Constitution Of Pakistan. Should it be Changed?

[Ahmed Ali Shah]

Dear friends, it is my believe that the 1973 constitution has lost its taste & now needs to be changed or ammended with the growing demand by the provinces for greater autonomy.

What is your preception. If No than justify your self, if yes than what new claws you would add/edit.

My Constitutional preception.

PROVINCES

INTERNAL TRADE & FINANCE

1. All provinces/states have complete authority over their resources & if a resource is present in one province while scarce in other than the province with the need/requirement must purchase from the province with the resource.

e.g: Sindh, Punjab, NWFP purchase gas from Balochistan. & provinces must pay dues to the port cities/provinces for usage of their ports.

2. Finance ministries at the states with the authority over distributed budget. Central Finance Ministry only controls fiscal policy.

4. Each Province Earns for it self.

E.g: Sindh's 60% revenue of Pakistan's over all production belongs to Sindh only.

5. Provinces provide 40 to 45% of their revenue to centre.

PROVENCIAL POWERS & GOVERNMENT

1. Provinces given greater autonomy & upgraded to States.

2. Sindh & Punjab divided into two halfs. From Punjab, Siraikistan (Multan region) be made separate province. Sindh sectors into two. Hyderabad Control (karachi included) & other part divided on the base of Kolhoro & Mir era division.

3. State governors to be directly elected by people of the states respectlively.

4. Chief Ministers enjoy greater powers in their states respectively.

5. Seats in Provencial assembly based on population & adult frenchise.

6. Provencial Ministers selected by CM & approaved by Governor.

CENTRAL POWERS & GOVERNEMENT

1. Only one house in Parliment, that would be upper house (Senet). National Assembly aborogated completely.

2. Senet to have equal number of seats.

3. All power enjoyed by Lower house today be transfered to Senet.

4. Senet members to be elected by the prople of province/states.

5. Senet's ruling party's elected leader becomes Prime Minister.

6. Senet's Speeker becomes President (performs both jobs)...Opposition can hold this seat if won.

7. Senet/Center to have Defence Ministry, Foregin Ministry. These ministries cant be given to States/provinces.

FINANCE MINISTRY AT CENTRE

1. Makes Fiscal policy. (Monetary policy to State Bank)

2. Can give loan to any province.

3. Recieves 40 to 45 % of province/states revenue only for central working & spending.

4. Has right to veto financial working of any province if it can justify the reason for doing so. But can not implement its decision on any province after veto (concerned province/state revise its policy).

5. Open to international Financing.

PRESIDENT & GOVERNORS

1. President :

a. Elected by Senet.

b. Performs two jobs: President & Speaker of the house.

c. Power to veto senets bill.

d. Can not implement his/her decision on senet if bill vetoed (Senet revise the bill)

e. Power to disolve Senet.

f. Appoint care-taking prime minister if senet & govt disolved.

d. Holds seat for 5 years.

e. Holds elections in 90 days after govt term ends. Responsible for elections & its result.


2. Governors:

a. Elected by states/provinces directly (voted by people)

b. Can disolve provencial assembly.

c. Appoint care taking CM if provencial govt disolved. Till elections held in province.

d. Responsible for elections & its result.

e. Holds seat for 5 years.

PRIME MINISTER & MINISTERS

1. PM

a. Elected by 55% of the senet.

b. Holds powers according to the current constitution with some limitations & deductions of powers which are transfered to Chief Ministers of States/provinces.

c. Holds seat for 4 to 5 years.

d. Responsible for the central govt.

2. Ministers:

a. appointed by PM & approaved by President.

b Hold seats till PM in power.

[Muhammad T S Awan]

Dear Azam, quoting 'You may Take my Advice..I dont Use it Any ways.'

Pakistan, better to say the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, started facing problems of provincialism since its inception i.e. at that time it was language conflict (bengali and urdu). On national consolidation, Quaid said at Dhaka on March 21, 1948 :

""Now I ask you to get rid of this provincialism, because as long as you allow this poison to remain in the body politic of Pakistan, believe me, you will never be a strong nation, and you will never be able to achieve what I wish we could achieve. Please do not think that I do not appreciate the position. Very often it becomes a vicious circle. When you speak to a Bengali, he says: 'Yes you are right, but the Punjabi is so arrogant'; when you speak to the Punjabi or non-Bengali, he says, 'Yes but these people do not want us here, they want to get us out'. Now this is a vicious circle, and I do not think anybody can solve this Chinese puzzle. The question is, who is going to be more sensible, more practical, and more statesmanlike and will be rendering the greatest service to Pakistan? So make up your mind and from today put an end to this sectionalism." - complete speech can be found at http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/Quaid/speech30.htm

Though the scenario has changed and Bengladesh has been sperated but this menace is still there, as i had seen Sindhis, Punjabis, Pathan at loggerheads on certain issues and the Punjab is often blamed for atrocities. ...

In this context, in my thinking the validity of Constitution remains there, though there could be amendments in the Constitution but not as you stated in above lines as the Federal System is integration of the country, in my knowledge, and I am firm in my believe that national integration can only be achieved under the flag of 'Islam & Pakistan' as said by General Musharaf 'We are Pakistanis first.' So far as Islam is concerned it is there indeed and the slogan raised for the partition of British India was 'Pakistan ka mutlab kiya, la illaha illalah'

Nonetheless, after going between the lines of suggestions/recommendations made by you, the following could be considered as my points

PROVINCES

INTERNAL TRADE & FINANCE

1. In this way, the poor provinces wont be able to have access to many commodities as they wont be able to purchase from other provinces.


4. dear, sindh earns 60% revenue of Pakistan as it has karachi with it, which is the only port of the country and karachi is a big city, else to karachi the sindh wont have contributed such high revenue turn over

PROVENCIAL POWERS & GOVERNMENT

1. Provinces can be given autonomy to some extent, by strengthening of already available infrastructure in shape of provincial ministries, which are deailing with the subjects enumerated in the concurent list

2. If Sindh is divided into two halves than the 60 % revenue of Pakistan would remain to the only part of Sindh having karachi, whereas remaining would be struck into hunger. Yes Punjab can be divided perhaps it may be divided into three halves instead of two i.e. Northern (Pothowar) Central (Faisalabad, Lahore etc.) and Southern (Multan region)

3. Provincial governors are the representatives of federal government so they cannot be elected by the people of that province

4. Chief Ministers still enjoy considerable power

5. The current position of seats in Provincial assembly can be termed as based on population & adult frenchise.

6. Provencial Ministers selected by CM & approaved by Governor, perhaps the some what similar procedure is there


CENTRAL POWERS & GOVERNEMENT

1. dear what are you planning to do ?

2. Equal number of seats are there for the provinces

3. 4. 5. hmmmm !

6. & 7. no way man, ooh dear Defence Ministry and Foregin Ministry are even not given to the states of USA


FINANCE MINISTRY AT CENTRE

dear sorry i am not well versant with the economy

PRESIDENT & GOVERNORS

President, PRIME MINISTER & MINISTERS: dear the job of president and speaker of senat by a same person would be a very difficuilt task. The president is the representative of federation not of government, though selected by people indirectly, whereas the prime minister is the head of the government so ~~~~

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Dear look, the Constitution of 1973 was a miracle in the history of Pakistan as it was accepted by all the major political parties, whereas the constituions of 1956 and 1962 failed. Perhaps one of the reason of approval of constitution and its acceptance was the debacle of 1971, which had great blow to the national structure of the country.

Amendments can be made in the constitution for making it allign with the wishes of people of the provinces

Perhaps the above lines suffice the point.

[Ahmed Ali Shah]

1. In this way, the poor provinces wont be able to have access to many commodities as they wont be able to purchase from other provinces.

The poor will prevail my dear. When Balochistan starts to gain revenue from its coal, oil & gas resources it might turn out to rich soon. Besides the Gwadar under development.

NWFP has a huge contribution in Pak's labour & working class. There working class earns most for their province. Besides I dint side line NFC.

[/QUOTE]4. dear, sindh earns 60% revenue of Pakistan as it has karachi with it, which is the only port of the country and karachi is a big city, else to karachi the sindh wont have contributed such high revenue turn over [/QUOTE]

True but why are you discussing this? answer so we could discuss it furthur.

2. If Sindh is divided into two halves than the 60 % revenue of Pakistan would remain to the only part of Sindh having karachi, whereas remaining would be struck into hunger. Yes Punjab can be divided perhaps it may be divided into three halves instead of two i.e. Northern (Pothowar) Central (Faisalabad, Lahore etc.) and Southern (Multan region)

Good point....I my self m not in favor of division of Sindh but wrote to avoid punjabi backlash . Anyways Punjab should be divided, atleast internaly.

Punjab & Sirakistan with different CMs but same governor.

3. Provincial governors are the representatives of federal government so they cannot be elected by the people of that province

Governors in most of the democratic states are directly elected. They must be with drawn from federal govt & ppl must be allowed to send atleast governer as their directly elected representative to state/province.

I will never move back from this.

7. no way man, ooh dear Defence Ministry and Foregin Ministry are even not given to the states of USA

Have you got any idea of constitution of USA. According to constitution President of USA is the interior minister, foregin minister, finance minister & defence minister. He on his own will with the concent of senet is allowed to select his advisors (Secratories*) & may present to them some power although what ever decision they (secs) make must be approaved by the President him self.

In the 2nd half what ever bill President makes must be approaved by Congress, hence what ever secratories decide & advice, President must get it approaved from Congress which will later fall to senet.

I Thin you are confused. I said Defence & Foregin ministry to Centre (Senet).

President, PRIME MINISTER & MINISTERS: dear the job of president and speaker of senat by a same person would be a very difficuilt task. The president is the representative of federation not of government, though selected by people indirectly, whereas the prime minister is the head of the government so ~~~~

Dear the president has nothing to do whole day. Believe me I have met 2 Presidents & all they do is sign nothing else. Rest of the day when ever you entre their office they would be watching Tv (Musharaf exceptional). Its better they perform Speaker atleast he will have some thing to do

Not kidding. The speaker of Senet is the vice president of Pakistan. In absence of President he performs the duty, so why not let him handle the job. He does it when President is out of country, than he can do it on regular basis.

Dear look, the Constitution of 1973 was a miracle in the history of Pakistan as it was accepted by all the major political parties, whereas the constituions of 1956 and 1962 failed. Perhaps one of the reason of approval of constitution and its acceptance was the debacle of 1971, which had great blow to the national structure of the country.

My dear I my self am great supporter of 1973 constitution but I have started to feel conjusted as polititions from small provices demand more autonomy. 1973 constitution was was drafted by my political idol Z.A.Bhutto.

[Khushal]

From all i know and what i heard,The 1973 Constitution (was) a perfect/ideal constitution for any country,BUT,it lost its taste when it was put through several ammendments,so as far as my opinion goes,the 1973 constitution should not be changed,instead the ammendments shoudl be Re-ammended to back them to there originla state as they were when newly made.

Besides,we here can just give our views,No one is going to change it until the General has the seat!.

[Adil Memon]

Salaam,

My point of view is stated as under:

Internal Trade And Finance:

1) This stuff will create disparities since Balochistan is quite richer in natural resources.

4) Though it will create disparities, but the idea is really logical. No province will have problems. But Punjab will never agree over this (I know)

5) 40-45% is too much... how about lesser than it!

Provincial Powers and Government

1) You are absolutely right... they should be upgraded to states.

2) Division of Punjab is logical. Because of its supremacy in population it is trying to be a bigger brother. Due to its population and absurd division of seats in National Assembly (the powerful one) on the basis of population Punjab is emerging as a dominant power. It has always been eating up the rights of other provinces.

There should be no division of Sindh. There is no need!

The rest of the points are good.

Central Powers and Government

At this stage I can understand that Constitution Law is your subject and you've studied the constitution of US very well. Your points somehow resemble it.

Despite abrogation of the National Assembly they can simply transfer the powers to the Senate which has the equal representation from provinces. So that every province is equal rather than creating a mighty Punjab.

You are absolutely right regarding the duties of the Prime Minister and President. They should be over-burdened to make them aware of the responsibilities they are carrying over their shoulders. They feel it easier to run a country than to run a house. They should be assigned extra charges.

Finance and the Centre:

I agree to the rest of the points except the part in which the centre is supposed to receive 40-45%. Its too much. Centre ko haraam khaney ki aadat par jayegi .

President:

All are accepted except the term stuff. We can't bear a bad buy for 5 years. Let the term be for 2-3 years. This way... we can test people within a short time and re-elect him if qualifies the definition of a good President/Prime Minister. Let the terms applicable be unlimited!

I really don't understand why do we have the term for 5 years in a society like that of Pakistan.

Governors:

The term for the Governor should also be reduced in the similar manner.. the rest is accepted!

Prime Minister / Ministers:

Iska bhi term kam karo.... baki sab kuch theek hai... unper baad mein gour kareingey !

[tropican]

If at all, the constitution should be revised in such a way so as to remove any logical contradictions present in it.

[THE 1]

Even though i haven't touched my Pakistan Studies books from 1st year and 2nd year for quite a while now, i can recall that the important points of the 1973 constitution were perfectly fine and they had no defects(according to our PAK-STUDIES teacher and i tended to agree with him). The defects that we see today are due to the fact that every ruler made contributions to the constitution, or in other words, they 'modified' the constitution (to the extent which their power allowed them at their time) according to their will just to secure their seat against oppositions of their times. As time passed by, our constitution has been changed so much that it no longer remains effective. The supreme court has become a toy for our rulers, they surpass any constitutional obstacle that comes in their way either by amending it or by forcing the chief justices to submit to their will and to support them however they can... And if i remember it right, our judges have even been bullied by gangsters inside the court... so if the dept. of justice can't follow the constitutional laws.... how can the rest of the govt. body be expected to follow it............ In a nutshell, what I think is that the constitution in its original spirit should be implemented.

[Amir Shafique]

I would like to comment on the internal trade and finance aspect.Mr Ahmed seems to have the same prejudice view of what the majority of pakistanis and especially politicians have in common.The idea of controlling one's own natural resources lacks practicality and sense.It is Easier said then done.What Natural resources do we talk of?Sui Gas that is at the verge of depletion?We fulfill 70% of our energy needs through imports and keep on taking pride in the oil and gas reserves of Baluchistan that are yet to be discovered (if any). It is after 50 years of independance that we discovered some copper reserves in saindak. Numerous oil exploring companies are sniffing day and night but to no avial.Now one may argue that US is not letting us explore our true potential but the fact remains that we dont have any, otherwise no one can stop any body from exploring its own resources. Infact it will be US benefiting the most out of it, especially when our beloved country has the label of being one of the satellite states of US. We have Middle East as an example.

Provinces controlling their own resources would mean that we are depriving others who doesnt possess any. Imagine Punjab asking for tax on river water that passes by through it's land. Karachi contributes 60% of tax revenue, but its just due to the fact that it has a port attached to it (again a natural phenomenon,nothing to do with it's brilliance). The same way bulk of exports come from punjab. Can Pakistan and karachi in particular generate so much revenue without exports. Gawadar port is in pipeline. If everything goes fine the load of trading activites will automatically shift towards Baluchistan and so will the tax generating share.

NWFP has a huge potential for tourism which is yet to be developed. The labor class Mr Ahmed talks about is the one that do odd jobs like chowkidara for their living. We need education and human resource development to expand our options.The labor class doesnt have any.

Mr Ahmed i believe you are my old friend from CBM. If true then there is no end to this argument. Remember the only natural reosurce we have is the 60% arable land with some water sources and see what mockery our politicians have made out of it.We need to understand that our survival is possible in unity only. There is a dire need to develep human resource which can be the biggest resource in a country of 150 million population base. Natural resources are GOD gifted and if we proclaim to be one country then it is the right of everybody to share them. What ever grievances there has been in the past are all due to the hatred spread by politicians to attian their political objectives and it is all due to the fact that our population is "illiterate", lacking strategic vision.

[mhmmdkashif]

What to do of a constitution when it was considered merely a 169 paged book by a former head of our defence forces. We even seem to ignore the sacred words of our deity, how are we considering to improve ourself. (my idea is of the general public, not any intellect lol)

[Qurratulain]

Originally Posted by mhmmdkashif

What to do of a constitution when it was considered merely a 169 paged book by a former head of our defence forces. We even seem to ignore the sacred words of our deity, how are we considering to improve ourself. (my idea is of the general public, not any intellect lol)

In my opinion, if one has realized this fact that the general public is unaware of the constitution and it's an ilk of problem for the society, the individual is exhibiting the signs of intellect. And here it becomes the responsibility of the intellect to figure out the ways by which he / she can spread the essence of the constitution among general public.


Regards,