The opposition lawmakers in Senate on Thursday severely criticised the government for what they called 'undermining' the Council of Common Interests (CCI), saying that just three meetings after the ruling government took over in 2013 reflects the Council has no importance to it.
According to the MPs, delaying the meeting of the CCI after every 90 days - a constitutional requirement - the government has violated the constitution, besides infringing upon the rights of the smaller provinces.
They said that the rules clearly states that the CCI should hold meeting within 90 days, while the government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) called hardly three meetings of the CCI since it came into power in 2013.
Taking part in the discussion on the CCI report, Senator Farhatullah Babar of Pakistan People's party (PPP) called for taking up the issues of China Pakistan Economic Corridor and the equal rights of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the federal government over oil and gas discovered in the province.
He said that the CCI after 18th amendment had fundamentally altered the power balance between federal government and the provinces but the provinces had not yet fully appreciated this huge shift of power in their favour.
Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) declared the CCI report tantamount to breach of the house privilege, as it contained no details of the meeting, besides having numerous grammatical mistakes.
"It's supposed to contain some information, some insight but there is nothing in the report for us to discuss. This sort of attitude must change and the report should have all the information about the council's meetings...the rights of the provinces should be safeguarded," he added.
Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini of Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), said that the indifferent attitude of the government towards the people of Balochistan will give birth to anarchy and lawlessness.
He said that the issues and the rights of the Baloch, for which they have been struggling since independence from different platforms, are not being addressed by the respective governments, adding that the CCI must not ignore the issues which the federal government can resolve through the platform of CCI.
Senator Taj Haider of PPP came down hard on the government for wilfully delaying as it has called only three meeting of the Council. He called upon the opposition senators to reject CCI report, saying that it works against its mandate for which it was created.
Haider stated that without calling meeting of National Economic Council to discuss 50 percent representation of the provinces in the boards of governors of companies running under the federal government in oil and gas field, besides all the agreements and leases of gas and oil signed without consultation of the provinces is against the spirit of CCI.
The PPP senator said that the meeting of CCI was not convened for one year, during which so many unconstitutional decisions were taken.
"The syllabus of schools and distribution of Zakat money, etc - issues which completely fall in the purview of the provinces - are being discussed in CCI meeting, which an infringing in provinces' rights," he lamented.
He also said that the unconstitutional steps being taken by the federal government will weaken the federation and the need of the hour is to put a full stop to it before it is too late.
Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq of PML-N declared the CCI report a good step forward, saying that the government is making all-out efforts to unite all the federating units. She called upon the opposition political parties to acknowledge the good things which the government had done so far.
Senator Saifullah Magsi of PPP said that the constitutional mechanisms such as CCI have failed to ensure the rights to smaller provinces like Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The young Baloch senator sarcastically remarked that the people of Balochistan had no option but to bear the indifferent attitude of the federal government, saying that any move to raise voice for their right by Baloch will be no different than the murder of Nawab AZkbaer Khan Bugti.
Winding up the debate Riaz Hussain Pirzada, federal minister for provincial co-ordination, said that since the democratic process is passing through an evolution process and the lawmakers should ignore minor things like typographical mistakes, etc.
He said that in presence of chief ministers like Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Pervez Khattak and Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, it is simply out of question that anybody can dare infringing upon the rights of their respective provinces, as all the four chief ministers are the members of the CCI.
Comments
Comments are closed.