Talk of a long term caretaker govt ultra vires of the Constitution.

ISLAMABAD    -   In the wake of on-going speculations of installing an extended technocratic caretaker setup to take tough deci­sions to revive tanking econo­my, a seasoned politician of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) also opposed the idea with the warning that any such move will cause more political instabil­ity in the country.

“If such a technocrat govern­ment is installed, it will open the floodgates of political instability which will have a corresponding effect on the already worsening economic situation,” said for­mer chairman Senate and PPP stalwart Mian Raza Rabbani in a statement here on Friday.

Senator Rabbani, whose party – PPP – is also part of the ruling coalition in the centre, also cen­sured the government function­aries by saying that they should refrain from making sugges­tions of unconstitutional forms of government. The remarks of the ruling party senator came a day after opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former speaker National Assem­bly Asad Qaiser said that such a proposal was formally discussed with him by the members of the federal government.

Earlier this week, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that PTI out rightly rejected the talks of installing a technocratic setup in the centre for two and a half years by sending the incumbent ruling alliance led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) packing and termed the idea a ‘joke.’

Senator Rabbani in his remarks argued that the talk of a techno­crat caretaker government or a long term caretaker government was ultra vires of the Constitu­tion. He added that any such proposal should not only be con­demned but also resisted.

He argued that the Constitution provided for a caretaker cabinet in terms of its Article 224, saying that such a cabinet is activated only on the dissolution of the Assembly on completion of its term. In other case, if the Assembly is dissolved under Article 58 or Article 112 of the Constitution, then the Presi­dent or the Governor, as the case may be, shall appoint a caretaker cabinet in consultation with the Prime Minister and or Chief Min­ister and the Leader of the Op­position in the outgoing National Assembly or Provincial Assembly, he said while quoting the relevant Article of the Constitution.

The Constitution further pro­vides that if the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister, as the case may be, and the Leader of the Op­position in the National Assem­bly or the Provincial Assembly cannot arrive at an agreement, then the provisions of Article 224 A shall be triggered.

“There is no other provision in the Constitution for a caretaker cabinet nor can any such provi­sion be provided for by way of subordinate legislation,” Rab­bani emphasized.

The PPP lawmaker said that it was the time that they should stop making Pakistan “a laborato­ry and produce test tube systems which have failed.” He added that till now, many forms of govern­ment including military dictator­ship, quasi-military dictatorship, Presidential form of government, unelected Majlis-e-Shoora, tech­nocrat government and elections through basic democracies have at one time or another been ex­perimented with but all were doomed to fail. He further said that hybrid democracy, quasi-parliamentary form of govern­ment, party-less elections, and quasi Presidential form of gov­ernment have also been tested in the country but to no avail.