Daily Times

“Have I done anything unconstitutional and illegal? Yes, I have. On November 3.”

Imagine the horror, utter disbelief and immense amusement I felt as I watched General Musharraf’s blatant confession in an interview he gave to the BBC in November 2007.

And I thought then, only in Pakistan can one take an oath under the constitution as the president, prime minister, governor, chief minister and so on, swearing to bear faith and allegiance to Pakistan, to discharge duties and perform functions, faithfully in accordance with the constitution and the law, always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well-being and prosperity of Pakistan; swearing to preserve the ideology of Pakistan and not to allow personal interest to influence official conduct or official decisions; swearing to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of Pakistan; swearing to do right to all manner of people in accordance with the law without fear, favour, affection or ill-will, and then make a mockery of it.

Article 5 of our constitution clearly states that the basic duty of every citizen is loyalty to the state and obedience to the constitution and the law. Article 6 states: “Any person who abrogates or attempts or conspires to abrogate, subverts or attempts or conspires to subvert the constitution by use of force or show of force or by other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason.”

According to Musharraf’s own admission, his acts of November 3 were unconstitutional and illegal. His statement not only vindicated the stand taken by the honourable judges of the superior judiciary by refusing to take oath under the PCO but also substantiated the lawyer community’s claim that all actions taken by him on November 3 and subsequently were unconstitutional and illegal and thus totally null and void. The order of the seven member bench of the Supreme Court, whereby the honourable judges overturned the PCO and restrained an assorted array of government functionaries, as well as members of the judiciary, from acting under it, was not only fully constitutional and legal but was also morally correct. And, by the same premise, any subsequent actions taken by all those personnel, who were duly restrained by the honourable Supreme Court, in furtherance of the unconstitutional and illegal orders by Musharraf were totally null and void, as well as amounted to blatant contempt of court. The rest is history.

We have a democratically elected government since February 2008; however, the slogan pioneered by it gives a concept of democracy being the ‘best revenge’, which is alien to the constitution; we also have a ‘friendly opposition’; this concept also finds no mention in the constitution. What one does find is the oath taken by all these democratically elected people to uphold the constitution. We have seen a rampant increase in poverty, drone attacks, the Abbottabad fiasco, power crisis, terrorism, target killings, inflation, corruption and immense disparity between the rich and the poor as the divide increases day by day. Is this not a violation of the constitution and the oath taken by those governing our country? Is this not a violation of the constitution by the opposition parties who failed to safeguard our rights and instead of serving as a watchdog, became complicit with the ruling coalition? Is this way of repaying the people of Pakistan for reposing their trust in democracy not “unconstitutional and illegal”? Is “obedience to the constitution and law” only reserved for dictators in the context of martial law? Is this ‘obedience’ not required, in its broader sense, of a democratically elected government?

The constitution enjoins upon all to ensure and uphold the fundamental rights of the people. It places an obligation on the state to act in accordance with the principles of policy enshrined therein, to discourage “parochial, racial, tribal, sectarian and provincial prejudices”, to safeguard the rights of the family and minorities, to promote social justice, to eradicate social evils, to ensure the social and economic well-being of the people. Given the state of our people, democracy has indeed been the best revenge, but from the people of Pakistan.

Time and again we have seen our country put through martial law, emergency and the like. We have seen lawyers, civil activists, teachers, politicians and so on incarcerated and penalised for voicing dissent from the government, for wanting the rule of law in Pakistan, which is the inalienable right of every citizen guaranteed by the constitution. What we need is to unite in a common goal, for only then can we ensure the supremacy of law, not only for ourselves but for generations to come. It is time to say ‘no’ to the propriety rights of a few individuals over our country and to assert our own legal and constitutional rights. It is time to make democracy accountable to the constitution.

As a child I was particularly fond a story called ‘The Three Little Pigs’. The story narrated the struggle of three pigs as they faced the real world after leaving home and their encounter with the Big Bad Wolf. The first little pig set out to build his house and chose to do it with straw. After he was finished and sitting inside, enjoying the reward of his hard work, the Big Bad Wolf came along and asked to be let in. The pig refused, thereby angering the wolf, who huffed and puffed and blew his little house away, and proceeded to eat the pig. The second little pig was a tad smarter than the first one. He built his house with sticks, but alas he met the same fate as his brother. The third little pig was wiser. He built his house with bricks and cement. As he was sitting and enjoying the fruits of his labour, the Big Bad Wolf came along and asked to be let in. When the door did not open, the Big Bad Wolf huffed and puffed and tried to blow the little pig’s house down, but to no avail. Totally exhausted by all the huffing and puffing, the Big Bad Wolf decided to use extra-constitutional ways of entering the Little Pig’s house via the chimney, thereby violating the little pig’s fundamental rights. As the Big Bad Wolf climbed down the chimney, the wise little pig lit a fire and that was the end of the Big Bad Wolf.

Moral of the story: it is time for the demise of the Big Bad Wolf of martial law and emergency; or is it of ‘vengeful democracy’ and ‘friendly opposition’? It is time we started to build our houses with bricks and lit a fire.

The writer is an advocate of the High Court