Legislators have demanded of the government to withdraw the 'concurrent legislative list' from the 1973 Constitution and transfer all subjects and powers to the provinces to mitigate the feeling of alienation between them and the federation.
These views were expressed at a two-day workshop for the members of Sindh Assembly on 'Federal and Provincial and Local Governments--determination of responsibilities, problems and possible solutions', held under the auspices of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency at a local hotel on Monday.
Speaker Sindh Assembly Muzsaffar Hussain Shah in his summing up remarks after the first session said that discussion on provincial autonomy, relationship between the provinces and the federal government and local bodies system were some of the issues that needed discussion and understanding.
He said, " Even after 50 years we have not been able to resolve issue of federalism. There were three constitutions--1956, 1962 and 1973--and the issue of provincial autonomy had been clear in all of them.
The degree of freedom and autonomy was different in content but its availability to the provinces was assured."
He said that the 1973 Constitution is a consensus document and gives autonomy to provinces, though in actuality it is not available.
He said that federalism still continues to remain a challenge for all legislators. "Let the political parties of all shades discuss the issue threadbare and reach consensus to settle the issue, once for all."
Shah said that the legislators should analyse the issue and raise it at appropriate forums.
"Even the unsettled constitutional issues could be raised with the intention to settling them amicably," he added.
He said that the workshop would go a long way in setting in motion a healthy tradition of debates on critical issues among legislators. It would help identify problems and find out solutions.
Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, leader of the opposition in Sindh Assembly who chaired the second session of the workshop, underlined the necessity of public debate on critical issues.
He said that the tendency to give dictations by the centre should go and an atmosphere of mutual understanding should be created to strengthen provinces-federation relationships.
In his view, the 1973 Constitution still provided solutions to most problems that were envisaged in 1940 resolution.
He said that the successive governments had been drifting away from the spirit of 1940 resolution and 1973 Constitution. "This has brought us to a juncture where problems affecting inter-province and province-federation relations have become complicated." He criticised 'one unit' theory, enlargement of concurrent list and increased centralisation. He said that the trend of centralisation should be checked so that no new complications take place.
He expressed apprehensions that unequal distribution of water, unequal distribution from the divisible pool, controversial issues such as Kalabagh dam, Greater Thal Canal and usurpation of power of the provinces by the federation would be dangerous for the unity of Pakistan.
Khuhro said that the sense of deprivation would lead to disaster.
He said that the Council of Common Interests (CCI) was the right forum to resolve differences but this body had not met for a long time. " The CCI is the right place for conflict resolution."
He congratulated the organisers for holding the workshop and said that it would add to the knowledge of the participants and provide food for thought on a number of issues.
The participants said that among a large number of issues which have kept the provinces one was the National Finance Commission and its Award.
They said the only possible and acceptable solution would be to redefine the formula for the divisible pool and take population, backwardness, needs, revenue collection and earnings from gas, oil, power generation and other mineral wealth into consideration before distribution of funds from the divisible pool.
They said, "Enough is enough". Justice should be done this time and a good tradition left to be followed by those coming later.
Senator Sanaullah Baloch of Balochistan National Party said that NFC would have to look into the grievances of Balochistan and, instead of deciding upon royalty on gas production at the rate of 12.5 percent of well head price, it should be adjusted as percentage of total production.
He said that the coming meeting of the NFC in Peshawar on February 20 would have to face "this" difficult situation.
He said, "Indecision on this issue would be the major hurdle in the coming meetings."
Giving a detailed briefing on the situation of Balochistan he said all provinces should get their "legitimate shares" from their revenue generation through levies and resources generated from their mineral wealth.
The senator said that provinces would have to accommodate each other (province) irrespective of their size and number of people to make provinces prosperous, democracy workable and federation strong and meaningful for the provinces.
He said all agreements which the government has made with Chinese Government and others were illegal, null and void and stand nowhere in the eyes of the rightful owners of the area.
"Gwadar belongs to Balochistan. Let the province deal with all the issues related to this area. Why interference from the federation?"
He asked the federal government to transfer the entire administrative and financial control of Gwadar to Balochistan.
Sanaullah said that not only this, but the federation should return the control of Karachi Port Trust to Sindh, as it used to be in the past, and let the people organise their coastal affairs themselves.
Dr Hamida Khuhro in her paper traced the history of the Indian subcontinent before 1947 and later when Pakistan came into being.
She said, "We have gradually moved from strong and prosperous provinces to strong and prosperous federation. The trend should be checked and all corrections should be carried out before it becomes too late."
She said that strong and prosperous provinces would make the federation strong and prosperous.
Dr Khuhro said that it was the duty of the legislators to plead their respective (provincial) cases and try to persuade the decision-makers to come to terms with the reality.
Manzoor Ahmed Watto, a former chief minister of Punjab, said that conceptual distortions that had made parts of the Constitution meaningless and had raised inter-province disharmony and a collective disrespect for the federation should be addressed to soothe feelings of ill-will among the provinces and between the provinces and the federation.
Watto said that the feelings about Punjab that it had usurped rights of smaller provinces was not correct, and added that if it was the feeling it should be looked into and all efforts should be made to reconcile all accounts with them. "A process of give and take would strengthen federation and serve provinces in a better way. It should be our policy."
Professor Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, political analyst, presented a paper and discussed major issues of federalism in contemporary Pakistan.
He said, "A powerful centre that does not let the provinces exercise powers assigned to them by the 1973 Constitution is still continuing."
He said that the federal government exercising power not assigned to it by the Constitution was needed to be corrected. The provinces should get their powers back so that federation could be strengthened. Rizvi said that there was need to review formula for distribution of powers between the centre and the provinces.
He said that local governments established directly by the federal government have undermined the provincial entity which is a key unit of the administrative system.
He said, "The centre has assigned powers to itself which has partly neutralised the role of provinces. The centre has not reduced its hold over power but reduced the clout of province over the affairs given to the local government."
Rizvi said that lack of financial autonomy had created its own problems. The provinces have limited sources of raising revenue.
They depend on the federal government for getting their share from the federal government. Their share from the divisible pool has been reduced over the years.
In view of Professor Rizvi the NFC Award has a problem of evolving consensus on distribution of resources. Net profit of electricity power generation and natural resources and gas supply are the two stumbling blocks that should be corrected.
He said that river water resources distribution formula for judicious share, Kalabagh Dam and Greater Thal canal were other irritants among the federation and the provinces.
He said, "If the working of federalism generates positive experience, it promotes mutual accommodation and trust and strengthen federalism.
Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, executive director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Development and Training (Pildat), briefed the participants on the purpose of the workshop.
The workshop would continue on Tuesday. At the conclusion of the workshop recommendation formulated by the participants would be issued.
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