Morality or political winning: Which one is more significant? – by Nadeem Khan
A member of Parliament is disqualified if:
“.. he is found guilty of a corrupt or illegal practice under any law for the time being in force; ”
“.. he has been convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction on a charge of corrupt practice, moral turpitude or misuse of power or authority under any law for the time being in force;”
The stance taken by Nawaz Sharif and his close crony Justice Khawaja Sharif of Lahore High Court is commendable. It seems that both of them are devoted to the salvation of democracy, moral equilibrium in the social system and supremacy of law and justice to convert Pakistan into a ‘morally upright’ welfare state.
Selected junk of the judiciary and politics are overtly saving the elected junk of the country.
Khawaja Sharif’s intentional delay in passing decisions on the year long list of PML-N ministers due to their fraudulent degree cases or any other case that is referred to him against PML-N is being put willfully in the waiting list. The scenario is again and again being highlighted in media, specially and exclusively by Mubashir Luqman very strongly, in his programs ‘Point Blank’ with various conclusive and irrefutable evidences against the disqualified huge lot of PML-N. But we will see all the above junk shortly in the assemblies with all their past glories.
On the other front, Prime Minister’s recent visit to Jamshed Dasti’s area of candidature and his appreciating remarks for Dasti and his political efforts, as well as providing him the opportunity, again, to be elected from the same area.
Thousands of participants listening to yesterday’s famous sermon of prime minister must now follow the trait of their great moral leader, Mr. Dasti, as his act is being praised by all in the hierarchy of the party, in the name of democracy. Prime Minister’s previous actions were already very laudable, as he is famously generous enough to provide job opportunities to all the rejected, thrown outs, indicted and corrupt masses as ‘Special Advisors’ in his regime.
In all the forms, the morality is ignored and it has become pertinent, now, to pass 19 or 20 amendment in the constitution, to debar the ‘morality clauses’ all together. Such an amendment, surely be supported by all the current political parties and may be passed, unanimously, with more than 2/3rd majority. The reason is understandably simple, as many people ‘rightly’ comment that even if a corrupt candidate is duly elected or selected by people of Pakistan, then he has the right to rule on them and must not be disqualified by any other law, as the ‘people’s mandate’ has more weight and importance rather than the mere morality.
I love my country and its constitution, as at one place it disqualifies some body from holding a position due to corrupt practices and at the same time provide immunity against law as well. When the immunity is not available for ‘other specifics’, we have our supreme political leaders and supreme judiciary to provide them the relief. The matter is simple, if you are illiterate, it’s OK for the people but at least ‘DON’T LIE’. If lies are OK with all, then let the system roll on like this, as we are in the making of a new resplendent history.
Dear Nadeem, what morality are you talking about? It will take us 2-3 generations before we can uphold morals as part of our embedded national trait.
Dear Munsif, let the start be from our generation. Without morality & honor within, a human being, a social system, a political party, a country, a nation is just a piece of trash. There got to be a start someday, better be today. Otherwise the bomb of corruption will self destruct our existance. Simply saying ‘NO’ to wrong (how much hard it may be in this era) and ‘Yes’ to right (how much losses it may entail) , by keeping ourselves beyond our personal and political likes, will do the trick.
I remember some shers of Ameer Ul Islam Hashmi ‘ Iqbal Teray Des Ka kia Haal Sunao’ where he said
– bebaki o Haq goi say ghabrata hai momin
– makkari o rubahipay itrata hai momin
– jis rizq say parwaz main kotahi ka dar ho
– woh rizq baray shoq say ab khata hai momin
– Makkari o Ayyari o Ghaddari o Hejhaan
– Yeh chaar anasir hon to banta hai musalman
Editorial: Gilani’s flip-flop
One the one hand Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani says that parliament is being disgraced by the issue of fake degrees of parliamentarians, on the other he feels no qualms about addressing an election rally on behalf of a proved cheater Jamshed Dasti, who had admitted before the Supreme Court of Pakistan that his degree was fake and had resigned from his seat in the National Assembly. What is even more regrettable is that the Pakistan People’s Party’s parliamentary board, which does not seems to care about its party members’ character, again decided to field Jamshed Dasti for a by-election. While defending the PPP’s decision to award the ticket to Jamshed Dasti, Prime Minister Gilani called on other parties not to give tickets to those holding fake degrees. Can there be a better example of double speak? What high moral ground does Mr Gilani have to call upon others to do what his own party is not doing? Perhaps he had better set his own house in order first before lecturing others.
While one does not agree with the condition of a bachelor’s degree for contesting elections for national and provincial assemblies, which tends to limit universal franchise, it was incumbent upon the contestants to follow the election rules and not resort to unfair means. Also, the Election Commission (EC) was expected to verify the academic qualifications of all the candidates to ascertain their verity, given the ease with which forgeries are commonplace in Pakistan. Failure to do so has landed the EC in an unenviable situation, where it still has to deal with 46 election petitions pertaining to fake degrees, filed after the 2008 general election. Moreover, allowing madrassa degree-holders to contest elections further complicated the situation, because neither is the madrassa degree equivalent to the bachelor’s degree issued by our regular education system, nor is there any way to ascertain independently whether the concerned holder had indeed completed his education in a madrassa or not. Thus the ‘graduate assemblies’ plan of General Musharraf was highly flawed, conceptually, in principle, and in implementation.
Although the condition of academic qualification had been lifted in 2008, for future all the political parties, including the PPP, should at least ensure that their respective elected representatives do not have a proven fraudulent character.
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20105\15\story_15-5-2010_pg3_1