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.