Misuse of political immunity in Pakistan

Immunity is the most misused thing in Pakistan’s politics. Since the very inception of the country, every president has been using immunity power as a shield to protect his heinous interests and go unscathed after committing crimes.

Currently, President Asif Ali Zardari is playing the same card in the matter of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) which is a burning question in the country. Zardari daringly claims not to follow the apex court’s verdicts for being an elected head
of state. He asserts to be answerable to his hand-picked prime minister and the parliament, not any court of law.

This is where the main problem lies. Every single sane person in Pakistan knows what the NRO is and for which purpose it was brought. There are no two opinions in this regard. The former military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf inked this ordinance to
exempt a number of politicians and civil servants from the cases of corruption and mismanagement, paving the way for their participation in the administrative set up.

It was absolutely unfair and illegitimate. But the exempted politicians contested the general elections of 2008 and combined to establish a government which has been ‘working’ to date. In the incumbent set up, a number of parliamentarians and politicians
including the president are the beneficiaries of the NRO.

The first ever sovereign Supreme Court in the history of Pakistan, under the headship of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, has declared the NRO null and void and directed the government for many times to act upon its Judgements, but the resilient prime minister
and president are not ready to even bother about it. The devil may care duo is chill for having immunity power.

Is this a democracy? Certainly no. It is merely an autocracy. According to the real essence of a democratic system, no political leader is above law. No one has privilege to do anything outside the limits of an agreed constitution. Everyone is culpable to
the public for what he/she does. Parliament is not supreme, but public and judiciary are supreme forces.

But all these things happen opposite in our country. Here, a tainted president can rule as long as he wants.

To me, the constitutionally granted immunity power is the root cause of most of the political upheavals and crises. First of all, this section should be scraped from the book of the constitution forever. No administrator, be it president or prime minister,
should be immune from punishments for his/ her misconducts. Everyone should go through public trials. Every offender should be punished. This is the only and long-term solution to all the crises we face every day.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=9385

Posted by Sharjeel Ahmad on Jan 16 2012. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry