ISLAMABAD: Senator Mian Raza Rabbani said on Tuesday that the nation was observing the Constitution Day at a critical period in its history.
Speaking at the Senate session, he said, “we have failed to protect the sanctity of the 1973 constitution. Different forms of governments were introduced in Pakistan including the current based on minus-one formula. The accountability process is for politicians only. It is regretful that both judiciary and armed forces remain exempted from it.”
Rabbani said political engineering had rendered parties weak, regretting that there were some forces in the country that wanted to roll back the 18th Constitutional Amendment, which had empowered provinces. “The only way forward is to follow the constitution and conduct free and fair elections.”
PML-N Senator Ghous Mohammad Niazi said that the role of every institution was defined in the constitution. However, the Afghan war and terrorism in some parts of the country had made one institution stronger than the rest in the political setup. Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed stressed the need for learning lessons from past mistakes and letting democracy flourish in the country.
Another PML-N senator, Javaid Abbasi, said the Parliament had never been allowed to perform its constitutional responsibilities. “Some forces create groups in political parties which are then used as tools to sabotage the democratic setup,” he said, adding that through a well-known conspiracy top leadership of his party was removed. Muhammad Tahir Bezinjo of the National Party asked major political parties to unite for the sake of the Parliament and the constitution. Barrister Saif of MQM-Pakistan lamented, “We have totally failed to protect the sanctity of the constitution.”
Some lawmakers maintained that the governments needed to improve their performance to avoid ‘other forces’ from infringing upon the democracy and the Parliament.
“Don’t blame others. If the Parliament has the power and the authority, then why doesn’t it use it?” said PML-F leader Muzafar Hussain Shah.
“If you create a vacuum someone else will fill it up, so perform your duty and act according to the constitution. If parliament could not perform its due role then it should not raise finger towards someone else. Why will the Chief Justice of Pakistan need to go to a hospital if the government delivers on its responsibilities?” he asked, adding that the government had not delivered.
Other senators said all institution should work within their constitutional limits and refrain from trespassing into others domain. They said that free and transparent elections were vital for transfer of power to real representatives of the people. They said all countrymen should be made aware of the importance of the Constitution.
The chair recommended the provincial governments to celebrate the Constitution Day at district-level as well as at educational institutions to make the younger generations aware of the constitutional history of Pakistan.
Earlier, the law minister laid the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, before the Senate. He said the purpose of the ordinance was to improve the language of the ATA 1997 to ensure action against designated terrorist outfits. He said while the ATA was comprehensive in its scope, it lacked direct references to certain individuals and entities that came under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions. “When the ATA was invoked against such persons, courts sought evidence of wrongdoing. In the absence of such strong evidence, these designated individuals have been released by courts several times. In the case of UN Security Council Act 1948, there is no requirement for evidence since they have already been designated by the UNSC and Pakistan is obliged to take action against them as part of its international obligations.”
Therefore, the law minister said that a reference of the UNSC resolution was needed in the Sections 11B and 11EE of the ATA so that the federal government could take action against a person or organisation based on UNSC resolutions.
The Senate chairman then referred the ordinance to the committee concerned for discussion.
Over a call attention notice during the session, Senator Sherry Rehman, the leader of the opposition in the House, drew attention towards decreasing trend of foreign exchange reserves. Minister of State for Finance, Rana Muhammad Afzal, however, said there was no need to worry about the country’s economy as exports, remittances and foreign direct investment had increased recently. The minister said that a decline of USD 3.6 billion had been witnessed in foreign exchange reserves because of increased imports. He said the country’s GDP has crossed the barrier of 5.3 percent which has increased economic activity. He said all these things have created demand for machinery, petroleum products and other productive imports.
Later, the House was adjourned to meet again at 3 pm on Wednesday.
Published in Daily Times, April 11th 2018.
