Public Participation in the Government

Public Participation in the Government

Public participation is an essential attribute of the Islamic political system. There is no place in Islam for such a political order where only a single person or a specific set of persons have authoritarian or totalitarian rule. Even the Prophet (s.a.w.) (i.e. the highest authority in Islam) was commanded by the Almighty God to have consultation with the community of believers and extract their opinion in public matters[1]. Similarly, it has been categorically pointed out in the Quran that the believers (in Islamic Values) are to decide their collective affairs through mutual consultation[2]. However, the Quran leaves it to the believers to decide themselves whether the system of their participation in the proposal, development and creation of subsidiary laws, in the light of the Supreme Law given by the Almighty in the Quran, should be direct through initiatives or referendum or indirect through their representatives. The principle of consultation is applicable both in legislative and executive matters, whatever suitable mode may be adopted in either case.



[1] Al-Quran Surah 3: Verse 159

[2] Al-Quran Surah 42: Verse 38

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