PPP Senator Raza Rabbani on Saturday rued that the current political situation in the past four to five years had rendered the Constitution “meaningless”.
“As far as the current situation is concerned since the past four to five years — including the previous 10 months — the Constitution has been rendered meaningless, he said as part of a panel during a session titled The Current Crisis: Constitutional or Political at the 14th Karachi Literature Festival.
“Every political party and government official has their own interpretation of the Constitution, based on which they’re working … I am equally to blame, not only for these 10 months but from 1973 till today. I do not absolve myself of that responsibility.”
He said the 1973 Constitution was “just a green-coloured book which has no soul”.
Rabbani said that the chronic issues identified by session moderator Mujahid Barelvi had little to do with the Constitution but with the Pakistani ruling elite and state. He added that the state, based on a civilian and military bureaucracy, had never adhered to or followed any Constitution.
“The reason is that they (the elite) always wanted to stay in power and for that they used different stakeholders and moulded the Constitution towards whatever direction they wanted to,” Rabbani added.
Meanwhile, senior Supreme Court advocate Hamid Khan said that the current political situation was nothing new for the country, with the only difference being that the powers that be have become more covert than before.
Meanwhile, senior counsel and former attorney general Makhdoom Ali Khan said that not every political issue had its solution in the Constitution. “The solutions have to be sought through political discussions in the parliament,” he added.
He explained that a variety of issues plaguing the country were political which politicians should deal with by sitting together, saying that when that does not happen, a void is created which is “filled by the military or the judiciary”.
Giving the example of South American country Chile, Makhdoom said the country was under under the rule of Augusto Pinochet, a military dictator, until the politicians sat together, talked and decided to work together. They managed to win the referendum and remove the dictator from power, he said.
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