Senator Rabbani stresses on strengthening of federalism, parliamentary democracy

ISLAMABAD: Senator Mian Raza Rabbani Thursday stressed that federalism and parliamentary democracy in Pakistan should be strengthened.

He expressed these views as keynote speaker at a National Conference on Making Pakistani Federalism Work: Lessons from the government COVID-19 response, organized by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) with support from Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom government. The conference was attended by lawmakers, legal and governance exerts from the federal capital and all the four provinces.

Senator Rabbani said it was very unfortunate that efforts were being made to replace the current federal parliamentary democratic system with a quasi-presidential system, adding that internal and external conditions were not conducive for such experimentation.

He proposed the need to strengthen the existing federal coordination mechanisms under the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

He said the CCI was linchpin of the Pakistani federal system but unfortunately meetings of the apex body were not convened regularly as per the Constitution a minimum one meeting should be held within 90 days.

He said 18th constitutional amendment was a starting point, and more powers should be devolved to the federating units.

Speaking on the occasion member of the National Assembly Riaz Fatayana said 18th amendment was not a holy scripture, was passed in haste and should be reviewed.

He demanded that share of the federal government in the National Finance Commission should be increased.

In his speech, Afrasiab Khattak, a former senator, said unlike its neighbors Iran and China that had centuries old history, Pakistan was new a country with great potential for development provided there was rule of law in the country.

He said following the Constitution and giving due rights to the people would guarantee prosperity of the country.

Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini spoke about the deprivation of Balochistan.

Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari, Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly, Barrister Pir Mujeeb ul Haq, Member and Chairman of the Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights of Sindh Assembly, Sanaullah Baloch, Member Balochistan Assembly, Asia Khattak, Member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Muhammad Hussain, member of Sindh Assembly, federalism expert Zafarullah Khan, legal expert Mohsin Abbas Syed, governance experts Naveed Aziz and Omer Mukhtar, Mosharraf Zaidi of Tabadlab, Javed Malik, Country representative of DRI, Rafat Yasmin of UNDP, Nadia Tariq Ali and Quraysh Khattak of DRI also spoke on the occasion.