New mode to dissolve assemblies emerges: Rabbani

QUETTA: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Wednesday said that a new procedure to dissolve the assemblies had been introduced.

He said this while addressing a seminar organised by Baz Muhammad Kakar here to mark the day when Balochistan Bar Association President Bilal Kasi was shot dead and when his body was shifted to the Civil Hospital, a large number of lawyers reached there and in the meantime a suicide bomb explosion occurred and more than 70 people, including 50 lawyers, were martyred. Daesh had taken the responsibility for the incident.

The veteran politician said that in the past, parliament was removed through dictatorship which introduced 58(2)(b) to dissolve parliament.When the democratic forces, through their struggle, removed 58(2)(b) from the Constitution, then a new procedure was introduced, which was being used nowadays.

He said according to the law, the state’s first and foremost responsibility was to protect the lives and property of the people.“The weakest state institution is parliament,” he said. He said the judiciary tried to dominate the other two organs – parliament and executive.

He said that parliament was the weakest institution in today’s Pakistan, adding that everyone launched onslaught on parliament whenever he wished.Rabbani said that he did not want a clash of institutions, adding that the country could not afford a clash in the present scenario.

Rabbani further said that Parliament, Executive and Judiciary must work together while remaining within the limits of their jurisdiction.He said that misuse of institutional powers and interference in one another’s work had de-shaped the 1973 Constitution.

He invited all the institutions from the Senate to become part of intra-institutional talks in the country which would be organised by the Senate so that powers of institutions might be decided.

The Senate chairman said under the Constitution, the state’s foremost responsibility is security to life and property of the people but government institutions, instead of providing security to the people, had accorded priority to security to foreigners arriving in Pakistan for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor and constituted a separate security division but failed to provide security to their own people.

He said that the executive attacked parliament and interfered in the working of the judiciary while the judiciary tried to overcome parliament and executive. All these measures had made parliament an extremely weak body.

He said, “The Constitution says government would be run by people’s representatives but parliament is dissolved through Martial Law or sometime a dictator dismisses democracy
we have adopted a new process under which elected governments are sent home.” 

Senate chairman said he did not want confrontation among institutions but he did understand that Judiciary, Executives and Parliament should work within their orbit. He, therefore, invited Judiciary, Executive, Parliament and Establishment on behalf of Senate of Pakistan to hold talks on distribution of power among institutions of Pakistan and ascertaining their limits.

Leader of Opposition in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan in his address said that Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are confronted with terrorism and federal government should take measures for development of these two provinces and according their rights under the Constitution and resolve their problems.

Provincial Minister Nawab Muhammad Khan Shahwani, Opposition Leader in Balochistan Assembly Maulana Abdul Wasay, leaders of ANP, JUI-N, Hazara Democratic Party, representatives of High Court Bar Association, Balochistan Bar Council and others also spoke on the occasion.