ISLAMABAD: The main opposition PPP is planning to requisition a session of the Senate soon after Eid to raise the issues of provincial autonomy and lack of implementation of 18th Amendment in the constitution.
“We are consulting other opposition parties to finalise the agenda for the session which we plan to requisition soon after Eid,” the PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate, Mian Raza Rabbani, told Dawn soon after his arrival from Karachi on Monday.
Mr Rabbani, who had held a news conference in Karachi on Sunday, said that he had specially come to Islamabad to contact leaders of other opposition parties, including the Awami National Party, since the non-implementation of various articles of the constitution about provincial autonomy was creating a sense of deprivation among smaller units of the federation.
Mr Rabbani, who headed the parliamentary committee that had drafted the landmark 18th Amendment, particularly referred to the non-implementation of Article 172 of the constitution, “Property, Contracts, Liabilities and Suits”.
Moreover, he said, the recent statement of the Federal Minister for Petroleum, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, in which he had hinted at a ‘rollback’ of the 18th Amendment had caused a fear amongst provinces that the government was not willing to grant provincial autonomy to provinces and wanted to revert to the one-unit system.
Mr Rabbani criticised the government’s decision to convert the Planning Commission into a ministry and termed it unconstitutional. He said the National Economic Council, a constitutional body, had been made ineffective
The PPP leader termed establishment of a task force on curriculum unconstitutional after devolution of the subject to provinces.
PTI: Central Information Secretary of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Dr Shireen Mazari in a statement on Monday criticised the PML-N government’s “intentions of revising the 18th Amendment’s natural resources’ sharing formula”.
Dr Mazari said the PML-N was part of the 18th Amendment discussions and the final agreement. At that time, she added, the party had accepted the strengthening of provinces’ control over their natural resources, but it seemed that the PML-N was merely playing politics rather than sharing a conviction that power needed to be devolved to provinces.
After acquiring power, she said, the PML-N had now revealed its Punjab-centric development policy through which it sought to grab natural resources of other provinces.