Babar for protecting 18th Amendment

Outgoing Pakistan People's Party Senator Farhatullah Babar said on Tuesday that any attempt to roll back the 18th Amendment and provincial autonomy would be disastrous for the country. "The smaller provinces may demand parity in National Assembly as we had also demanded parity with East Pakistan before it broke up...what we need to do is protect Pakistan and it's the job of the Parliament," he added. Senator Babar said that neither can he applaud the Chief Justice for announcing that he had no political agenda nor can he laud the judges quoting from poetry instead of the Constitution and the law.
"When my village elder Baba Rehamte tells me that the Constitution is supreme I accept it. But when he goes on to also tell me that Constitution is what he says and not what is written in it then I am appalled," he lamented. When dignity of courts is upheld by brandishing the contempt law rather than by the force of arguments, it is time to ponder, he said, adding it will be a disaster if the election year was allowed to become the year of referendum on the judiciary.
He said he was also pained to see two states - one de facto and the other de jure - often working at cross purposes. In an obvious reference to powerful military, Senator Babar said that the de facto calls the shots but refuses to submit to accountability. He continued that there is failure of the Parliament to bring legislation for accountability of all including judges and generals, adding the Parliament including his own party slipped at a time when the de facto rulers could have been made accountable.
"I was distressed that all political parties including my own, demanding accountability of all, suddenly backtracked on it...We must resolve this contradiction of a state within state if Pakistan is not to be devoured by it," he maintained. Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani lauded the services and contribution made by Senator Babar during his six-year stint in the Senate, saying his period in his Upper House will be a role model for others to come as he raised the issues which other could not dare. "Your role will be long remembered and the Senate will be less wise without your presence," he added.
Another outgoing Senator Mohsin Leghari, an independent Senator from Punjab, said that there is a need to look inward instead of blaming the military and the judiciary. Citing a survey conducted by The Pew Research Center, a non-partisan American think tank based in Washington, he said that 93 percent people in the country had a positive thinking about Pakistan Army, while there could be hardly a few percent who see politicians with a positive approach.