it comes to pass, the country will lose whatever remains of decentralisation that forms the building block of a federation. The Constitution will once again be deformed, crippled and twisted beyond recognition. Instead of piecemeal destruction of the Constitution, what is required is a fresh look at its basic structure and a reformulation. Given, however, the lack of legitimacy of the present government, the dearth of strategic and visionary planning, and the control of non-elected forces over civilian sectors, it is highly unlikely that this will happen.