Both the offices of Prime Minister and President entail several hundreds of millions of rupees to maintain, we as a poor country with half of our population living below the poverty line, are supporting a powerful Prime Minister as head of the state and powerless president! Being a third world country with tremendous security problems we need a large body of people only to provide security to these two political players. I am sure that most of our elected politicians don’t know much about Islam or Islamic history because we believe that when it is our time only then will we die.
The poor man is burdened under the herculean weight of terms such as ‘Circular Debt’, IMF loans and the ever increasing weight of lofty positions such as a useless and corrupt President. Can anyone justify such actions? All the above acts have been performed by corrupt officials who were given power. Our history is full of the stories of Khulfai-Rashdeen, during whose time the Caliph or Amir-ul-Momneen was elected by the people, yet he was not subservient to the views of his Majlis-e-Shoora (administrative body), as he held veto power to decide against the views of his Shoora albeit in public interest.
As such it would be better if the office of President was abandoned through a constitutional amendment or the Prime Minister is designated as the President to save crores of rupees on maintaining the twin offices of Prime Minister’s house and the Presidency that we can ill afford. Imagine the exchange rate of our rupee which stood about three rupees for a $ at independence and now it stands at Rs. 109 for a U.S$. Such has been our financial state of affairs that demands better economic management. Such waste and show, which was the downfall of the Mughal Empire, is being displayed again, lack of law implementation, favoritism and no accountability has brought us close to disaster.
DR.MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI,
Lahore, September 26.