Rabbani for uniform ehtesab of politicians, generals, judges

KARACHI: Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said on Saturday there should be uniform accountability (ehtesab) of politicians, judges and generals under the same law.

“There cannot be a separate law for the accountability of politicians and people from the other walks of life,” he said while addressing the students and faculty of the Bahria University at a seminar on the importance of constitutional rule and a book launching ceremony here.

He said the basic objective of creation of Pakistan was to have a welfare state but the system developed by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was destroyed.

He said a negative propaganda was launched against the politicians. He dubbed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) an institution that promoted corruption rather than eliminating it.

Rabbani admitted that despite being the chairman Senate, he could not do anything for recovery of the missing persons. He said the missing persons’ matters were tantamount to ‘state within a state’.

He said during the democratic governments, including that of the PPP, no attention was paid to education and health sectors.

Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani said the future of Pakistan lay in democratic polity, transparent governance, tolerance and a society where citizens were empowered.

The Quaid-e-Azam, he said, had envisaged Pakistan to be a tolerant, progressive welfare state with a federal parliamentary form of government. However, that character of the state was unfortunately changed, he added.

Rabbani said the August 1947 speech of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah clearly stated the purpose and the direction that the new state of Pakistan was to take.

He said dictatorship was an anti-thesis to federalism and parliamentary democracy.

After the enactment of 1973 Constitution, he said, no dictator had the courage to abrogate it as it was a consensus document of parliament and the federating units and, therefore, it was held in abeyance or suspension.

The basic structure of the 1973 Constitution, he added, was changed through the 8th Amendment with over 50 amendments seeking to centralise power at the cost of provincial autonomy.

That caused polarisation between the federating units, among themselves and the federation, he added.

Rabbani said the 18th Constitutional Amendment converted Pakistan to the concept of participatory federalism and devolved 17 federal ministries, repealed the Concurrent Legislative List, gave ownership to the provinces of their natural resources and strengthened the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

The CCI, after the 18th Amendment, he said, was a body that was parallel to the Federal Cabinet.

It would be headed by the prime minister, constituted within 30 days of his taking oath and would have its own independent secretariat.

He said according to articles 153-154 of the 1973 Constitution, the CCI was to exercise control and supervision over items in the Federal Legislative List Part-II, which included all federal regulatory bodies and other such institutions made or functioning under a federal law. He said the National Accountability Bureau had outlived its utility.

He had written an open letter giving the details of a new commission with an independent investigation and prosecuting agency having representation at the board level of all relevant stakeholders, he said, adding a copy of that letter had been sent to the parliamentary committee revisiting the NAB law.

He further said academic freedom in universities and literature along with the coffee house culture was deliberately curbed during dictatorship through state policy so that enlightened thought could not develop and citizens would be fed that what the state wanted.

“As a consequence, after such figures as Faiz Ahmed, Jalib and John Alia and others, we have failed to produce people of even lesser calibre. That is why a counter narrative against terrorism is not being developed,” he remarked.

The counter narrative against terrorism, he said, could only be developed through such institutions and individuals and not by religious extremism.