HIRTYTHREE Ulema `of various shades and opinions` have disapproved of the proposal of the Basic Principles Committee to set up Boards of Ulema in the Centre and the Provinces in order to advise whether a particular Bill passed by any House of legislature is `repugnant to the Holy Quran and the Sunnah`. So has this newspaper disapproved of that proposal along with many other sections of the public and the Press. But the alternative which the Ulema have suggested is far more dangerous and unacceptable. They want the final right to veto any legislation to vest in themselves. In other words, they are aiming at nothing short of theocracy.

The Ulema have suggested that five of them attached to the Supreme Court should decide whether a law is Islamic or un-Islamic.

The Supreme Court has been mentioned in this connection in a most misleading manner, because the Ulema are not prepared to leave such a decision to a normal Supreme Court composed of the usual judges; they want that five Ulema should comprise a sort of special supreme court for this purpose. We wonder whether the esteemed Ulema who formulated such a proposal after such prolonged deliberations, took the trouble to read the Objectives Resolution from which all the constitutional proposals must necessarily flow. Had they done so they would have read in that Resolution the following: `In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; Whereas sovereignty over the entire Universe belongs to God Almighty alone, and the authority which He has delegated to the State of Pakistan through its people for being exercised within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred Trust; This Constituent Assembly, representing the people of Pakistan, resolves to frame a Constitution for the sovereign independent State of Pakistan; Wherein the State shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives of the people; Wherein the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed.` The Objectives Resolution has clearly laid down that the Constitution-makers of Pakistan should proceed on the basis that as far as the State of Pakistan is concerned, God has delegated His sovereignty to the people of Pakistan, that the powers and the authority of the State (which includes the power of legislation) shall be exercised by the chosen representatives of the people, and that it shall be such a Constitution that in it the principle of democracy shall be fully observed.•