18th Amendment’s real issue is implementation, claims Fehmida

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza said the real issue of 18th Amendment of Constitution is not of its rollback but its implementation.

“There is no roll back of the 18th Amendment and it was the provincial governments’ responsibility to ensure its implementation in letter and spirit to achieve its objectives for which it was conceived,” she said in an interview with The News/Jang on Sunday.

Dr Fehmida Mirza, who was a Speaker of the National Assembly when both the houses of Parliament approved the 18th Amendment with over two-third majority, said there was two basic objectives of the 18th Amendment.

The first was to restore the constitution in its real form of 1973 and other was to remove the sense of deprivation among smaller provinces and backward areas of the country and unfortunately both the objectives were not achieved.

She was of the opinion that the democracy cannot be strengthened with keeping the people out of reach of its benefits. “The 18th Amendment was not for the benefit of a few families as its objective was to provide its benefits to the people of Pakistan,” she said.

She said that the Sindh Assembly and Sindh government were not running through elected people but non-elected ones. “The non-elected people occupied the resources of the Sindh,” she said.

Dr Fehmida Mirza said she took the initiative of the 18th Amendment and being National Assembly Speaker constituted the constitutional committee and the basic objectives was to restore the 1973 Constitution in its real form and to ensure the provincial autonomy.

“During my tenure as National Assembly Speaker, NA secretariat gave full support and facilities but regrettably neither the constitution was restored in its real shape nor the sense of deprivation among smaller provinces and backward areas of the country were removed,” she said.

She said with the passage of the 18th Amendment in year 2010, the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award was announced on the basis of 18th Amendment under which the share of 56 percent of the budget was given to the provinces and the subjects of Agriculture, Education, Health, Tourism and others were transferred to the provinces.

“The episode of the downfall of these sectors after transfer to the provinces was very tragic as agriculture sector growth downed by 4 percent,” she said. The minister for inter-provincial coordination said when the provinces get all the resources, they should also take the responsibilities and who stops them from working. “Whether the army is asking them not to bring reforms in agriculture sector, not to provide educational and health facilities to the people,” she questioned.

Dr Fehmida Mirza said when the government failed to provide the basic needs and facilities, the poverty and extremism would mar the society and the children would fall victim to polio and AIDs.

She said Sindh gets Rs116 billion in one and a half years and if the fund was utilised on the people of Sindh, the situation of the people of Sindh was better than today. The minister for inter-provincial coordination demanded the audit of the funds provided to Sindh and its utilisation during last nine years.

Dr Fehmida Mirza said the demands were being made for the implementation of the Charter of Democracy and she wanted to ask them if it was agreed in the Charter of Democracy signed by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto that opposition leader would head the Public Accounts Committee and whether this principal was followed in the Sindh.

The minister said now the issue of the Charter of Economy was being discussed but the Charter of Economy should not be like Charter of Democracy and should also not be restricted to a few families. “A charter for the provision of the facilities and basic needs also be made,” she said.

Dr Fehmida Mirza said the poor situation of Sindh is before everyone and now after nine years, they realised to give roadmap for the education in the province. To a question, she said they were not ready for the accountability of their misrule of 10 years but asking for 11 months of the present government.

She suggested that the provinces should form their Provencal Finance Commission awards to give attention to backward areas. She also suggested for telemeter System for the irrigation at district level in Sindh to stop the water theft.