Dawn.com invites readers to debate current affairs in this forum.
On Thursday, President Asif Ali Zardari called upon the government to take the appropriate steps to implement the Charter of Democracy. The CoD has many points on its agenda, including the removal of undesirable powers to the president that he enjoys under the 17th constitutional amendment as well as the restoration of the constitution as it stood in 1973.
President Zardari has described the CoD as ‘our compass in a rough sea’ and a guide to Pakistan’s democratic future. Do you think the implementation of the CoD will help strengthen national democratic institutions? What impact will the implementation of the CoD have on relations between the PPP and PML-N?
Very balance analysis by the Dawn Forum
I would wish to add that nothing will work for Pakistan,COD, New Chief Justice etc.The basic fundamental issues as below to be agreed and implemented:
-Feudal system to be eliminated
-Full Autonomy to provided to
all the provinces of the country
I see a lot of comments where people demand transparency, accountability, courage and vision. And then they say that present lot doesn’t have it and demand dictatorship. Present govt. is elected govt. They won election fair and sqaure. They have right to wield power. If they don’t implement the charter, opposition in parliament should raise the issue. Press should play its role as watchdog and Judiciary should control executive outreach, if any. That is all one can do it till the next election. That is how it works.
Progress in democracy will be slow and frustrating. But, it will be forward because People will vote politicians out if they dont like it.
There are risks in the process. All social forces and divisions will intervene with the political process, but they will play out in any governance. Politics happens in the society and it cannot be pure. I dont see how that will be avoided in case of dictatorship. There also nepotism will be there and worse.
I remember that I was in IIT Delhi and Chief Election Commission T N Sheshan came to speak. Someone in the audience asked for a benevolent Dictator for India since our politicians are uneducated lot and he replied : 1. Benevolent dictator is oxymoron, it doesn’t exist. and 2. Education is no guarantee for honesty and integrity. Educated lots turn out to be more corrupt
Let us be patient and fortuitous. Next election will bring better bunch of leaders.
Sincerity to the cause is most important thing…If our leaders are sincere in their efforts in serving Pakistan in true spirits,they dont need any COD…All they need is the sincerity to acheive that objective which is to serve Pakistan & its interest…Unfortunetly our leaders in general have not won the trust of people when it comes to their sincerity.
The CoD is the best document I have ever read.
This covers almost every area which we need in order to have healthy democracy, good governance, empowering the institutions, entitling the people of all the legal rights.
If the CoD is passed in the legislature (both houses), the road to recovery will start.
There is no point left as an excuse to flare up any major issue afterwards.
The PPP and the Muslim League(N)should remain friendly. But, they must go ahead with a healthy criticism as this would improve the service to the nation.
CoD is the best document I have ever read.
This covers almost every area which we need in order to have healthy democracy, good governance, empowering the institutions, entitling the people of all the rights.
If CoD is passed in the legislature (both houses), the road to recovery will start.
Pakistan will never ever be a true democratic nation unless the army stops calling the shots. Nobody should be above the law of the land and in Pakistan all the leaders and politicians have immunity from the law. Informal relations and traditions should not be mixed with reality and politics. I think the word hate, militancy and jihad should be removed and progress, peace and trust should be added
CoD as ‘our compass in the rough sea’ —
Did no one find this funny?! Cod?
Charter of Democracy? What’s that?
Didn’t we lose that when Ayub Khan cheated Fatima Jinnah?
Or when Zia-ul-Haq started with his whole Wahabification?
Or was it just a role playing game in the 90’s where PML and PPP took turns?
Do they even have a charter of democracy in their own political parties?
Altaf Hussain loves how new technology keeps reminding everyone his charter of democracy…on who’s boss, especially to Mustafa Kamal.
Another Bhutto is chairman for life of their family party. But democracy triumphed as father and son share power, instead of just one chairman, there’s two…
Speaking of family party, the Sharifs must be partying on getting Punjab back on a political whim? They might lose it to the Taliban after losing all that time marching.
But I’m sure the Chaudhries must be sulking.
Imran Khan isn’t going to get OUT any time soon, but it be nice if there was a known Vice Captain, other than the Taliban to fill the spot. Hey your buddy Qazi Hussain Ahmed’s party had party elections, didn’t he?
Oh and can somebody send the MMA a memo that indeed their Taliban bhais are running Swat and coming to their neighborhoods to show them how their Charter of Democracy (or Charter of Theocracy? or Charter of Insanity?) looks like.
As long as Pakistan is going to support Religious extremism, Mullah advisers, Madarsas and intolerance for other faiths, can never be a true democratic institution.
Pakistan has too many bumps to go over and time is running out for this nation. How long can this country live on American donation and Charities?
These are all facades.
What they say is not what they mean.
What a fool they make of those who voted for them,trusting them that they would stick to their mandate.
Then what of the ongoing drama of these hard core militants?
Divert the public attention from the gaping issues that so far have not been solved.
Electricity for one.
It has become the joke of the year.
The bills we get have doubled although we are deprived of electricity for more then 12 hours and more.
Shouldn’t it be number one priory for the Government?
Basic needs haven’t been tackled so far what to say of the peace,progress and prosperity of the country.
Sky rocketing prices of daily stuff.
The country can rot so long the rulers thrive on the wealth of the people.
All businesses lynch people in the name of providing their services.
Thanks to capitalism,we dont learn from our past mistakes.
While we are waiting for COD, Swat is gone, FATA is gone and now Islamabad is going! The question is: will Taleban respect COD after the present lot capitulate tamely to them?
Charter of Democracy (CoD) is all very fine but it doesn’t address the fundamentals that are wayward in Pakistan. Give power to the Parliament but how do you get people of integrity and vision into it? Where do you find a Prime Minister (Chief Executive) who will play politics but will focus primarily on achieving what’s good for the everyday citizen? How will cronyism, nepotism be done away with?
Until we have people of caliber with the desire and wherewithal to stand up and be counted, we can have CoD or CoD Supreme and will achieve nothing. Today, alas, no one’s in sight. Zardari’s ill equipped. Sharifs are preoccupied with maintaining their stranglehold in Punjab. Imran Khan’s duplicity is evident when he joins hands with reactionaries and ultra-conservatives such as JI and JUI. The Islamist parties, JI and JUI are do not realise the fact that we live in the 21st century, not in the distant past. MQM’s too parochial.
A bit of stick is required in Pakistan but it has to be an honest, visionary, forceful, secular, educated, committed person who should wield it. Someone who has the ability to execute as well as envision.
At the end of the day, who really cares whether Pakistan’s democratic or otherwise. What matters is the well-being and prosperity of its masses who are too downtrodden. We need a Mahathir (or, if only it could happen, a Jinnah).
CoD was signed by two political parties and both jointly have the majority in the parliament, why not they should be ready to make it a part of constitution without further any amendment or discussion, over it, in the parliament?
But both parties shall not be ready now to do so because the said documents within it have some bitter truths about the political dilemma of this country to which now the both parties are not ready to rectify as well as swallow. This change came quickly in the approach of the both political parties after unceremonious exit of Musharraf.
Eventually, president has realised to act upon the CoD,which was signed by Benazir Bhutto…
well,Better late than never it would minimize the power of president,and might stong the parliment,rite now we really need to satbilze the country.Lets wait and watch..
Dear Sir,
It is sad to see the obvious, missing from the comments posted here.
Democracy means that only those, who are DIRECTLY elected by the people, should take decisions on behalf of the voters.
There is no one in Pakistan government today, who is directly elected to hold the office they do.
The President was not directly elected, he has no right to take any decision on behalf of the nation.
Nobody knew the name of the leader of the government at the time of voting hence the Prime Minister has no authority in terms that he was not elected to the position by the people.
Let me note one or two obvious examples.
The USA President is directly elected and upholds the ideal of the democracy.
In the UK, Tony Blair had the democratic credentails,Gordon Brown, the leader of the majority party in the House today can only have credibily(mid term change) for an other year or so, beyond that he will have to go to the people.(parliamentary democracy)
In Pakistan there has been hardly ever been that the basic first step taken.
Sad but true.
We all talk of CoD. Good. It is a good document and must be implemented. PPP Govt. must not delay it if it does not have some specific goal to achieve.
But the question is still there as to what immediate relief CoD is going to give to poor people? Will it solve poor peoples’ immediate problems like every-day killings, bomb blasts, suicide attacks on religious places, insecurity, daily-increasing prices and law & order in the country?
CoD was signed by two parties about three years ago and one of the signatories is in power for over one year now. What-ever changed, was perforce and clearly against the will of that signatory.
We already have a document called ‘constitution’ which has been signed by all parties. An elected Govt. is there with full powers. In fact more powers than any Govt. ever had. It must take steps to implement the ‘constitution’ and address peoples’ immediate problems. Use of extra-constitutional powers is up to the sitting Govt. It can avoid them for the betterment of the people if it does not have bad intentions. It must do what is good for the people even before ceremonial implementation of CoD.
Are these problems waiting for CoD’s formal ceremony or have these been intentionally left over to achieve ‘some goals’?
Implementation of CoD will strengthen PPP/PML relations. PPP will get public support, better environment to work for the people and will start making a strong ground for next term. On top of all the people of Pakistan will get some relief.
until Pakistan overwhelmingly changes its academic curriculum and stamps out hatred towards neighbouring countries and other religions in the minds of younger generations, it is going to breed religious fundamentalists who never care for the institutions like democracy
There has been a shifting perception of the so called “COD” by the two signatory parties. When ever there is a difference of opinion, one party says there is violation of “COD” and other says “COD” is dead. Another question is that there is mention of mistakes but what are those mistakes. Because I think that there should be some resolution on what PPP thinks were mistakes of PMLN and vice-versa. Otherwise just a general statement leaves those mistakes open to debate.
I believe that “COD” can only be effective once these politicians get rid of their inherent hypocrisy.
Adialah jail is a no no option because masses of our country have started believing that people who enroll there are Heroes of our nation.
As far as Charater of Democracy is concerned then of course there is no room for no, but a condition lies here that is that we need an implementation not an announcement with a huge applause in the Parliament House.
It is easy to be cynical but it is a fact that for Democracy to develop and flourish,strong Institutions is a necessity. Firstly Parliament has to be strengthened and made the supreme source of authority. The Court of course should have the right to overthrow anti people and anti constitutional amendments introduced in Parliament – eg: Swat deal with Terrorists that flies in the face of law and justice.
The government has wasted one year doing nothing but fire fighting. It should have been sincere and delivered on its promises a lot earlier without playing political games.
Anyway,better late than never.
one good thing that the COD will do is transfer of power back to the parliament. the president should be a neutral figure and not a co-chairman of a party.he should represent all the federating units.
the implementation of CoD with its spirit will bring the democratic institutes strength as it is the realistic approach of both the parties coming from the pathetic experience they faced. Both the major political parties will enjoy the best ever relations if they follow the principles of CoD.
PPP has taken the right course to strengthen the Parliament through COD.
It is truly need of the time in pakistan.
i must say the PML(N) should keep its pressure on PPP and try to pass bills in true letter spirit
If we see the list below we can conclude that all the problems are inter dependent. All of them require commitment and resolve on part of our leaders. CoD even if doesnt get approved wont change things alot unless there is a real understanding between zardari and nawaz. CoD is just another name of the understanding itself.
So lets be clear on it. Point is that they should have guts to solve their problems on their own and not even let others get a smell of it. They will have make sacrifices and move on. They must bear in mind that none of them is more powerful than the other. They must support each other at every bumby speed breaker.
Goal should be to remain stable not destable. For God sake let PPP complete their five years. PML will get their turn too…..
Second problem is that of US intervention. I appreciate govt. stand on conditional aid from US. All parties must raise their hands in favour too and support govt.
Lets be clear on taliban and Alqaida and not forget it. AlQaida was trained by americans CIA and was abandoned after russian invasion came to and end. When AlQaida demanded booty americans started calling them terrorists and came back to fight them. Now that fight has engulfed pakistan too. Its not Pakistan war at all.Our leaders could have averted fighting directly with taliban. Nothings bad even now. A deal can be worked out very intelligently. Give FATA a new name and offer them deals etc. Talk with their leaders wat they need.
Let me clear that only politicians can do this not Generals: Generals only can think in certain pattern.
Please brainstorm other solutions etc.
the constitution is good enough. must stick to that. the president after some hiccups is showing some confidence in himself. similarly officials need to keep their cool dealing with US. We will overcome!
Dear countrymen,
Unfortunately our interpretation of our religion is to blame for this state of affairs.
This interpretation is violence oriented whereas it should have been otherwise.
Islam is full of virtues but there are things which are prone to mis-interpretation.
The clergy should introspect and bring to the deviated followers the correct meaning of Islamic teachines.
How can a society survive wherein half part of it is kept down i.e. our females in the form of daughters, sister, mothers and seniors.
You scan the whole world many of the revolutions have been at the behest of women leaders.
Take a statistical overview of what is the percentage of ladies in almost every field of human activity be it medicine, judiciary, education, business, cultural protection, sensitizing the new generation about their duties and responsibilities.
The moment a movement starts in our country giving credit to half part of our society Pakistan will enter into a phase where we will witness dramatic developments leading Pakistan to a very glorified, peaceful and developed nation.
I assume none of my country men shall take my suggestion otherwise but in true spirit it has been written in the national interest.