ISLAMABAD: Any attempt to rollback the already devolved powers to provinces through a further amendment to 18th Constitutional Amendment and a possible cut in shares of the federating units in National Finance Commission (NFC) Award will have serious repercussions for the federation.
This was stated by former chairman Senate and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) senior leader Senator Raza Rabbani while speaking at Aaj TV's programme 'Paisa Bolta Hai' with Anjum Ibrahim.
"No further amendment is needed in the 18th constitutional amendment unless it is aimed at further strengthening it and ensuring more provincial autonomy. Any move aimed at rolling back the powers already devolved will have serious repercussions for the federation," he warned.
Rabbani pointed out that India's interference in Balochistan and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa raising its voice within the parameters of the Constitution reflect an 'existing fault line' and any attempt to undermine rights of the small provinces will have grave consequences.
In the 18th amendment the view points of the extreme nationalist forces of the country were incorporated and any such move to rollback the powers will not be possible at the moment, he contended.
"Rabbani, one of the architects of the historic 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010, pointed out that the government does not need to bring any amendment to ensure implementation of various provisions of the 18th amendment relating to National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, National Economic Council (NEC) and Council of Common Interests (CCI).
The Constitution binds the government to convene the CCI at least within 90 days. If the Constitution is violated by not convening the meeting of the Council, how can another amendment ensure that the sitting government abides by the constitution?" he asked, adding that laws already exist and it is only a matter of the mindset.
The 40th CCI meeting took place after a gap of more than 300 days. "Where is the sanctity of the constitution?" he asked. If the already established institutions are not being used, the fault is with the government and not the Constitution, he added.
"The federation and its civil bureaucracy is yet to come out of the colonial mindset and they think that the federating units are subservient to them and their resources have to be laundered by the federal government at will without taking the provinces on board," Rabbani said.
He rejected as speculation the possibility of PML-N, which is facing legal pressure, extending support to the government to amend Article 160 (3A), maintaining that the PML-N was at the forefront of the efforts for the 18th Amendment.
"I don't think PML-N will compromise on 18th constitutional amendment," he said arguing that the ongoing debate with regard to possible amendment of Article 160 (3A) is not something new.
Rabbani stated that Article 160 was part of the original constitution under which NFC was to be reconstituted after every five years and distribution of the resources between the provinces and the federation was to be undertaken in terms of percentage.
The new thing added under 18th amendment is that a limit has been imposed that the new NFC would not be less than the previous one which has several reasons, he argued, including: (i) during martial laws the share of the provinces was drastically reduced from 50 percent to around 40 percent and the abrupt cut was kept in view by parliament (2010) while incorporating the new clause; (ii) segment 4 of concurrent list was abolished and responsibilities were to be devolved to provinces. Around 17 federal ministries were going to transfer to the provinces and as per the basic principle, finances were also supposed to go to the provinces along with functions of the ministries. "The burden on federation was going to ease and there was no further need of the resources for the federation," he added; and (iii) the federation also receives resources from areas other than the divisible pool including income tax and petroleum levy that do not go to the provinces. Further, privatization proceeds and State Bank' profits also remain with the federal government, he added.
Rabbani further stated that accepting the conditionality of revisiting the resource distribution between provinces and federation in light of the NFC award was a matter of choice of the present government and it exercised it.
"If it is exercised without keeping the historical and political perspectives in view, then it is their [government] fault and not of the whole nation," he said, referring to the resentment of Bengalis before the country lost East Pakistan.
He stated that the IMF conditionality was reflected in the final statement of the agreement issued from Islamabad - through a one-liner - saying that resource distribution between provinces and federation needs to be revisited.
"We raised this matter in the Senate and informed the government that the condition of 'revisiting resource distribution' is very dangerous and needs to be explained," Rabbani said, adding that the federal government came up with the response that the sentence was being misinterpreted and no such thing is going to happen.
"Had the government not signed the agreement with IMF behind closed doors and brought the matter to parliament, the IMF would have backed off from its conditionality," he asserted.
He stated that the government did not take the parliament and the nation into confidence on the IMF conditionalities. He said that the government should have explained the IMF conditions before the parliament. "We [parliamentarians] only have read out in the newspapers what they have agreed with the IMP...if they have leased out the country's economic sovereignty [to IMF], but at what conditions?" he asked, adding that the NFC's revisit will determine future history of the country.
"Economy can only be flourished if we succeed in keeping the federation intact and if there is political stability. Otherwise, God forbid, if the federal government takes IMF loans [at whatsoever conditions], but it led to reemergence of the old 'fault lines' and [that] are exploited due to regional situations, then what will we do with these loans if there is no political stability in the country," he added.
Rabbani added that there was no need to establish the National Coordination Committee (NCC) to oversee the Coronavirus situation. "We already have a constitutional institution in the shape of CCI. Why don't we utilize the already established constitutional institutions instead of making committees?" he further asked.
If NCC was formed due to the reason that military leadership cannot attend CCI's meeting, Rabbani added that they can be invited as special invitees to the CCI as per the Constitution.
Rabbani further pointed out that there is a long history of effort behind the passage of 18th Constitutional amendment, particularly by the small federating units and various nationalities within the country so that they have authority on their own resources.
Secondly, the historic amendment was also aimed at mainstreaming the federating units and ensure the provinces are also part of the decisions being made in Islamabad, he added.
He said that there was also an effort within the 18th amendment to restore the 1973 Constitution to its original shape. "We succeeded to some extent in restoration of the Constitution to its original shape in way the powers earlier enjoyed by the President of Pakistan, were transferred to the parliament by the then president Asif Ali Zardari and a true parliamentary form of government came into being," he stated.
However, he added that they did not succeed in bringing any amendment in the Islamic provisions incorporated in the Constitution through 8th constitutional amendment during former military dictator Gen Zia's era.
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