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Pakistan’s real issues - Lahore_Real_Estate - 05-08-2010 11:41 AM
Major political parties nominated 30 odd members of the National Assembly and the Senate to represent them in a committee that deliberated for over nine months to produce a document proposing 102 amendments to the constitution. And 292 of the 342 members of the Lower House voted on April 8 in favour of the bill, which was subsequently passed on April 15 by the 104 members of the Senate as the Eighteenth Amendment. Generals Zia and Musharraf had also introduced amendments to the constitution that were presented to Parliament in a similar prescribed manner, albeit under a controlled environment. Those amendments were also passed by the courtesy of the duly elected members most of whom (or their kith and kin) grace our present assemblies.
This time the amendments pertained to national issues and were not specifically carved to benefit an individual, although the Sharif brothers stand to gain in case either of them seeks re-election to the office of prime minister or chief minister for the third time. All deliberations were held clandestinely behind closed doors, where participants were sworn to secrecy and political parties bargained for their interests in the spirit of give and take. The amendments made by the military men were skilfully drafted by their legal brains, several (though not all) of which were person-specific inserted to reinforce, legitimise or prolong the dictatorial rule. The dictators had no need to negotiate as the pliant members followed instructions and the opposition was made practically irrelevant. The current scenario was not too different as the ordinary members raised their hands in approval under instructions from the party hierarchy, without openly debating threadbare each of the provisions that will affect our future generations for some time to come. In neither case the public at large was consulted.
The democratically elected government chose not to repeal in its entirety the Seventeenth Amendment, made by the military dictator that the democratic parties so despise and has in fact retained or modified many of its provisions. The striking of a consensus on issues of varying nature was celebrated as great political wisdom and the coming of age of our civilian system of governance. However, mass agitation immediately followed in Hazara Division where the people demonstrated their rejection of the renaming of NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and also called for a separate Hazara province. The demands for a Seraiki or Bahawalpur province that were airily dismissed, have now assumed a fresh vigour and certain seriousness. A series of such other demands on ethnic, linguistic or administrative bases are likely to be initiated in all four provinces. Petitions have been admitted in the Supreme Court against certain provisions of the Eighteenth Amendment that has ignited an adverse reaction from the parliamentarians, who consider their law making above the purview of the judiciary.