Former Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani on Thursday said that after the 18th amendment, the offices of both president and governors have only ceremonial roles and President Dr Arif Alvi violated the Constitution by holding the Governors' Conference without the advice of the Prime Minister.
Speaking at a presser along with National Party Senator Hasil Bizenjo, he said that after 18th amendment, the powers of the President have been devolved to the Prime Minister and the Parliament, making the offices of the president and the governor only ceremonial.
"The President has no discretionary powers and he is bound to act upon the advice of the Prime Minister so I just want to ask whether the Prime Minister had advised the President to convene the Governors' Conference," he asked.
He objected that the President had no constitutional mandate to advise the provincial governors to keep close liaison with the provincial chief justices of the high courts about jail reforms to ensure speedy justice despite the fact that it is purely a provincial subject.
"Does the President want the governors to bypass the provincial cabinets and the governments and set up parallel governments in every province?" he asked, saying the federal information minister goes to Karachi and says they would put things in order in the province, which is indirect way of imposition of the Governor Rule.
"The Punjab governor does not let the chief minister work independently...is this the new way of federalism? Is this an attempt by the federal government to shelve the provincial governments and assemblies and run the provinces through governors?" he exclaimed.
He also said that the Prime Minister's decision to set up a national curriculum council is a violation of the Constitution, saying it is a provincial subject and the Centre has nothing to do with it.
He continued that the basic question from those bent upon roll backing the 18th constitutional amendment is: "Do they want to follow the Nehru Report of 1928, in which he had clearly stated that all the powers would rest with the Centre."
Contrary to Nehru Report of 1928, he said that the 14-point given by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah clearly state that power would rest with the provinces, adding those bent upon demolishing the 18th amendment are following the Nehru Report instead of Jinnah's 14 points.
Hasil Bizenjo said that there is a segment within the country which wants to abolish the parliamentary system of governance by rolling back the 18th constitutional amendment to pave the way for presidential system of governance in the country.
"We will not allow anybody to play with the 18th amendment and if the Centre resorts to interfere in the syllabus, we will be left with no option but to approach the top court of the country as it's tantamount to infringing upon the rights of the provinces," he warned.
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