ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed constitutional petitions seeking direction for the prime minister to hold referendum whether people for their welfare want presidential form of government or not?

The SC Registrar Office raised objections that the petitioners have not approached other relevant forums before moving the top court.

The certificates attached with the petitions are not in accordance with the law.

Tahir Aziz Khan, chairman Hum Awam Pakistan, and Dr Sadiq Ali, who has done PhD in turbine design from Ulster University, had filed the petitions under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.

Aziz's stance was that as of March 2020, public debt of Pakistan is estimated to be about Rs42.8 trillion/$256 billion, which is 98.2 percent of its GDP and external debt of Pakistan, is around $112 billion.

Pakistan owes $5.765 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

No doubt, 25 percent of Pakistan's population lives below the poverty line.

At present, the average HDI (Human Development Index) and the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Pakistan is the lowest as compared to other South Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan.

This poor condition shows that the parliamentary system of governance in the country has utterly failed in Pakistan.

He contended due to the present system there is little legislation in the assemblies and the meetings of legislatures often fail due to shortage of quorum.

The monitoring role of the opposition is therefore often compromised.

There is not a complete separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislature, and the Executive head and his ministers are not always competent.

He said that Presidential form of government is suitable for Pakistan because in exercising his powers, the President requires no help from the Parliament to implement his agenda.

The Presidential form of democracy puts the decision-making process on a fast track.

He stated that Turkey made a lot of progress by replacing Parliamentary form of government with the Presidential form. Iran, despite strict economic sanctions by the United States of America and the United Nations, has made a lot of progress and is far ahead of Pakistan financially and politically because of Presidential form of government.

Similarly, Indonesia, Russia and China are all now developed countries because they have adopted presidential form of government.

Almost similar arguments have been adopted by Dr Sadiq Ali in his petition to highlight the failure of the parliamentary form of government in the country, and how it was imperative to cut costs and unify command of public governance.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020