Pakistan opposition slams campaign for installing presidential system

Opposition lawmakers in Pakistan have sounded alarm over the ongoing chatter and calls for replacing the country's parliamentary democratic system with a presidential system, demanding a debate on the matter in the National Assembly, Express Tribune reported.

The issue came up during a searing discussion when the opposition condemned what it termed "systematic and planned campaign".

Speaking on the floor on Friday, PML-N lawmaker Ahsan Iqbal said the rumours about presidential form of system were a matter of serious concern, adding it was deplorable that even after the passage of 75 years since the country's inception, there was still no consensus on the parliamentary democracy.

"We do not need any enemy if we are not even capable of reaching a decision on it," the former planning minister said and wondered who was perpetuating the speculations.

"We will never allow anyone to impose any such system," he emphasised.

Earlier on Wednesday, the members of the joint opposition submitted a resolution to the National Assembly Secretariat expressing the resolve to uphold and strengthen the federal parliamentary system in the country as provided in the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan.

Iqbal tweeted an image of the hand-written resolution signed by opposition members on his official social media account with the caption "let's see if it comes on the assembly's agenda on Friday or not".

"When the government, imposed through rigged elections, has ruined the country, then whisperings of imposition of an Indira Gandhi-like emergency and change in the system through various formulas are being heard," wrote Iqbal on his Twitter handle.

Addressing the floor, the PML-N Secretary recalled that presidential system in the past had fuelled grievances which subsequently led to division of the country. 

He noted that the founding fathers of Pakistan had envisaged parliamentary democracy.

"The country was dismantled into two parts during General Yahya Khan's rule. Shaikh Mujeeb had demanded the elimination of martial law from the country before the fall of Dhaka."