Last week we discussed a nation’s failure to sustain rule-of-law. This week, we examine a nation’s understated success story. In April, Pakistan found itself in a constitutional crisis instigated by its prime minister. This crisis, however, resulted in a positive step forward for the country.
Pakistan is a nation of 220 million people in south Asia. Its prime minister, Imran Khan, was a cricket star and jetsetter whose popularity began to fade as he struggled to control inflation, ballooned foreign debt, and ignored other economic woes. To bolster his popularity, he started whipping up nationalistic and religious fervor. Days before parliament was going to vote him out of office, he dissolved it, effectively cancelling the vote. Opposition leaders ran to the Supreme Court, condemning the act as unconstitutional. After four days of hearings and deliberation, the Court unanimously ruled that Khan’s actions were illegal, and that the vote must be held. The next day, Khan announced that he would not accept the vote. Police and paramilitary troops blanketed the capital of Islamabad, expecting an uprising, whichever way the vote went. After long-winded, rambling speeches by Khan’s cronies in parliament, the vote got underway around midnight and finished around 1:30 a.m., ousting the prime minister.
As I mentioned last week, Americans take rule-of-law for granted since we have never known anything else, having inherited it from England. Other countries still struggle to develop the mindset needed to firmly establish it. Pakistan took a major step forward. It was able to oust a bad prime minister using the rule-of-law, rather than having the military step-in. This is the first time in its history, which began in 1947, that a prime minister was not removed by a coup or some other nefarious legal affair. The system finally worked.
Pakistanis are moving on with life. The capital of Islamabad had been filled with armed troops, but they weren’t needed. There were no riots to put down, no armed insurrections, no coups nor countercoups. Power changed hands through peaceful process. By maintaining the rule-of-law, they ousted the prime minister and became stronger for it. A step forward indeed.
Source:
Pamela Constable, “Pakistani Premier is Ousted by Lawmakers,” Washington Post, 10 April 2022, A1; see also https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/09/pakistan-imran-khan-vote/
Photo: Muhammed Semih Ugurlu / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images file
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