Why CoD is not for this government?

Guest post by Naeem ur Rehman

Charter of Democracy, the most widely used term in the prevailing situation has a major flaw in it. Now the question is what flaw it can have when everyone loves it so much, even the lawyers. The CoD was created for specific personalities, their personal demands and to deal with a specific situation, there was no consideration given to the broader demands and the needs of the people of Pakistan or to a long term benefit to the country. Such documents will always struggle when it comes to its implementation, if a prevailing situation changes ever so slightly. After the tragic death of Benazir Bhutto, this CoD became not only useless to the current government but actually became the biggest hurdle to cross for Mr. Zardari. let’s have a close look at few yet most important clauses of CoD.

“The 1973 Constitution as on 12^th October 1999 before the military coup shall be restored with  the provisions of joint electorates, minorities, and women’s reserved seats on closed party list in the Parliament, the lowering of the voting age, and the increase in seats in parliament and the legal Framework Order, 2000 and the Seventeenth Constitutional Amendment shall be repealed accordingly”

Now if this clause gets implemented, not only Mr. Zardari but all of his bullies like Rehman Malik, will be in grave dilemma of saving their own backs. The opposition/judiciary would make Zardari and Co. run away with the tails between their legs to a political asylum somewhere in Europe.  This was very acceptable to both parties when BB was alive, as she had no plans to involve Asif Zardari in active politics, she never had problems with removing NRO, as there were no such allegations on her. She left Zardari back in Dubai and came to Pakistan alone. The reason was given that he had health problems, and immediately after her death, Zardari not only performed all the tasks for her burail without any health issues, he very actively got involved in mainstream politics also. Maybe at that time he did not even read the CoD and blindly said yes to everything.

“The ban on a “Prime Minister not being eligible for a third term of office will be abolished.”

This was very acceptable to both parties when BB was alive,