Profoundly Historic

The National Assembly on Thursday made history by passing unanimously "The Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Bill, 2010, even surpassing a two-thirds majority (292-member) that the bill required for its passage to remove distortions from the 1973 Constitution. All the 292 MNAs present in the 342-member National Assembly voted to approve the 102-clause bill. No one voted against.
After translating the Bill into law, most of the powers concentrated in the office of the President would be transferred to the Parliament and the Prime Minister. Repeal of Article-58 (2b), 17th Amendment, Legal Framework Order (LFO), Concurrent List, deletion of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq's name from the Constitution, a mechanism for the appointment of judges of superior judiciary and renaming of NWFP are major amendments.
The legislators in the Lower House of the Parliament welcomed the bill's passage with desk-thumping applause and slogans. The members of PPP slamming fists on desks in celebration raised slogans "Jeay Bhutto, Jeay Bhutto" and "Nara-e-Nara Bhutto" on the passage of the Clause 94 of the Bill that seeks to effect an amendment to Article-270 of the Constitution to omit the name of Zia-ul-Haq from the Constitution.
The PML-N parliamentarians raised slogans, "Musharraf ko Phansi dau", and "Mian Nawaz Sharif Zindabad" on the repeal of LFO and declaring the emergency of October 1999 as illegal and unlawful. Similarly, the members of MQM raised slogans in favour of Altaf Hussain on the abolishment of the Concurrent List and the entries thereto from 1 to 47.
However, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) MNAs Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf from Mansehra-I, Farzana Mushtaq Ghani from Abbottabad Engineer Amir Muqam, Marvi Memon and Kashmala Tariq, strongly opposed the new name of the NWFP. Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf and Farzana Mushtaq Ghani even wore black arm bands to express their protest against the renaming of NWFP.
Sardar Shahjehan Yousaf said the people of Hazara Division and other areas were protesting against province's new name, Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa. "My province should be re-named without any prejudice or bias. The people of this areas have supported the ideology of Pakistan and the two-nation theory while the ANP was against it," he said.
He said the people of these areas always supported PML-N but it deserted them on this historic day. "We do not want separation from the NWFP, but the PML-N and PPP did not support us and harmed our ideology. Now we demand a separate province of Hazara," he said.
Farzana Mushtaq Ghani said the people were protesting against the name of Pakhtoonkhwa. She claimed the ANP had supported Indian National Congress in the past and it sought to carve out a separate country, "Pakhtoonistan". "The task which was not accomplished by ANP and Congress was helped accomplish by the PML-N," she claimed.
Amir Muqam of the PML-Q also opposed the name of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and termed it a part of a compromise "deal". He also termed it a "big conspiracy" against the province. While presenting amendment to clause three of the Bill, Kashmala Tariq said the PML-Q always supported the two-nation theory in the past and now it demanded a referendum on the new name of the province.
While opposing the amendment, the Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms and Advisor to the Prime Minister, Mian Raza Rabbani said the name of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa was given to the NWFP with consensus. He said this new name had already been recommended by provincial assembly through a resolution.
Speaker National Assembly rejected the PML-Q amendment with a majority of the House. As many as 264 votes were cast in the favour while 20 were against it. During a vote on this clause, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, Captain (R) Mohammad Safdar and Sahibzada Muhammad Fazal-e-Kareem of PML-N did not cast vote and staged a walk-out from the House.
Similarly, Kashmala Tariq presented amendments to Clauses-6, 8, 16, 101 of "The Constitution (Eighteen Amendments) Bill, 2010", but Mian Raza Rabbani opposed them. These amendments were rejected by the majority of the House. The House passed all the clauses one by one with more than a two-thirds majority.
According to the statement of objects and reasons of "The Constitution (Eighteen Amendments) Bill, 2010," The Constitution of 1973 was not implemented in letter and spirit. The democratic system was derailed at different times. The non-democratic regimes which came into power at different times centralised all authority and thus altered the structure of the Constitution from a Parliamentary form to a quasi-Presidential form of Government through the Eighth and Seventeenth Constitutional Amendments.
Thus, the equilibrium established by the Constitution between various organs of State was disturbed which led to weakening of democratic institutions. This inter alia deprived the Provinces of their legitimate constitutional rights in governance and utilisation of their natural resources.
It also resulted in absence of rule of law, lack of confidence in the judicial system and distance between the Provinces and the Federation. It was, in this background that the Charter of Democracy was signed between Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed and Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on 14th May, 2006.