Respect The Constitution

The political environment in Pakistan since April 2022 and in the USA for the last almost four years bear a lot of similarities and the fateful incidents and opposing winds faced by the former PM Imran Khan and the former POTUS Donald Trump on many counts look like mirror images. Therefore, the consequent political polarisation and  instabilities also appear to be common. Is it because of the similarities in the two personalities or in fact due to the commonalities among the perpetrators, their unified interests and similar end objectives in the respective local environment as well as in the bigger scheme of the things played on the Global Deep State’s chess board? Make your own guess!

According to the American constitutional law and human rights experts, caught up in the heavily dramatized electoral showdown between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Americans have become oblivious to the multitude of ways in which the government is goose-stepping all over people’s freedoms on a daily basis.  Almost the same has been practiced in Pakistan from April 2022 till the enactment of the most controversial and hasty 26th constitutional amendment on 21 October 2024. Particularly appalling in both the countries is the level to which people on both sides of the political and bureaucratic/ judicial aisles, who are allowing themselves to be gaslighted by the political opponents about critical issues of the day, selectively choosing to hear only what they want to hear when it casts the opposition in a negative light. This is pertinent whether one is talking about protection of human rights (i.e., safety of life, respect and property, freedom of speech and move, provision of health care, food, health care, clean water and breathable air), internal and external national security, immigration and border control, endless multiple turbulent fronts, or the excessive use of state machinery against its own people treating them like enemies of the country.

The thoughtless abrasive, derogatory and even abusive hate speeches by all and sundry both in America and Pakistan is yet another unenviable common, which is only adding to rise in the public anxiety, frustration and aggressiveness in the societies. Thus-far accepted norms of dialogue and routine speech seem to have been replaced by debauched language resulting in rebellious behaviour demonstrated in the houses of the parliament, as well as on the electronic and social media. Nevertheless, can muzzling free speech by putting a ban on the media be accepted as a solution? Or the remedy lies in putting the horse before the cart i.e., the legislature, executives and judiciary setting  exemplary personal as well as institutional examples by being fair and impartial, proven by actions rather than  by customary hollow rhetoric?

The US’ DoD recent re-issuance of Directive 5240.01, which empowers the military to assist law enforcement “in situations where a confrontation between civilian law enforcement and civilian individuals or groups is reasonably anticipated” is being viewed as martial law; however, American respect for the unadulterated Constitution ensures a republic bound by the rule of law. Likewise in Pakistan, calling in Army under article 245 of the constitution on every drop of the hat by the successive governments have mostly proven sterile; though legitimised by amending the Constitution.  

What we have observed in the USA over a period, includes: domestic terrorism fuelled by government entrapment schemes, civil unrest stoked to dangerous levels by polarizing political rhetoric, a growing intolerance for dissent that challenges the government’s power grabs, police brutality tacitly encouraged by the executive branch, conveniently overlooked by the legislatures, and granted qualified immunity by the courts, a weakening economy exacerbated by government schemes that favour none but a select few, heightened foreign tensions and blow-back due to the endless conflicts. More of the same in Pakistan too!

In every country there are people who don’t support the government due to poverty, inflation, hunger, deprivation of basics of life like health, shelter, education, food, water and security. But is the State justified to label them as traitors, terrorists,  khawarij or fitna who need to be  identified, targeted, detained and, if necessary, eliminated. Don’t we forget that a State is not only a piece of land with a government  saddled firmly with one foot on the executive and other foot on the judiciary's shoulder. People are the most important ingredient of the state who make a constitution that is meant to govern and serve them with three pillars of the state bound to operate in well defined orbits. Any trespassing or mutilation of the Constitution is considered cutting the trunk of the tree on whose branches all elements of the state are resting. The Pakistan’s constitution  of 1973  has been maltreated like a nose of wax and has so far undergone 26 amendments; hardly any to serve the people but almost all to legalize legitimacies. The inevitability of respecting the constitution is also vindicated by the fact that despite so many similarities between the USA and Pakistan’s political environment, the USA stays a super power only because its people, superior judiciary  and the Armed Forces fiercely defend their constitution. That is what is found missing here in Pakistan; please revisit “Protecting the People and the Constitution” published on 21 March 2021.