National perspective sharing workshop held

Chairman Pakistan Press Council Raja Mohammad Shafqat Khan Abbasi endorsed here on Friday the suggestion made by the participants of the two-day workshop that efforts should be made to declare April 10 as the Constitution Day of Pakistan.
Organised by the Centre for Civic Education, Pakistan (CCEP) in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the national perspective sharing workshop ended here with a set of recommendations for media organisations to prepare a code of ethics, which could help frame issues in the light of the constitution and cultivate a culture of media monitoring.
Speaking as a chief guest at the workshop Raja Shafqat suggested that all political parties hold study circles for creating awareness about constitutional issues amongst its workers and leaders. "We thank the current government for cleansing the constitution from dictatorial provisions," he said, adding that political parties had a major role to play for the promotion of civil liberties. He lamented the fact that political parties paid no particular attention to the constitution and related matters.
He said, "We need to learn from neighbouring countries like India where they consider freedom of speech and expression like the freedom of press." He said that for the protection of the civil liberties political parties had a major role to play but civil society had also a critical role to play in this regard.
Dr Shamim Zaidi speaking on the occasion said that after the passage of 18th constitutional amendment federating units had now more power, adding that at present any province could announce construction of a big dam and as per constitution no authority could stop it.
She said that the country needs a comprehensive educational system and deplored that for last 64 years there were half a dozen educational curriculums practised due to which Pakistan was still backward. Earlier, Jami Chandio made a detailed presentation about the different constitutions and said that after nine-year of its inception Pakistan got its first constitution in 1956 in which it became for the first time the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He said that it was not a legitimate document as such as it later resulted in the merger of all the provinces of West Pakistan as One Unit.
"The good thing about this constitution was that it declared the country as federal in nature. At the same time there was a flaw in it as it proposed no senate or upper house," he said, adding that the concept of a federation without a senate was ridiculous.
Chandio pointed out two notions typical of all military dictators was how to save Islam and to encroach upon the constitutional sphere. "The 1962 constitution was almost solely framed by General Ayub and the federal form of government was turned into a presidential form of government," he said referring to the 1973 Constitution as the only democratically framed constitution. "It (1973 Constitution) made Pakistan bicameral. The institution of senate was established where provinces are represented irrespective of their population," he said. Andreas Duerr Program Co-ordinator with Hanns Seidel Foundation thanked all the participants of the workshop and on behalf of the Foundation vowed to continue their support to create a civic culture in Pakistan. Fauzia Shaheen of Women Resource Centre and Chairperson of Media and Communication Studies at Fatima Jinnah Women University Dr Shamim Zaidi also made a presentation and underlined the need for working to create awareness about the constitution among the general public.