Business Recorder Editorial June 2, 2020

Constitutional and judicial system anomalies

An anecdotal survey carried out by Business Recorderhas revealed that the Council of Common Interests (CCI), a constitutional body tasked with resolving issues between the Centre and the provinces, has been reduced to a non-functioning entity due to the neglect of successive governments. Since its establishment in 1973 under the newly promulgated Constitution that still, amendments over the years notwithstanding, holds the field, the CCI has held only 41 meetings. Of these, 30 were held before the 18^thAmendment in 2010 and the remaining 11 between 2010 and 2019. The last meeting of the CCI was held on December 23, 2019, chaired by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan. The 18^thAmendment shifted CCI from under the Cabinet Division to the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) with a view to making it an effective body, but to no avail. Article 153 (2) lays down that the structure of CCI shall consist of (a) the PM who shall be the Chairman; (b) the chief ministers of the provinces, and (c) three members from the federal government to be nominated by the PM from time to time. Of late, opposition parties have strongly criticised the PM for not convening a CCI meeting to forge a collective strategy against the ever-increasing challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. On the contrary, as expressed by Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Raja Zafarul Haq, the government has been guilty of bypassing parliament on most if not all important issues, ignoring the CCI’s role in the national pandemic crisis, and failed to use the platform of CCI to resolve the grievances of smaller provinces such as Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Despite IPC Minister Fehmida Mirza’s efforts, even the mandatory requirement of a separate secretariat for CCI could not come to fruition.

As if such constitutional anomalies were not enough, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) federal government has suddenly woken up to the possibility (according to the PM) that people’s confidence in our judicial system has been shaken. It might not be inappropriate to ask, was there really a people’s confidence in our judicial system in existence? The opposite could easily be argued with numerous clinching arguments and instances of the flaws and anomalies of the judicial system in our past and present. Nevertheless, the PM’s constitution of two committees to suggest constitutional reforms and recommendations to ease the plight of women prisoners cannot be slighted for lack of good intent. However, it may not be out of place to wonder if the PM is aware of similar such efforts in the past and their lack of meaningful outcome. This is not only because the tasks of constitutional reform and changing our entrenched criminal justice system, police (thana) culture, registration and investigation of cases and the colonial heritage of our prison system are formidable challenges, but also because the past is littered with the shipwreck of similar efforts. In addition, the two committees set up for this purpose also demand comment. The constitutional reform committee is composed of the PM’s Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan and Law Minister Farogh Naseem, with not even a whiff of any opposition presence. After all, it should not be forgotten that the PTI government does not enjoy a two-thirds majority in parliament and is therefore unable to bring about any constitutional changes without taking the opposition on board. The best efforts of Messrs Awan and Naseem therefore, in the absence of any opposition input let alone cross-aisles agreement or consensus, run the risk of withering on the vine. Even the second committee on reform in the conditions of women prisoners, laudable as the idea is, consists of the PTI minister for human rights, bureaucrats from all four corners of the country, and a couple of private individuals involved in justice system issues. Again, not a whiff of the opposition’s presence. Although this reform effort may not require a constitutional amendment, nevertheless the province (Sindh) ruled by an opposition party, may not buy into any reform suggestions by a committee in which it has no role.

It comes as no surprise that the PM’s two committees do not give even a nod in the direction of the opposition. This is consistent with the PTI government’s attitude to the opposition since coming into office. One had hoped that in the case of these two committees and the purposes for which they have been created, the PTI government may shed its past hostility towards the opposition for the sake of a non-partisan, badly needed reform, but this was not to be. The fear is that even after the hard work of the committees, anomalies such as the CCI ‘freeze’, the shrieks and cries of the routinely tortured in our thanas,the deathly silence around the everyday police ‘encounters’, and the loss of life and freedom for those languishing unjustly in our prisons may continue undisturbed.