Govt circumventing provincial autonomy, says Rabbani

ISLAMABAD: The former chairman of Senate, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani has accused the government of circumventing the provincial autonomy as envisaged in the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

“The decision of the Cabinet Committee on Energy to reduce the life of the solar and wind projects, generating electricity from 20 to 15 years is unconstitutional,” he pointed out in a statement issued here by the Senate Secretariat on Wednesday. The subject of electricity, he noted, was Entry No 14, Part II of the Federal Legislative List of the Constitution and thus fell within the purview of the Council of Common Interests. “Any policy decision by the Cabinet Committee on Energy for electricity is a clear transgression and infringement into the domain of the CCI,” he maintained.

In violation of Article 158, the Constitution, 1973, Rabbani contended, the province of Sindh is being denied its constitutional share of natural gas as a consequence of which industries are closing and the labour is facing retrenchment. “These two decisions taken by the federal government are an attempt to economically destabilise Sindh. It appears that the government is gradually creeping to either rollback or circumventing the provincial autonomy, moving towards centralisation and eventually a presidential form of government,” he maintained.

Rabbani remarked, “It is the duty of the remaining two pillars of the trichotomy provided in the Constitution, 1973, i.e. Parliament and judiciary to prevent the federal executive from encroaching upon the domain of the provinces”. He said the moves are there to bring a presidential form of the government and the government is following policy of violating the constitution. He also termed the meeting of the National Curriculum Council as unconstitutional as education and curriculum through the 18th Amendment have been transferred to the provinces and under which the provinces have devised the curriculum according to their needs but the government wanted to impose its will on the provinces which is against the constitution.

In an interview with The News and Jang, Raza Rabbani has defended 18th Amendment, provincial autonomy and Parliament. The former Senate chairman questioned if this was the vision of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the Quaid-i-Azam pledged the provincial autonomy in his 14-points. Rabbani said the impression that only politicians are corrupt should be removed as there is corruption in every institution and segment of the society. “There should be no selective accountability but all have to be held accountable. Why the accountability of two or three parties only.