From day one, General Perevez Musharraf has taken over the reins of the country, he has been taking about creating inter-provincial harmony. It is now well over five years that the purpose could not be achieved so much so that the province of Balochistan is in the grip of serious crisis since the close of the last calendar year. Two parliamentary committees have been attending to the issues and talking to the Baloch leadership. One committee, headed by senator Wasim Sajjad, attended to the matters relating to the constitutional issues.
The print media (3rd May) gives the impression that 29 subjects from the concurrent list are proposed to be handed over to the province to give more provincial autonomy to them. When the 1973 constitution was enacted, it was envisaged that the concurrent list will be abolished after ten years i.e. in 1983 and the relative subjects will stand transferred to the provinces. But as the constitution at that time stood suspended under the Zia martial law, it could not be done.
Later four civilians governments came into power but they did not pay any attention to the issue because there is the general tendency with our rules that when they are in power, they wish to keep everything in their grip. The same is true with the present General. He only talked about provincial harmony off and on but did nothing concert.
Now that the things appear to be taking positive shape, why to transfer only 29 subjects from the concurrent list to the provinces? Why should we not do away with that list and transfer all the subjects enumerated therein to the provinces?
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