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Constitution is open to change, seminar told

2015-05-20
KARACHI: Secularism and the Constitution were discussed at a seminar organised by the Society for Secular Pakistan and the Women`s Action Forum at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology on Tuesday.

The event, according to the organisers, was prompted by a rhetorical question raised by the Supreme Court of Pakistan recently that if parliament could make fundamental changes to the Constitution or if it was bound by the basic structure.

Shoaib Ashraf, a Supreme Court lawyer, said the Constitution was a living document and must respond to emerging social and political realities, andwas, therefore, open to change. He said the most critical principle was the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution and the elimination of discrimination among citizens and that lack of secularism amounted to such discrimination. Javed Qazi said the formation of Pakistan was essentially a fight for the rights of minorities, hence the second amendment was unfortunate. He said while the Doctrine of Implie d Limitations positioned limits to how far parliament could change the Constitution, yet India became a secular country through its 42nd amendment. He said the argument of basic structure could be relevant only if we restored the basic structure by remov-ing all distortions brought about in the era of Gen Zia.

Ghulam Mustafa Lakho said the SC was not the right platform for a discussion on whether the country should be secular. He also drew the audience`s attention to the Legal Frameworl< Order of 1970, through which all parliamentarians had to take an oath to preserve and promote Islamic ideology.

Faisal Siddiqui, a Supreme Court lawyer, said Pakistan`s Constitution was neither secular nor theocratic, and that the basic structure doctrine could be qualified as good or bad depending on what it was being invoked for, so it was subjective, whereas it worked as check and balance against fascistmajoritarian impulses. He said the 21st amendment formally recognised sectarianism as an existential threat to Pakistan even though it also instituted military courts.

Afiya Zia said that indigenous Pakistani secularism that existed till 1979 after which it was systematically erased from social and tribal relations by false Islamisation, and currently the real threat to Islam in the country came from sectarian warfare for supremacy and not from secularism. She said the Women`s Action Forum was committed to meeting the common people`s demands for a neutral and equalitybased constitution and for the effort to reclaim secular history.