In a note titled ‘Future Constitution of Pakistan’, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah wrote the following lines: “Dangers of a Parliamentary Form of Govt – “1. The parliamentary form of government: It has worked satisfactorily in England and nowhere else – and 2. Presidential form of government – (more suited to Pakistan).””
This note – available in File 42 of 1947 – was unsealed by Gen Ziaul Haq, and a copy of it was given to Sharifuddin Pirzada – the former foreign minister. The original note is available in the Jinnah Papers in Islamabad. It was later reproduced on Page 81 of the book titled ‘The Jinnah Anthology’, edited by Liaquat H Merchant and Shariful Mujahid, and published by Oxford University Press (the third edition was published in 2010).
A significant advantage of a presidential system is that it effectively ensures separation of powers between the three arms of the governance system: legislative (parliament), executive (government departments) and the judiciary. This is critically important for a genuine democracy to function. In the present parliamentary form of government, the prime minister controls parliament which may formulate laws suitable for the political interests of the party to which the PM belongs.
The PM also controls the executive and appoints ministers, secretaries and heads of organisations such as NAB, FIA, SECP, State Bank, etc which results in a serious overlap of functions between the legislative and the executive. Pakistan has never had ‘...
Read Full Story: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/928128-change-the-system
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.
