Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani Thursday observed that Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir legislative assemblies can not be included in Council of Common Interests (CCI) unless the longstanding dispute of Kashmir is resolved. The observations by the Senate chief came after Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada sought his guidance on bringing the representatives of the AJK and GB to the CCI to end their sense of deprivation.
"For how long we will keep them in abeyance. I want you to educate me as to how their representation can be ensured in the CCI," said Pirzada. This prompted Rabbani to say, "This is not possible unless you find a solution to Kashmir dispute and if you include them [GB, AJK] in CCI, you will be violating your international obligations."
Originally Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan were a single territorial unit. In 1970, the latter was separated from the former and renamed as the Northern Areas. Political and community leaders in Gilgit-Baltistan have been demanding for decades that their region be integrated into Pakistan, but successive governments in Islamabad have resisted those demands.
The integration may give the signal that Pakistan has accepted the de facto division of Kashmir; it will weaken its claim on the entire former state of Jammu and Kashmir. This is how the Pakistan government justifies its decision to keep these regions outside the constitutionally-mandated parts of Pakistan. The Constitution, however, provides that Pakistan's geographical limits are not final yet. These, therefore, include areas which in the future may join the country "whether by accession or otherwise."
If and when, for instance, the dispute between Pakistan and India over Kashmir is settled, Pakistan may include the whole - or parts - of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir in its territorial limits - depending on how the dispute is settled. The Constitution, therefore, provides that parliament "may by law admit into the Federation new States or areas on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit."
Opening a debate on CCI annual report for 2015-16, the lawmakers accused the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of intentionally sabotaging the council that is reflected in the two meetings which it convened in 2015-16. Taj Haider Khan, a veteran Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) senator said that the government held only two meetings in a year and that too when chairman Senate and Supreme Court took notice for delay in convening the CCI meeting.
"The CCI is not going on that direction for which it was created...supervision and control over regulatory bodies such as bringing five regulatory ministries under lines miniseries is one such example how serious is the government to set up a CCI secretariat," he lamented.
He said that all important decisions that are supposed to be taken by the CCI are being taken by the federal cabinet, adding the monopoly of the government to make the Council redundant should immediately be stopped. Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada came with an interesting logic for less number of meetings of the council, saying that the provinces are supposed to prepare the agenda for the meeting as there was nothing worth discussing for the provinces, so only two meetings were held.
But Rabbani, the architect of 18th constitutional amendment, just opened the green book (Constitution of Pakistan) to educate the IPC minister that the provinces do not prepare the agenda for ICC, as it is the job of the federal government.
"There are 18 items in the Federal Legislative List Part-II, and any item like railways, is enough, if the government could have been serious about devolution of power to provinces," he explained. He also objected that the government is all set to name the CCI secretariat as 'CCI Secretariat and Inter-Provincial Coordination Ministry,' saying the CCI is an institution equal to the federal cabinet.
"It is clearly mentioned in the Constitution that the government is bound to constitute CCI within 30 days of swearing in the prime minister. Like the cabinet secretariat, the CCI should have its own separate ministry," he maintained. Senator Usman Khan Kakar of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) demanded that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and foreign borrowing should also be discussed in CCI to ensure participation of all provinces in important decision-making issues. The House passed three bills - The Public Private Partnership Authority Bill, 2016, The Pakistan Council for Science and Technology Bill, 2016 and Pakistan National Accreditation Council Bill, 2016.