ISLAMABAD: Lack of requisite homework by both the government and opposition led to an embarrassing weeklong deferment of the approval of the 28th constitutional amendment bill, which was aimed at clearing the final roadblocks for extension of powers for the military courts to try civilian terrorists.
The failure to meet the consensus deadline to okay the amendment was a poor reflection on the performance of all the parliamentary parties. Not all the senators of the three major parliamentary forces -- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) -- which fully support the amendment, were present in the Upper House, which resulted in the absence of at least sixty-nine senators, who were to form the minimum two-thirds majority for its passage.
Primarily, it was the responsibility of all these parties to make it must for their MPs to be present because it was decided last week that the amendment would be adopted by the Senate on Wednesday a day after the National Assembly would do that. Ironically, some members of all the parties were missing for the crucial voting, which had to be postponed for this reason.
PTI Senator Shibili Faraz claimed that four PML-N MPs were absent but also conceded some legislators of his party were also not in attendance. Law Minister Zahid Hamid, who piloted the bill, admitted that some government and opposition lawmakers did not turn up. As against the needed sixty-nine senators, only sixty-seven were there.
It was immaterial whether or not five MPs belonging to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), three senators of Mehmood Achakzai’s Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and one legislator of Balochistan National Party-Mengal were present because they were not going to vote for the constitutional amendment as per their policy they introduced during the voting in the National Assembly.
The amendments in the Constitution and the Pakistan Army Act had a remarkably smooth sailing in the Lower House where the PML-N is in majority. The PPP has a small edge over the PML-N in the Senate with twenty-seven senators while the ruling party has twenty-six members. It is an opposition-dominated chamber.
The PTI has seven senators, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has eight lawmakers, the Awami National Party has six legislators, the PML-Q has four MPs, the National Party has three senators while the Functional League has only one member. The ten Federally Administered Tribal Areas senators are always treated as independents.
As the passage of the constitutional bill was put off, some PPP senators again expressed their reservations about it despite the fact that their party had agreed to its each and every clause during talks with the government. In fact, the PPP had earlier proudly claimed that four of its nine demands were incorporated in the bill, which it painted as its major victory. Even otherwise, all these points are plausible, which would provide relief to the accused arraigned before the army officers-presided military courts on terrorism charges.
“I will vote for the amendment (because of the decision of my party), but could not explain how I feel” (painfully), PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar commented. “It is an embarrassment for democracy as well as the parliament,” he said, portraying his sentiments against giving powers to the military courts.
The PPP’s deep aversion and unwillingness against these courts disappeared when it clinched an accord with the government in the greater national interest and urgency to have the amendments in place.
Not only the PPP but every parliamentary force admits that arming the military courts with extraordinary powers was a bitter pill that has to be swallowed in view of the menace of terrorism, which showed its tentacles with a bang a few weeks back, claiming some 103 lives. This wave of suicide bombings badly rattled Pakistan, which was compelled to take stringent measures to deal with terrorists.
The JUI-F’s abstention from voting in the National Assembly and its expected similar approach in the Senate is beyond comprehension as Fazlur Rehman had consented to extending the authority of the military courts much before other political parties had worked out an agreement with the government.
As all the parties are to share the blame for the delay in the approval of the constitutional amendment, it is likely to be passed without any such eventuality or hassle on Tuesday when it will be taken up again.
