Next President: KP deserves this august slot Iftikhar Ahmad Yousafzai The term of office of President Asif Ali Zardari is soon coming to an end and preparations for election of the next president are underway. The office of the president is the most exalted and revered in the constitutional structure of Pakistan because its incumbent is the Head of the State and symbol of the unity of the federation. The 18th constitutional amendment has taken all real and substantial powers from this office which were some times back available to its incumbents such as Ziaul Haq, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Farooq Leghari and, last but not the least, General Musharraf. In the present constitutional dispensation, the President is just a figure head, titular Head of the State, dependent for the exercise of his official powers on the advice of the Prime Minister and cabinet members. But this fact does not derogate upon the exalted position of or reverence attached with office. Heads of State in all parliamentary democracies enjoy extreme esteem and reverence although real centres of powers and authority, in this form of government, is the Prime Minister and his cabinet who are elected by and are responsible to popularly elected House of the Parliament, in the case of Pakistan the National Assembly. All real powers and authority which President Zardari enjoyed, after the passage of the 18th amendment up to expiry of the tenure of the PPP dominated government in April, 2013, was not due to his constitutional powers as president, but due to his position as virtually the supreme leader of the PPP with absolute powers, including that of nominating the Prime Ministers and ministers, and making policies. The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) has been kept deprived of any substantial shares in the power equation in the country for the last so many years. Since Ghulam Ishaq Khan (1988 – 93) as president and Gohar Ayub Khan (1990 – 93) as Speaker of the National Assembly, the KPK has not been fortunate enough to have one of its sons or daughters got to any one of these exalted offices. None of its sons or daughters has ever become a Prime Minister, elected or caretaker, in the history of Pakistan. Balochistan, the smallest of the province in terms of population, is better-off than KPK in this respect because it has had two Prime Ministers, one elected and the other the caretaker. Sindh has, since 1999, two Presidents, one Prime Minister and one speaker of the National Assembly. Similarly, the Punjab, the largest of the four provinces in terms of population, has had, during the same period, four Prime Ministers, including the three months tenure of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, and one Speaker. We see that in the last 20 years of our national history, our province has not been provided with an opportunity to serve the nation in any of the top most exalted positions. This is despite the fact that in the said period it was this province which suffered the most in terms of human and material losses in the war against terrorism and extremism. It is high time that some psychological compensation of this loss was made and the sacrifices rendered by this province were recognized by getting one of its sons elected as the next President. The three main contenders in the coming presidential elections will be the PML-N, the PTI and the PPP. The latter two are taking part in this election just to be in the arena and not leave the field open for the former, sure that they are not going to win. That is why they have fielded those persons as their candidates who are not the real power wilder in their respective parties. If these parties were sure of winning this election, then surely they would not have nominated their present contenders. The PML-N nominee for this office will surely get elected due to its majority in the Electoral College which composed of two Houses of the Parliament and four Provincial Assemblies. That is why it is paying great attention to this matter, and has not yet made up its mind and consultation in this respect are going on within the party and with other parties. But indications are that its nominee form this top slot will be from one of the smaller provinces so as to remove their sense of deprivation. There is no dearth of able, dedicated and sincere leaders of the PML-N in KPK. Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Sar Anjam Khan, Mehtab Abbasi, Pir Sabir Shah and Abdus Subhan Khan, to name a few, are the leaders of the ruling party in the province who remained loyal to their party and leader, Nawaz Sharif, in times of tribulations and spurned all offers from the military dictator to betray him. One of these dignitaries may be considered for this august office. It will be a worthy decision, both politically and morally, it will go a long way in removing the sense of deprivation and alienation of the people of this province. This is not an advocacy of provincialism as Pakistani based nationalism should be uppermost in our political thinking. This is just to redress a just grievance on the part of the federation for the redressing of which an opportune moment has come.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 05:00:26 +0000
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