This topic has been a big debate in our country since her creation. I have listed down some of my opinions whilst comparing both forms of government.
Before introducing these forms of Government let us look at the background. Pakistan is an Islamic country, if we go through history, we can reach the government of the First Islamic State of Madinah, when Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) became the ruler of the city.
After his death, Hazrat Abu Bakr (R.A), took over as the Khalifa-tu-Rasullullah, or Khalifa. He was the first among the four pious, rightly guided Caliphs of Islam, who were selected based upon their abilities. Later on this trend came down and the Caliphate came into the hands of particular families which made this term misunderstood among the public. Caliph was supposed to be elected by the people, on the wishes of the people as Islam favors Democracy.
Now the question is what is the most appropriate form of Government for countries like Pakistan? Here the Presidential Form of Government is a term misunderstood among the masses. People relate the Presidential Form of Government with Dictatorship, which is not the case.
The Presidential Form is the Presidential Democracy, in which the people directly elect their President, which means the President has the direct mandate of the people of his country.
However, in the case of the Parliamentary Form of Government, people elect their representatives for the Parliament, then the Parliament decides who will be the Prime Minister and the President, and in that form President, is just a symbolic post.
Today, in Pakistan, we are following the Parliamentary form of Government, in which Parliament has to be powerful, but here, Parliament is not powerful, because the Leader of the House, the Prime Minister doesn’t have enough majority in the Parliament, so that they do any sort of major lawmaking.
In the Presidential Democracy, the President has the Supreme Powers, and because he is elected by the people directly, he has more to work for the people, and that his removal is only possible when there is a vote of impeachment against him, which rarely happens, like in the USA. In the Parliamentary Form of Government, the Parliament votes for the Prime Minister, and if the Parliament decides to bring in a vote of no confidence against the Leader of the House, the Prime Minister, he loses his position, so, Prime Minister is entitled to the decisions of the Parliament and is not free to make any decisions without the consult of the Parliament.
Secondly, as far as our country is concerned, we look upon the leader and not the political parties. People here either admire Imran Khan, or Nawaz Sharif or Bilawal and the Bhuttos and not particularly admire their parties. A big problem here in our country is that we have Baradari system, in which if the Sardar of that Baradari says that you have to vote for a certain party like Nawaz Sharif’s , the whole baradari will vote for Nawaz Sharif ‘s party which means people here don’t have free will to vote, hence, if you want to choose the Parliament, then you need to have free will to vote for your representatives, this way bribery and corruption become common which leads to misgovernance because the people who get elected into the Parliament are mostly illiterate, morally, socially and financially corrupt and incompetent.
The people who vote for them are also mostly illiterate, making matters worse as the people don’t think about who will do good for their country.
They only see the baradari or the person who got their street concreted or the person who gives them a Biryani plate or an amount of money. With that being said, I think that the Parliamentary Democracy is not appropriate for a country like Pakistan.
The countries like the USA, Turkey, Russia, and many others with a proper Presidential Democracy are more developed than the countries who have Parliamentary Democracy such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, which were once a British colony, and it was the British who introduced this system.
Parliament plays an important role in a country, and it’s not that in countries where there is Presidential Democracy don’t have Parliaments, they do like in the USA, we have House of Representatives and Senate, whose job is to only do legislation.
In Turkey, they have a Grand National Assembly, whose job is to do legislation. However, in a country like Pakistan, there should be a Parliament and the Senate, whose job is to do legislation, but they should not have the ultimate decision making power.
There should be a President directly elected by the People and for the People so that he can serve them. As in Pakistan, we look upon the particular individuals, so Presidential System can provide a better way to let your favorite leader rule, by your vote democratically.
Islam gives more importance to the leader, so in my opinion Presidential System is the Islamic way as well, as the President is the supreme leader of the Country with all decision making powers and all the affairs of the State. The presidential form allows the President to choose his cabinet by inducting any expert person for the job.
However, in the parliamentary system you are supposed to choose a Member of Parliament for the post of Minister, and because most people in Parliament are not experts in the concerned Ministries, this leads to incompetence and bad governance.
In Presidential System, the President can appoint any expert person as Minister in the Cabinet, hence it makes the system better as competent people take decisions. Parliament’s role should only be legislation.
The Head of the State must be strong enough to form decisions for the betterment of his country and the people. The leader should not be dependent on the Parliament, but yes, the Parliament should keep a check on the President and his Cabinet.
Concluding my argument, Presidential System is better for a country like mine, where people give more importance to personalities and the system, and secondly, the rate of illiteracy doesn’t let competent people come into Parliament. We need to focus more on literacy and Parliamentary democracy cannot work until there is a 100% literacy rate. The leader of the country must have full authority to run the country.
In the end, I would say, you have all rights to agree or disagree with my opinion.
Pakistan Zindabad!!
Immad Shahid Qureshi
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