INP-WealthPk

Farhatullah Babar urges state institutions to work within constitutional parameters

August 23, 2017

  ISLAMABAD, Aug 23 (INP): Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Spokesperson, Senator Farhatullah Babar has said that from being merely a 'security driven state' Pakistan had over the years degenerated into a state under dual control. He said that the driver on the steering wheel was visible but the one operating vital controls like the brake, the accelerator and the clutch was not visible. Addressing a seminar organized by SDPI on role of institutions in continuity of democratic system here on Wednesday, Farhatullah Babar said that such a vehicle is fated to meet accident as it is driven along the rough road negotiating tricky social, ethnic and political bends. He said that some found it is easy to lay the blame on the Parliament alone but the parliament can only make laws but the interpretation of law and its implementation was not its responsibility. The Parliament could and did make law to punish abrogation and subversion of the Constitution. If Article 6 was interpreted to permit suspension of the Constitution allowing the state' take over the Parliament could not be held responsible. If someone being tried for treason under Article 6 ran away from the court and sheltered in a hospital unlawfully how the Parliament can be held responsible for it, he asked. Elaborating he said that the Parliament made law in March 2013 disallowing resurrection of banned organizations but some banned outfits have actually resurrected and asked who is responsible for this; the Parliament or someone else? He said that the Senate has made unanimous recommendations to address the issue of missing persons and it was now for other institutions to take further action. Who is responsible for their inaction, he asked? Farhatullah Babar said that democracy will be elusive until all institutions agreed to work within the parameters of the Constitution and abide by the principle of tracheotomy of powers. He also called for across the board accountability of all stratas of society and reversal of tendency to exercise power without responsibility. INP/SB/AJ