Says if millionaires come to Senate, it will represent businessmen instead of Federation
ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Saturday said that the Federation of Pakistan is facing challenges of status quo of aristocracy and civil-military bureaucracy and if these challenges were not overcome, history will never forgive us. He said pity is on the nation that raises voice only while in mourning.
He said if millionaires come to the Senate, it would represent businessmen instead of Federation. The Wapda chairman’s write-ups in the media in support of Kalabagh Dam was an insult to parliament, and of course to the provincial assemblies which had adopted resolutions against the project.
However, he clarified that by saying so he did not mean the Wapda chairman should not talk but he must remember that he was a bureaucrat and hence had no right to write on such matters this way, insulting the legislatures.
He cautioned against the rollback of devolution of power and rewind of the history, saying that if this happened it could lead to a change in the Federation’s geographical boundaries.
“We should as a nation respect parliament and other institutions that function under the Constitution. And due to our short-sightedness, if we tried to disrupt the constitutional framework, results would not be good,” warned Rabbani while speaking at the Senate seminar: “Challenges to the Federation and Role of the Senate” here on Saturday.
Similarly, Rabbani said he was also not taking away the right of the government to pursue the project, but since three provinces had passed resolutions against the Kalabagh Dam, the government might opt for a laid-down path of referring it to the Council of Common Interests (CCI).The government, he emphasised, should go for a constitutional option instead of asking a bureaucrat to ride rough on the will of the provinces, the Senate and the Federation, which was unacceptable. “The Constitution offers ways if there is a dispute in the provinces: refer the matter to the CCI or there is an inter-provincial committee,” he argued.
Referring to poet and author Khalil Jibran’s saying “pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block”, Rabbani said: “It perhaps has become our national psyche that we try to evade issues we face and the issues and debates long settled are revived so that the present challenges and circumstances could be brushed under the carpet”.
Continuing, he said this was done so that the status quo of civil and military elite from 1947 to the present day could be strengthened.
Rabbani warned that Pakistan today stood at the crossroads of its history and if they tried to brush under the carpet the challenges they were facing today to perpetuate the status quo, history would not forgive them.
“We shall bear in mind that Pakistan is a multi-national and multi-ethnic state. We will not be able to move forward, if we keep usurping rights of these nationalities and ethnicities,” he maintained.
He pointed out that the mindset, which talked about a strong Centre and not the federating units and that sank the Federation, had died and now the young generation wanted to own its nationality and language, which could not be suppressed as a state.
Rabbani acknowledged that the Senate had won representation in the Public Accounts Committee through a long-drawn struggle and it was not given by just issuing a handout or as alms.
“It was a constitutional need after the 18th Amendment, which was being denied,” he said. However, he praised the government and the treasury senators on this count.
He expressed the resolve that the Senate would continue to make its role more effective and no more amendments would be needed in future so that the Federation could be made stronger and democracy flourish further.
Rabbani opposed direct election for the Senate, fearing people having big businesses and vested interests would make their way to the House.
He pointed out not only bills but also unresolved disputes in the CCI were referred to the joint sitting of parliament where there was majority of the members in the National Assembly and hence the concept of Federation flew out of the window then.
Rabbani noted that there was a need to ponder over mechanisms in the world where in case of joint sitting, votes of the two chambers, assembled were considered equal.