Comment: Charter of Democracy trashed by its signatories

ISLAMABAD: The PMLN and PPP had pledged in the Charter of Democracy (CoD) that they would neither join any military sponsored government nor solicit the support of military to come into power or to dislodge a democratic government.

Generally referred by both the political parties as a great achievement, the CoD also envisages, “All contesting political parties will be ensured a level playing field in the elections by the release of all political prisoners and the unconditional return of all the political exiles. Elections shall be open to all the political parties and political personalities.”

Regarding the impartiality of the caretaker governments, the CoD said there shall be a neutral caretaker government to hold free, fair, and transparent elections. The members of the said government and their immediate relatives shall not contest elections. The CoD appears to have been seriously violated or ignored by both the political parties ever since its signing. Musharraf’s NRO for the PPP was the first major violation, which later became a routine and many critically important provisions of the CoD were openly violated.

Regarding the civil-military relations, the Charter’s unimplemented provision says, “The ISI, MI and other security agencies shall be accountable to the elected government through Prime Minister Sectt, Ministry of Defence, and Cabinet Division respectively. Their budgets will be approved by DCC after recommendations are prepared by the respective ministry. “

It pledged, “The political wings of all intelligence agencies will be disbanded. A committee will be formed to cut waste and bloat in the armed forces and security of the country. All senior postings in these agencies shall be made with the approval of the government through respective ministry.”

The CoD also promised that military land allotment and cantonment jurisdictions will come under the purview of defence ministry and a commission shall be set up to review, scrutinise and examine the legitimacy of all such land allotment rules, regulations, and policies along with all other cases of state land allotment including those of military urban and agriculture land allotments to hold those accountable who have indulged in malpractices, profiteering, and favouritism.

Despite the signing of the CoD, governance in Pakistan during the PPP and PMLN governments remained bad. They had, however, committed, “Governance will be improved to help the common citizen, by giving access to quality social services like education, health, job generation, curbing price hike, combating illegal redundancies, and curbing lavish spending in civil and military establishments as these cause great resentment amongst the teeming millions. We pledge to promote and practice simplicity, at all levels.”

These two parties also failed even to reform NAB about which they had promised in the CoD, “Accountability of NAB and other Ehtesab operators to identify and hold accountable abuse of office by NAB operators through perjury and perversion of justice and violation of human rights since its establishment.

It also vowed, “To replace politically motivated NAB with an independent accountability commission.”

The CoD also included the provision, “All military and judicial officers will be required to file annual assets and income declarations like Parliamentarians to make them accountable to the public.