Pakistan's Constitutional Shenanigans

All Roads Lead to the Establishment

By LIAQUAT ALI KHAN Counterpunch May 8, 2008

Pakistan's constitutional shenanigans permit the fox to eat the lion. Invoking the non-existent powers of the Army Chief last November under a declaration of emergency rule, Pervez Musharraf dismissed sixty high court judges and implanted the dismissal order in the Constitution as an amendment. The order/amendment reads: “A Judge including the Chief Justice, of the Supreme Court, a High Court or Federal Shariat Court who had, not been given or taken oath under the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007, had ceased to hold office on and with effect from the 3rd day of November, 2007.” That a single person can amend the Constitution is egregious. Even more egregious is the demand that the democratically elected Parliament, if it wishes to restore the sacked judges, must repeal the order/amendment with the constitutionally required “votes of not less than two-thirds of the total membership of (each) House.”

Furthermore, the President is armed with the disreputable 58 (2) (b) constitutional power - a provision that General Zial ul Haq inserted in the Constitution - to dissolve the National Assembly if in his opinion a situation has arisen in which the Government of the Federation cannot be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and an appeal to the electorate is necessary. Even though Musharraf, who occupies the Presidency through constitutional manipulations, is unlikely to dissolve the newly elected National Assembly in the near future, the new Coalition government which has taken office is frightened by what it calls “the Establishment.”

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