Book Title : The Parliament of Pakistan: A History of Institution-Making and (Un) democratic Practices, 1971-1977 Author : Mahboob Hussain Publisher : OUP Pages : 306 Price : Rs. 995
Fhroughout Pakistan’s political history, the role of the parliament has been thwarted by recurring autocratic tendencies. Over the last seven decades, parliamentary proceedings have been undermined by the machinations of the civil-military bureaucracy and the failure to uphold civilian democracy. Though it remains the country’s law-making body, it has often been billed as a seemingly dysfunctional institution that lacks effective control.
From February 2008, Pakistan has made a crucial transition towards a democratic order. The path towards a fully-functioning democracy has been a particularly difficult one. Amid these challenges, political experts and practitioners need to examine the country’s political history so as to understand the roots of the democratic order envisioned for Pakistan.
Mahboob Hussain’s ‘The Parliament of Pakistan: A History of Institution-Making and (Un)democratic Practices, 1971-1977’ offers useful insights that could assist experts and practitioners in this intellectual endeavour.
According to Hussain, historiographers in Pakistan haven’t placed any emphasis on understanding the formation and working of parliament as a state institution. He argues that “without studying the institution of the parliament, which is the mother institution in any parliamentary democracy, many dimensions of Pakistan’s political history cannot be understood”.
With its observations on the history, working and functioning of the parliament in the 1970s, Hussain’s book provides readers with a much-needed overview of the challenges faced by the first directly-elected parliament of Pakistan. The author, who is an associate professor at the Department of History and Pakistan Studies at Punjab University, is well-placed to comment on the matter and succeeds in illustrating the strengths and weaknesses of the institution with clarity.
By focusing on the period between 1971 and 1977, the book highlightshow the institution evolved after a chaotic period in the country’s history. Pakistan first directly-elected parliament, which was led by the Pakistan People’s Party, emerged after the 1971 war that resulted in the dismemberment of East Pakistan. As the country struggled to move beyond its turbulent past, the parliament bore the primary responsibility of shaping a new social contract that could unify Pakistan by accounting for its multi-ethnic identity. The institution also had to provide “a constitutional foundation for the subsequent parliaments of Pakistan”.
In order to gauge the successes and failures of the institution during this period, Hussain views the working of the first directly-elected parliament in two phases. The first entails the period between 1971 and 1973, and focuses primarily on the task of adopting a constitution that was based on consensus. The second marks the rest of the first parliament’s tenure when it had to uphold its sovereignty and prove its durability. This is a suitable approach to analyze the issue because it allows readers to appreciate the intricacies of the institution in a historical context.
The author indicates that the traditions and norms that the new assembly inherited did little to make it a strong institution. As a consequence, the new assembly had to maintain its complexity by adopting a cluster of rules and regulations that “set a trend and precedent for future parliaments”. However, Hussain categorically suggests that this degree of complexity was difficult to maintain because external forces repeatedly flouted rules that were considered “the primary safeguard of the parliament”.
Once the parliament was able to fulfill its constitution-making function, it had to uphold its own supremacy while resolving issues. In a similar vein, it had to stave off attempts by other institutions to intervene in its operation. As per Hussain’s analysis, the judiciary, the executive and other non-elected institutions continued to impede parliamentary affairs. But the author doesn’t simply point fingers at other institutions. To the contrary, he cites various examples to show that the internal flaws of the first directly-elected parliament are also to blame for the institution’s perpetual decline.
Through a balanced account that accounts for internal and external factors that resulted in the ultimate collapse of the first assembly, Hussain raises questions on the extent to which parliament wields influence in the country. This theme is equally pertinent in the present context because leading politicians have repeatedly found ways to undermine the role of the parliament. Disregard for parliamentary proceedings among political leaders and the surge of executive dominance has led many to believe that the institution has failed to generate the desired effect in Pakistan’s avowedly democratic order. At this critical juncture, Hussain’s book opens the portal to valuable insights and observations that could inform existing debates on the parliament’s role in the modern context. The Parliament of Pakistan may serve as a starting point for other academic treatises that could deal with the subject in a far more contemporary sense.
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