18th Amendment no hurdle in forming national policy for Covid-19: Raza Rabbani

ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Saturday took on the government on 18th Amendment, saying that it is wrong to suggest that the constitutional amendment is a hurdle in formulating national policy for managing the coronavirus emergency, and charged the federal government for lacking the political will and foresight to forge the much needed federation and the provinces consensus. Reacting to the different spokesmen from the federal government declaring 18th Amendment hurdle in the way of national narrative on coronavirus, the PPP stalwart Mian Raza Rabbani in a statement on Saturday said “the basic flaw of the federal government and its ministers is that, they are not conversant with the Constitution, 1972 and the Rules of Business of the federal government, 1973.”

Rabbani said the federal government has turned the Council of Common Interest (CCI) redundant and replaced it with National Coordination Committee (NCC). He went on to say that the CCI is a platform provided under Articles 153 and 154 of the 1973 Constitution, to formulate consensus driven policies.

He said in order to fight against the virus, the federal government has replaced the CCI by the NCC and formed a sub-committee i.e National Command and Operation Centre through a notification. “If constitutional bodies are replaced by notified bodies, confusion in federal policies is bound to exist,” he said.

Furthermore, Rabbani said, the minister is incorrect when he says that under the 18th Amendment, the regulatory control over ‘industries’ was not in the concurrent legislative list so it has not been devolved. He said in the 1973 Constitution, ‘industries’ where development under federal control is declared by the federal law to be expedient in the public interest, was entry no.3, in the Federal legislative, Part-11, and it continues to be there even after the passage of the 18th Amendment. “This list is governed by the CCI, so there is virtually no change.

Mian Raza Rabbani said the federal government’s aversion to the CCI is apparent as the its 40th meeting was held on 19-11-2018, whereas, the 41st meeting was held after a lapse of 397 days on 23-12-2019. This is violation of the constitutional period of 90 days for the CCI meetings. Once again now 125 days have lapsed since the last meeting of the CCI and the federal government continues to violate the Constitution.

In a related development, the Sindh ministers have accused the federal government for adopting an utterly wrong policy for dispensing Ehsaas emergency cash assistance during lockdown through bio-metric verification system leading to fast transmission of coronavirus across the country. Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani were addressing a press conference here at Sindh Assembly’s auditorium on Saturday.

According to the provincial ministers, there was no need to use the bio-metric verification for dispensing Ehsaas emergency cash when its usage was already suspended in the country due to the risk of spreading the coronavirus. They said the federal government instead of containing the deadly infection multiplied its transmission.

Sindh Information and Local Government minister alleged that federal minister are visiting Karachi to provoke the traders to disobey the lockdown orders of the government. “Our actions are meant to safeguard the peoples’ lives,” he said and added “they could be arrested for their deliberate unlawful provocation but we will not do so as the national interest ,” he said. He said even in Peshawar, anyone who has attempted to reopen his business during the lockdown had to face strong censure.

He said the federal ministers are needlessly rejecting Sindh govt’s moves to contain the virus, but stay mum when similar measures are taken elsewhere in the country including Islamabad were union councils were sealed. “Why is there a lockdown elsewhere in the country if coronavirus is not a serious issue,” he said. “The actual issue is that they (the federal authorities) have been embarrassed because of the good work done by Sindh government,” said the Information minister.

The provincial minister said that the National Disaster Management Authority has not given a single ventilator to the Sindh government and only 16,000 N-95 surgical masks were given by the NDMA. He went on to claim that up to 90 per cent testing kits used in the province were imported by the provincial government on its own. “Instead we were given defective kits as they had to be returned on the advice of the doctors,” he said. He said the provincial government is strictly following the WHO outlined procedures for coronavirus testing. Nasir Hussain Shah expressed the readiness to hold talks to improve arrangements related to the 18th Constitutional Amendment and National Finance Commission award.

Firing a broadside at the central government and some of the federal ministers, Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said that those who had become chief executive of the country on basis of a razor-thin majority of just three seats (in the National Assembly) are in no position to alter the 18th Constitutional Amendment. “How could people like Ali Zaidi and Faisal Vawda tell us about the 18th Constitutional Amendment,” he said. He alleged that even the prime minister does not know about chapters of the Constitution.

He also criticised the prime minister for ignoring Sindh during visits to other provinces, saying he visits other provinces but skips ours and that too during the countrywide-health emergency.“Doesn’t he consider himself the prime minister of Sindh, we surely think he is,” said an irate Ghani. He said that federal authorities should stop character assassination of their political rivals at least for coming six months in view of the present crisis.

Meanwhile, PML-N leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said the 18th Amendment cannot be changed as it is now a part of the Constitution.