Lessons from Trump’s second impeachment It took a couple of centuries before the promise made in Declaration of Independence could be realised The writer is a former caretaker finance minister and served as vice-president at the World Bank There are good reasons why citizens of a country such as Pakistan should follow — and possibly learn — from the constitutional struggles being waged in the United States at this time. The American Constitution was written and adopted in 1788 by what were then the 13 colonies of Great Britain. They rebelled against the British crown then worn by King George III and took up arms to fight the colonial power. A rag tag army headed by General George Washington fought a series of wars and was able to prevail even though the British brought reinforcements recruited as mercenaries from Germany. A group of politically influential figures assembled in Philadelphia, then the largest American city, and wrote and approved a number of documents. Among them was the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. Contemporary Americans know the following lines the best: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.”