Since its very existence, the Parliament of this country faces the challenge of control and authority due to the underperformance of its lawmakers. The Parliament of my country has a history of weaker prevalence over executive and judiciary and for enforcement of laws in letter and spirit. Merely making and unmaking laws and issuance of orders cannot serve any purpose unless and until their effective implementation is ensured by the Parliament.
For a long time now, Parliament has ceased its role to oversee the implementation of its legislation and orders effectively, and due to this very reason, executives have got a free hand to do things of their own free will. This concession, given to executives has cost this society heavily as they feel free to circumvent the matters according to their whims and wishes without any reprimand. One of the prime responsibilities of lawmakers is to save their people from the colourful exercise of the executive’s power because safeguarding the public interest is one of the prime responsibilities of parliamentarians whom people elect through a vote to safeguard their rights.
In a democratic system, ministers have their role both in legislature and executive but they seldom do justice to their legislations as an executive.
During the last 75 years we have seen amazing socio-economic development around the world but this country, along with a few others, has gone to the wall and even after 75 years of our independence, we cannot cite a single example of our success and splendour in the socio-economic and politico-judicial field.
The second failure that has undermined the supremacy of Parliament is the lackadaisical role of parliamentary committees that are meant to examine the expenditures, administration, delegated legislation, public petitions and policies of the ministry concerned and its associated public bodies. Unfortunately, parliamentary committees’ performance, with some periodic exceptions to Public Accounts Committee, (PAC) is not up to the mark and they have not played their role to redress people’s grievances at large. On the contrary, these committees have left people at the mercy of the executive and the free-willed executive, without parliamentary checks and balances, often acarbitrarilyner and these acts not only fleer the laws of the land but also harm people’s rights in many ways. Had these parliamentary committees played their role effectively, our society would have been in a better shape today? Not only that but an effective role of parliamentary committees might have lessened the load of civil suits from overburdened courts, where people have to go as a last resort for expensive and delayed justice. As we know, abuse of power is unchecked in our country and this laxity to an executive from Parliament has created room for all kinds of misconduct at the executive level.
In a nutshell, Parliament has failed to devise a mechanism that can redress people’s grievances in a quick, cheaper and effective manner. But as a matter of fact, redressal apart, this Parliament does not allow even entry to a common man into its building, who is the real builder of the present democratic system. If the Parliament, for one reason or the other, is shy of the people, it can set up a secretariat, outside the Parliament for the redressal of people’s grievances. But unfortunately, this Parliament cannot utterly tackle issues of violation that occur from bad governance and the executive’s breach of laws. This is the reason that this Parliament remains under the clouds and has never been able to get its due respect from the people of this country. People’s lack of confidence in Parliament gives way to military dictatorships, for a longer period. The point to realise by the parliamentarians is that neither the proclamation of Supremacy nor the edifice of Parliament can make the Parliament supreme, but it’s only good governance and effective redressal of people’s grievances that can make the Parliament supreme and strong.
The unrest that we see, now and then, within the democratic system is due to this system’s lethargy for solving people’s problems and giving them relief without hurts and hassles.
Even though every member of the Parliament convincingly knows that only money makes the mare go in our society and the majority of the people cannot grease the palm for the acquisition of their rights, the Parliament is deaf and dumb and does nothing to ameliorate this situation. Unfortunately, the Parliament is merely a helpless spectator in all kinds of exploitations spread out from public offices to commodity markets and the reason being that there is no system of effective oversight by Parliament and its committees. Parliamentary supremacy or parliamentary sovereignty means the legislative body is supreme over all other government institutions, including executive and judicial bodies. The Parliament building in itself is nothing but its members who have enormous responsibilities on their shoulders because this Parliament is a representative body of more than 220 million people in this country. But unless and until lawmakers feel their responsibility for oversight and corrective measures to improve the system, no good can be brought about in the country. This is unfortunate that our parliamentarians give preference to verbal indulgence and do not pay heed to deliverance. Considering this very fact that both our population and problems are increasing at rapid speed, a separate parliamentary committee is formed for public petitions or every existing parliamentary committee should fix at least a day in a week for public petitions concerning ministries and their allied departments to give people relief for their grievances and violation of rights.
In the USA, Senate Committees possess broad investigative powers and have oversight of Federal executive agencies. These Committees hold executive officials accountable by reviewing and monitoring executive agency operations, expenditures and implementation. Approximately one-quarter of all Senate Committee hearings relate to oversight.
Here in my country where the problems of the people are manifold in comparison to developed countries, our parliamentary committees are scarcely bothered about the problems of the people, and people go from pillar to post for solutions to their problems. If the Parliament lends a hand to people in trouble, then this Parliament can win people’s confidence. It goes without saying, but I repeat that It’s the people of a country that can make the Parliament supreme and strong, not the parliamentarians alone. The root cause of all our problems is that, in our country, laws are weaker for the strong and stronger for the weak. In other words, powerful people are stronger than Parliament and its laws and it’s only the weak that go to the wall. But this is the time when the custodians of the Constitution and Parliament should put an end to blind man’s buff and take some proactive steps to make the Parliament and the people of Pakistan strong. Otherwise, the passive obedience of the people, I am sure, will not last long and for this reason, politicians, especially the in-house politicians, should review their role by taking wise measures and coming up with people’s expectations, before it’s too late to mend.