Open Letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan

The Honorable Chief Justice
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Islamabad



Open Letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan


Dear Sir,

Pakistan is an Islamic Republic and parliament is supreme in matters of legislative activities of this country. Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan can be amended through a bill originating from Senate or National Assembly and passed by two-third majority of total membership of both the Houses as declared in Article 239(1) of the Constitution. Constitution of Pakistan is the guideline for politicians to uphold the ideology of the country and rights of its citizens. It ,very explicitly defines elements like composition of the House, revenue, judges, duties of governance offices, etc . Amazingly it depicts contradictory trend and appears implicit with regards to definition of true “Public Representation”, who are the ones deciding fate and future of this country and its inhabitants. It gives a general criterion for eligibility of candidates for National Assembly, which is open to the extent that any Pakistani living in any part of the world can contest elections in Pakistan, even if he or she has not ever been to Pakistan in lifetime. It is probably because since the conception of constitution in vogue, members of the house have always had vested interests in not defining the most important element of democracy. This is evident through the fact that no provision is available in constitution through which a citizen of Pakistan is able to propose any point for discussion in the House, without help of an elected member. who are usually not accessible to common man, thus a common man cannot put his point across to the House and remains hostage to political parties dictatorial policies.

My Lord, I am writing this open letter to you in great anguish and pain. Although the matter needs to be taken up in the National Assembly as a bill and discussed for implementation; but the concern raised is against the interest of majority occupying seats in the House. They are representatives of political parties having their own agenda superseding the agenda of common man. Therefore, I have no voice to take this matter to the house and get an audience. It is sad to find these members of National Assembly and Senate making laws to satisfy their own interests under the umbrella of public mandate; nonetheless common man remains the most suppressed element in this system of governance.

These individuals are not representative of people, but their ownpolitical parties having non-democratic practices, where individuals are deities and families have the ownership of political parties. These parties administer oath to their members for using their legislative vote satisfying individual’s wishes, rather than responding to call of conscience.. In such an environment,one can never expect that interest of common man will be guarded. In great despair I seek guidance from this honourable institution of Pakistan to find my way ahead.

My Lord, the increased influence of individuals in our political system has jeopardized our electoral system. This system is neither free nor competitive and is highly non-representative. These individuals denying right of qualified candidates from reaching public offices, breed political families, instead of citizen representation.

Representatives of a trade association or union are from among members of that association or community. A Muslim cannot represent a Christian in interfaith dialog likewise a beverage manufacturer cannot represent textile manufacturers in respective trade body meetings. An Oil importing country cannot become spokesperson for OPEC. Similarly, a person living in Lahore is incompetent to represent inhabitants of Faisalabad or Multan as he does not know the problems encountered by the resident of concerned city. Or for that matter a person living in constituency NA1 does not qualify to represent people comprising constituency NA2. Unfortunately, our constitution permits this anomaly. Our constitution even allows those who do not live in this country to represent people of this country and this has led to people possessing dual nationality to come here just to rule us. These people are callous in making laws and legislation, because they know that nothing of theirs is at stake. They ,many a times,come from abroad to take back goodie bags and let the common man suffer under their wreckless decisions, policies and strategies.
The only way to restrict these people is to tighten the criterion of people’s representation in National Assembly and Senate. As a matter of fact, similar principle should also apply to all those holding public offices like President, Governor State Bank, Advisors to the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, Governors, etc.

I would refer to Constitution of Pakistan 1973 Article 62 “A person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) unless :-

(a) he is a citizen of Pakistan;

(b) he is, in the case of the National Assembly, not less than twenty-five years of age and is enrolled as voter in any electoral roll in-

(i) any part of Pakistan, for election to a general seat or a seat reserved for non-Muslim; and
(ii) any area in the Province from which he seeks membership for election to a seat reserved for women.
(b)........

(c) he is, in the case of Senate, not less than thirty years of age and is enrolled as a voter in any area in a Province or, as the case may be, the Federal Capital or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, from where he seeks membership;”

Mere reading of the Article 62(b)indicates that electoral arena is free for all, anyone can contest election from any constituency. My question to the legislators would be how can a person living in Defence be representative of a person living in Orangi Town or Chak 52 somewhere in the interiors of Punjab. He does not comprehend the problems of that area, hence cannot derive possible solutions to those. Present free hand has allowed wealthy to represent the poor, a person who has never seen poverty can never realize the problems of under privileged.

I would like to draw the attention of Your Honour, towards constitutions of different countries.
My first reference will be towards India, proclaimed largest democracy of the world, Article 102, Constitution of India:

“102. (1) A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of Parliament—
(a)……………..
…………………
(d) if he is not a citizen of India, or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign State, or is under any acknowledgment of allegiance or adherence to a foreign State;”

Article 102(1)(d) clearly restricts those who acquire the citizenship of a foreign State. Though India does not allow dual nationality vide Article 9, constitution of India “9. No person shall be a citizen of India by virtue of article 5, or be deemed to be a citizen of India by virtue of article 6 or article 8, if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign State.”. Nevertheless, Article(102)(1)(d) weeds out the possibility of anyone having a dual nationality, even in times to come and to become member of parliament by using words “or is under any acknowledgment of allegiance or adherence to a foreign State;”

Your Honour, I would further draw your attention towards first democracy of the world, the United States of America.

“Section. 2 Constitution of United States of America. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.”

Members States of USA follow their own constitution with regards to the House of representatives. In order to look at the rules of qualification to represent each state, first reference is made to Constitution of Texas, Sec. 7.

“QUALIFICATIONS OF REPRESENTATIVES. No person shall be a Representative, unless he be a citizen of the United States, and, at the time of his election, a qualified voter of this State, and shall have been a resident of this State two years next preceding his election, the last year thereof a resident of the district for which he shall be chosen, and shall have attained the age of twenty-one years. “

State of Texas further enumerates qualification of Senators vide Section 6 of Texas Constitution.
“Sec. 6. QUALIFICATIONS OF SENATORS. No person shall be a Senator, unless he be a citizen of the United States, and, at the time of his election a qualified voter of this State, and shall have been a resident of this State five years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof a resident of the district for which he shall be chosen, and shall have attained the age of twenty-six years.

Likewise Indiana’s Constitution Section 7 refers to the qualification of House of Representatives.

“Section 7. No person shall be a Senator or a Representative, who, at the time of his election, is not a citizen of the United States; nor any one who has not been for two years next preceding his election, an inhabitant of this State, and, for one year next preceding his election, an inhabitant of the district whence he may be chosen. Senators shall be at least twenty-five, and Representatives at least twenty-one years of age.”

California has been very explicit in defining qualification of its candidates for representative government. It has addressed the issue similar to dilemma faced by Pakistani citizens with their constitutional anomaly. Reference is made to Article 4 section 1.5 of California Constitution.

“ARTICLE 4: SEC. 1.5. The people find and declare that the Founding Fathers established a system of representative government based upon free, fair, and competitive elections. The increased concentration of political power in the hands of incumbent representatives has made our electoral system less free, less competitive, and less representative.

The ability of legislators to serve unlimited number of terms, to establish their own retirement system, and to pay for staff and support services at state expense contribute heavily to the extremely high number of incumbents who are re-elected. These unfair incumbent advantages discourage qualified candidates from seeking public office and create a class of career politicians, instead of the citizen representatives envisioned by the Founding Fathers. These career politicians become representatives of the bureaucracy, rather than of the people whom they are elected to represent.

To restore a free and democratic system of fair elections, and to encourage qualified candidates to seek public office, the people find and declare that the powers of incumbency must be limited. Retirement benefits must be restricted, state-financed incumbent staff and support services limited, and limitations placed upon the number of terms which may be served.

SEC. 2. (a) The Senate has a membership of 40 Senators elected for 4-year terms, 20 to begin every 2 years. No Senator may serve more than 2 terms. The Assembly has a membership of 80 members elected for 2-year terms. No member of the Assembly may serve more than 3 terms. Their terms shall commence on the first Monday in December next following their election.

(b) ………

(c) A person is ineligible to be a member of the Legislature unless the person is an elector and has been a resident of the legislative district for one year, and a citizen of the United States and a resident of California for 3 years, immediately preceding the election.”


Another State Utah mentions in Article VI Section 5 of its Constitution:

“Who eligible as legislator. No person shall be eligible to the office of senator or representative, who is not a citizen of the United States, twenty-five years of age, a qualified voter in the district from which he is chosen, a resident for three years of the State, and for one year of the district from which he is elected.”


Arizona declares under Article 4

“2. Qualifications of members of legislature
Section 2. No person shall be a member of the Legislature unless he shall be a citizen of the United States at the time of his election, nor unless he shall be at least twenty-five years of age, and shall have been a resident of Arizona at least three years and of the county from which he is elected at least one year before his election. “


Mi Lord, in order to further substantiate my point of view I would like to draw your attention to a Monarch based country Norway. Article 1 of Norway’s Constitution states:

“ Article 1 [Integrity of the Kingdom]The Kingdom of Norway is a free, independent, indivisible and inalienable Realm. Its form of government is a limited and hereditary monarchy.”

Yet the constitution gives legislative powers to the people under Article 49 and outlining the requirement of becoming Member of Parliament under Article 61:

“Article 49 [Legislative Power]The people exercises the Legislative Power through the Parliament [Storting], which consists of two departments, the Permanent Chamber [Lagting] and the General Chamber [Odelsting].”

“Article 61 [Residence Requirement]No one is eligible as a representative to the Parliament [Storting] unless he has resided for 10 years in the Realm, as well as being entitled to vote.”

Yet another example of a Kingdom which gives the right of legislation to the people is of Thailand. Section 101 of Thai Constitution states:

“Section 101. A person having the following qualifications has the right to be a candidate in an election of members of the House of Representatives:
(1) being of Thai nationality by birth;
(2)……………….
…………………..
(4) a candidate in an election on a constituency basis shall also possess any of the following qualifications:
(a) having his name appear in the house register in Changwat where he stands for election for a consecutive period of not less than five years up to the date of applying for candidacy;
(b) being born in Changwat where he stands for election;
(c) having studied in an education institution situated in Changwat where he stands for election for a consecutive period of not less than five academic years;
(d) having served in the official service or having had his name appear in the house register in Changwat where he stands for election for a consecutive period of not less than five years;”

I would draw your attention towards former East Pakistan and present Bangladesh which declares in its constitution.

“(1)…….
(2) A person shall be disqualified for election as, or for being, a member of Parliament who-
(a)…………….
………………..
(c) acquires the citizenship of, or affirms of acknowledges allegiance to, a foreign state; “


Flaws exist in all the constitutions being followed in the world and these constitutions continue to undergo changes based on trepidations. The idea behind giving these references is to point towards the fact that constitution of each country protects interest of its people by providing a provision for true representation in House of Representatives. These constitutions have restricted access of career politicians to the House by defining stringent rules. This allows fresh blood, new ideas, broadened vision and dynamism in field of politics. On the contrary,Constitution of Pakistan gives a free hand to opportunists. I being a citizen of Pakistan with due respect to the Constitution and remaining within its ambit want to contribute towards improvement of Constitution. I am unable to raise my voice owing to existing electoral system. I know the issue I am trying to raise will face serious obstruction. I am also apprehensive that after sending this letter to your good office my safety is likely to be jeopardized. Still in the interest of justice, benefit of people, my rights under Article 19 and upholding the true ideology of this country,I am putting these few recommendations which may be considered for amendment of constitution though I have no ideas as to how these recommendations will have a fair audience and how it will get the required two third majority needed to amend Constitution. I request ,your good self’s guidance for proceeding further.

I propose the following in Article 62(b) Constitution of Pakistan

(b) he is, in the case of the National Assembly, not less than twenty-five years of age and is enrolled as voter in electoral roll in-

(i) the constituency of candidacy, for election to a general seat or a seat reserved for non-Muslim; and
(ii) …..
(iii) should have lived in the geographical boundaries of constituency of candidacy for at least three years immediately preceding the election and should continue to live in the same geographical perimeter, till completion of term with the House.
(iv) Should be residing in the province of candidacy for five years immediately preceding the elections and residing in Pakistan for 10 years immediately preceding the elections.
(v) Should not hold citizenship or residency of any other foreign state or should not have affirmed of acknowledges allegiance to, a foreign state;

Proposal for Article 63(1)

(a)……..
………..
(s) will not be eligible if he has been member of National Assembly or Senate for two terms.


By accommodating these clauses Article 223(2) will demand an amendment and Article 113 will automatically stand corrected.

Thanking you and looking forward to your able guidance.



Yours Sincerely,