Daily Times

A number of institutions are established or created at the federal and provincial levels from time to time. Such institutions are assigned specified and specialised tasks and responsibilities. Most of these, such as the National and Provincial Assemblies, Judiciary, Election Commission, and Armed Forces i.e., Army, Air Force and Navy, have been created, governed and are protected under the Constitution of Pakistan. All these constitutional and other institutions are working within their frameworks, to say the least. Such institutions established and created enjoy due priorities of the respective federal and provincial governments.

Public servants, or in other words, bureaucracy, is an important pillar of the government, be it at national or provincial levels. The government formulates policies, plans and programmes. These are supposed to be implemented and executed honestly, sincerely and dedicatedly by the bureaucracy down the line.

Father of the Nation Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his address to the public servants on April 14, 1948, stated, “Whatever community, caste or creed you belong, you are now servants of Pakistan, You have to do your duty as servants. You are not concerned with this or that political party that is not your business. It is the business of politicians to fight out their cause under the present Constitution or the future Constitutions that may be ultimately framed. You, therefore, have nothing to do with this or that party….”

PTI Chairman Imran Khan, on being elected the Prime Minister, following July 2018 general election, while addressing a gathering of public servants under training at the national training institution within the first quarter of his being in power had quite emphatically stated that bureaucracy is the backbone of the State. It must deliver and perform its duties and assigned responsibilities faithfully, the government policy of de-politicisation of national institutions and enforcement of meritocracy offers a great opportunity to the bureaucrats to improve their performance and play its due role in translating political vision into reality as the backbone of the State.

Imran Khan should refrain from indulging in hostile activities, which may, sooner or later, create a 1971-like situation in the country.

But quite surprisingly, regretfully and deplorably after being ousted through no trust motion in April 2022, the same Imran Khan is somehow criticising left and right, hitting and targeting the national institutions in a thinkless manner at public meetings, tweets and interviews and not sparing hitting directly or indirectly the Constitution of Pakistan which is a sacred document also called the Green Book. All his activities and attempts to harm the country’s longest-surviving Constitution in any manner are strongly condemnable, to say the least.

As the elected prime minister, Imran Khan had taken oath under the same Constitution which inter-alia reads….” That I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan; That, as Prime Minister of Pakistan, I will discharge my duties, and perform my functions, honestly, to the best of my ability, faithfully in accordance with the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the law, and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, well-being and prosperity of Pakistan; that I will strive to preserve the Islamic ideology which is the basis for creation of Pakistan; …That I will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan……”

One only wonders how soon he has forgotten the oath he had taken as the prime minister under the Constitution and now attacking the Constitution and national institutions established under it quite negatively in a hostile manner without realising what damage he is causing to the country, democracy and stability of Pakistan.

The former prime minister is hereby reminded to remember that way back in 1971, Pakistan was dismembered and among others, one of the major reasons was that there was a Constitution. Pakistan had become a land without Constitution following the abrogation of the Constitution in 1968 by General Agha Yahya Khan which was framed and promulgated in 1962 by Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub as the second Constitution in 1962.

Imran Khan should refrain from indulging in such hostile activities which may sooner or later create 1971 like situation in the country. Such an act on his part may not even be liked by his party leaders or supporters as such.

Inviting the public servants and involving the national institutions directly or indirectly by the former prime minister Imran Khan in his struggle to regain power cannot be appreciated or liked in any manner as such attempts would lead to creating instability in the country due to which Pakistan will never be able to attain the cherished goal of reaching the destiny of economic progress.

He is also reminded that encouraging the indulgence and interference of the institutions and inviting them to venture into politics is not good at all as it is tantamount to making Pakistan a banana republic. Imran Khan is quite rightly being accused and criticised for indulging in such activities forgetting that the national institutions should not be encouraged and invited to venture into the political arena instead of performing their duties and functions within the constitutional framework. He is also reminded of the bitter fact that encouraging the national institutions not to follow their constitutional obligations and responsibility meant a crude attempt on his part to directly or indirectly promote the rule of the jungle, dictatorship and fascism in the country. He is also being criticised for inciting revolt in the army which would be quite disastrous for nuclear Pakistan and lead to promoting evil designs of the forces inimical to the existence of Pakistan and its strong, dedicated, committed Armed Forces who are vigilant always to foil any attack on integrity, solidarity and security of Pakistan.

In other words, quite regretfully, the narrative of Imran Khan who heads a political party which claims to have roots in all four provinces as well as in Gilgit-Baltistan amounts to attacking the democratic set-up and rights of the people…

It is a bitter fact that the ideology of necessity had caused immense loss to Pakistan for quite some time in the past by the vested interests. People who are closely following the negative and hostile activities of Imran Khan particularly after his being out of office as the prime minister are quite rightly thinking whether Imran Khan somehow wants to revive the dangerous ideology of necessity in furtherance of his objectives and goals of regaining the lost post power as soon as possible without realIsing the great damage and loss these may cause to the country, prevailing democratic setup and the national institutions as well as the people at large directly and indirectly.

In his interests and that of his party and supporters, Imran Khan should better pause, think and ponder what he is saying and advocating negatively which partially has been referred to in the aforementioned paragraphs rather briefly and forthwith stop all his activities hostile towards the national interests, national institution, the Constitution as all these acts of him are not going to favour or help him in coming into power again, please.

The writer is a Lahore-based freelance journalist, columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News), Radio Pakistan, Islamabad and can be reached at zahidriffat @gmail.com