Pakistan Peoples' Party's Deputy Secretary General Senator Raza Rabbani on Friday accused President General Pervez Musharraf of depriving the parliament, cabinet and provinces of their powers under the 17th Amendment and devolution of power programme.
Speaking at a seminar here, PPPP leader said, "federalism is non-existent and all powers rest with an individual. There has been no decentralisation of powers, Musharraf has grabbed all powers instead".
He contended that the federating units were deprived of their constitutional powers, parliament rendered redundant and even the cabinet was not being consulted on crucial policy matters such as taking a U-turn on Kashmir issue.
To substantiate his viewpoint, Senator Rabbani recalled that Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri was caught unaware, when journalists sought his views on President Musharraf's statement that his government was ready for settlement of Kashmir issue, setting UN resolutions aside.
Elaborating his point that there was no federal system under the present set-up, he said as per the amended constitution, Musharraf could dissolve the National Assembly and on his advice, governors also had the mandate to follow the suit without taking any advice from either Prime Minister or chief ministers.
Likewise, he added the handling of state of affairs in federally administered tribal areas (Fata) lies with Musharraf, which again ran contrary to the concept of a federation.
Senator Rabbani flayed the setting up of the National Security Council and said that the heads of armed forces had been given representation in the body that was totally uncalled for in federal democratic system.
The armed forces, he maintained, could come to the aid of civilian government or administration, in case they are requested to do so, therefore the body was totally unconstitutional.
About the National Finance Commission Award, PPPP leader said that under Article-160, a new NFC formula has to be formed after the lapse of every five years to ensure a fair distribution of provinces' resources, but unfortunately this has not been done ever-since Musharraf assumed power.
Article-161, he pointed out, did not give any right to a head of the state to decide about equitable distribution of resources among provinces. "The President can only approve what the provinces decide through mutual consensus".
Senator Rabbani dubbed as unconstitutional the chief ministers' go-ahead to General Musharraf to himself finalise the formula after they failed to evolve consensus on a new formula.
Referring to the Council of Common Interest, he said that the constitutional body was competent to resolve NFC formula and other issues, concerning the federating units.
National Balochistan Movement leader Ishaq Baloch was of the view that Pakistan as a federation could survive and march forward with dignity if the centre retained only defence, finance and foreign affairs and the rest went to the provinces.
Baloch argued that Quaid-e-Azam, in his 14-point formula had also talked about the grant of maximum powers to the federating units. He said that 1973 Constitution in its original shape envisaged autonomy to the provinces.
Peter Andres Bockmann, Chairman Fredrick Namann Foundation said that the federation and its pre-requisites are the issues that continued to be debated not only in Pakistan but also in Germany.
He said that centralisation of powers negated the concept of federation, as devolution of powers to the provinces, and down to the grass root level was key to running a federation.
Liberal Forum Head, who organised the seminar in collaboration with the foundation, said that such fora provided an opportunity to all the stakeholders to debate the issues concerning the federation. Such programmes were also organised in the provincial capitals, he said.