Ishaq Dar becomes Pakistan's Deputy PM, the post which isn't part of the Constitution | Know How

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister of the country sparking severe criticism from the opposition.

According to the notification released by the Prime Minister’s office, the appointment was made by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “with immediate effect and until further orders" and came at a time when PM Shehbaz and Dar along with other top leaders of the ruling regime are in Saudi Arabia to attend the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) special meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy.

However, the appointment garnered severe criticism from opposition parties, especially Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). On Monday, the party which was founded by former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the “Sharifs are distributing key national posts within the family”.

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Why the condemnation?

While reacting to the news, Special Assistant to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister For Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif said that the constitution of Pakistan does not have any provision regarding the post of the deputy PM. He also called it completely “unnecessary”.

The same sentiments were also echoed by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob who termed the move “an extra-constitutional step that carries no substantial value”.

“This just indicates intra-party tensions and competition for influence. It is not an admirable step because, at this serious juncture of our national life and the lowest point of our economic condition, we should be focusing on substantive issues rather than taking trivial and inconsequential decisions,” Mehboob told The News International.

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A fair criticism

The announcement and the criticism that followed begged the question if the post is constitutional or not.

The post of the Deputy Prime Minster is “purely symbolic and non-constitutional”. The position does not hold any specific authority and is created only to ceremonially protect the space of the prime minister in his/her absence.

While the deputy prime minister does not carry out any particular responsibilities, he/she is granted oversight over a number of ministries in the cabinet. The deputy PM also works in his/her capacity as a “senior to the federal minister”.

However, in the legal sphere, the validity of the post has been questioned multiple times. On 28 June 2012, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the validity of the post.

The petitioner, Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi requested the court to dismiss the post altogether since the mention of the position does not exist in the country’s constitution.

In the same year, an advocate named Tariq Aziz also filed a writ in the Lahore High Court (LHC). Aziz argued that the position goes against the Article 91 of the constitution.

The article mentioned above states that there “shall be a Cabinet of Ministers, with the Prime Minister at its head, to aid and advise the President in the exercise of his functions.” Hence, a deputy PM being the head of federal cabinet ministers instead of the Prime Minister makes the whole thing unconstitutional.

Past examples

This is not the first time Pakistan has seen a deputy PM. In fact, Dar became the fourth Pakistani politician to be the deputy Prime Minister of the country. Here are the names of people who held the post in the past:

• Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - The firebrand former premier of Pakistan served as the country’s first Deputy PM in 1971. Apart from the foreign ministry portfolio, Zulfikar was appointed to the post under General Agha Yahya Khan (1917–80), who overthrew Ayub Khan in 1969. After the independence of Bangladesh, he took over Yahya Khan’s position as the president of the country. He eventually assumed the Prime Minister’s office after a constitutional amendment.

• Nusrat Bhutto - The former First Lady of Pakistan served as the Deputy PM of the country from 1989 to 1990. She served as the first deputy PM in her daughter’s cabinet.

• Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi - The seat remained vacant for a very long time and before Dar took the role, the last deputy Prime Minister of the cash-strapped country was Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, then of PML-Q, who was appointed to the position in June 2012.

If Elahi’s appointment attracted several legal cases, Dar’s appointment could lead to the same thing given the ongoing political turmoil that has engulfed the country.