Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms on Monday decided to restrict its mandate to three subjects and the constitutional reform package would deal with provincial autonomy, 17th amendment and Charter of Democracy (CoD).
The committee, met for the first time after its formation, also sought comments and suggestions from bar associations and civil society organisations for the guidance of the committee in formulating the recommendations for constitutional reforms, said Senator Raza Rabbani who was unanimously elected as chairman of 27-member committee.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Rabbani ruled out the possibility of revisiting the 1973 constitution in totality saying that it would open up too many Pandora boxes. "The 73 Constitution is acceptable to all political parties and the federating units. The committee unanimously agreed that there is no need to revisit the entire constitution," he added.
Rabbani said that bar associations and the civil society organisations have been requested to furnish their proposals within one month. The committee, he said, has also asked the political parties, which have already submitted their draft bills to Senate and the National Assembly secretariats respectively, to bring their draft bills before the committee.
He said that the committee would meet again on July 28 to finalise proposals. The committee, which was formed by the NA Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza in accordance with President Asif Ali Zardari address to the parliament, would submit its recommendations to the Parliament after due deliberations.
Proposals can be submitted to the office of the Chairman of the Committee in the Parliament House till August 1, Rabbani added. Senator Ashaq Dar of Pakistan Muslim League (N) vehemently dispelled the impression that his party was interested in 17th Constitutional amendment repeal because this would have benefited the leadership.
"We also wanted provincial autonomy and implementation of CoD" he said. The meeting also adopted draft rules of procedure for the Constitutional Reforms Committee with consensus. The meeting was attended by Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Privatisation, Rehmatullah Kakar, Minister for Housing and others MNAs.
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