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Is it Democracy?
Raza Rabbani’s Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) toiled for nine months and held 75 meetings some lasting for ten hours at a stretch to formulate the 95 changes to be incorporated as the 18th amendment to the1973 constitution. When all looked done and accomplished when MNS dropped the bomb at the last moment. Well, who is this gentleman and how can he do it? Legally and constitutionally asking, what office does he hold in the PML (N) to do what he has done? If none, then in what capacity he held the press conference torpedoing the whole affair? And, ironically, he called such an unexpected move as part of the democratic process! What kind of democracy is this where a person not even an office holder in a political party can over rule every one in the party including the duly appointed party members to the PCCR? Can such a practice be called democratic in any way by any stretch of imagination? Agreed he is the Quaid of the party but does that give him the democratic powers to over rule his own party members to the PCCR who had agreed to the draft bill. Gandhi held the same status and even more in All India Congress but did he ever take any decision over ruling the party officials? He could advise only and it may surprise many that his advice was not always adhered to. He had to resort to Maran Bart (Hunger Strike till death) when his advice to transfer funds from the Reserve Bank of India to newly created Pakistan as her share was not heeded to by the Nehru government. But, here a non-official of a political party is calling the shots entirely all by himself. Or, does he hold some secret office in the party, that we do not know of and which he cannot disclose for the fear of the ten year ban placed upon him to abstain from politics by the Saudi Monarch? And, then we have the cheek to berate the military dictators at our every publ! ic appea rance and dedicate our every action as a service to the masses in the name of democracy.
Is it Democracy? I wonder.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
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