Mistrust widening between Centre, provinces: Khursheed

Questions why session of CCI not being called 

ISLAMABAD: Seeing a “growing trust deficit between the federal government and provinces”, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly (NA) Syed Khurshid Shah on Wednesday questioned why the session of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) is not being called. 

He contended that if someone went to the Supreme Court with an issue and an order is passed for its resolution, what would be the status of the legislature. “What will then be the need for this institution (parliament)? There should be no ifs and buts with regards to compliance with the Constitution,” he said.

He charged the Centre was avoiding parliament as well as the Constitution with regards to key national and world issues. Shah said Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had very serious issues with the federal government, being reflected in the media too, and Punjab and Balochistan also have those issues, but since the ruling PML-N had governments there, these had not hitherto surfaced in public. 

He questioned why Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz had to say in the House that he would give a detailed statement on Pakistan’s policy on the Saudi-Iran row after talks with the Saudi Foreign Minister, who arrives here on Friday.

After the question hour, Shah rose to accuse the government of ignoring the Constitution and not taking parliament seriously. He referred to the vacant seats of the majority of the treasury benches. This thin presence of lawmakers ultimately led to early adjournment of the sitting due to a lack of quorum.

Leader of the Opposition recalled how the prime minister and the ministers used to daily sit in parliament when the government faced difficult times: an obvious reference to the PTI and PAT’s protests and sit-in in the federal capital. “Don’t forget, it is this parliament, which gave strength to you and rescued the government, which is now being ignored,” he noted.

He alleged parliament was not being given due importance, as the House and the galleries were empty. He urged the Speaker to take notice of a minister, who recently said that Premier Yousaf Raza Gillani used to be present in parliament, as he had nothing to do. Despite repeated questions, he declined to name the minister.

Shah questioned why a signal was being sent to the masses that parliament was doing nothing and that it was rendered redundant, whereas the fact was parliament was the mother of all institutions and its strength was the strength of other state entities.

“We are losing the trust of the public in democracy and parliament. Bind your members to be present in the House,” he asserted and recounted the performance of parliament in 2008-2013, mentioning the galleries were not deserted then. Some opposition MNAs chanted ‘shame, shame’. 

He claimed during two and a half years, the previous government had done 67 pieces of legislation, whereas the numbers of bills by the incumbent regime stood at 37. Shah read out operative articles of the Constitution to caution that the persistent overlooking of the Constitution was a dangerous practice and said the Council of Common Interests should meet at least twice in a year, but over nine months had passed and not a single meeting of the same had been held so far despite requests by the provinces.

“You are afraid that if a meeting of the council is convened, the provinces will raise issues and want their resolution and if there is a disagreement, then it will be referred to parliament,” he said.

He wanted the government to strengthen the Constitution and if the rulers thought themselves to be over and above it, it would not need enemies.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Shafqat Mehmood, taking part in the debate on the presidential address to parliament’s two chambers, wanted to know what transpired during telephonic talk between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Modi with reference to the Pathankot airbase raid.

He alleged the government’s priorities were misplaced, as it was overlooking real national issues, which included the fast increasing population of Pakistan and the government’s strategy thereon, saying it was missing from the president’s address.

Apart from spending funds on motorways, ring roads etc, he said, there was a dire need to invest in people by educating and training them. He added the second major issue was of water, as Pakistan was a water-stressed country and being an agricultural country, the masses wanted to know what the government was doing on this front.

He warned of social unrest and anarchy, if the government continued with its wrong policies, in total disregard to the national challenges and ground realities. He alleged the civil services were collapsing because of the serious governance crisis. 

Nafeesa Shah of PPP questioned whether the National Action Plan was against Daesh and Al-Qaeda or Dr Asim and Asif Zardari, alleging the National Action Plan had become the N-League Plan. She also wanted the term of ‘facilitator’ be defined, saying the prime minister and ministers could fall in the ambit of facilitators. She insisted there should be no politics on the National Action Plan. 

Despite the massive fall in prices of petroleum products, she pointed out, the youth was today unemployed, labourers were impoverished and the grower was demoralised. 

She also accused the government of non-seriousness and referred to the CCI, NEC and NFC, asking was the Constitution being followed on these very important bodies. The questions regarding LNG import, she noted, remained unanswered.

Dismissing opposition lawmakers’ observations regarding the trust deficit and the government ignoring parliament and following wrong policies, PML-N MNA Marvi Memon, who also heads the BISP, said the government was strictly following the agenda of unity and development in Pakistan.

She pointed out that issues like the energy crisis, economic revival were being ably tackled and read out statistics with reference to GDP growth, fall in the inflation rate, 40 percent increase development expenditure, bringing down the fiscal deficit, big increase in foreign exchange reserves and tax reforms.

“All these achievements were possible because of good governance. One million children of 5-12 years of are today enrolled in schools, who were out of schools. BISP is working on a number of plans of far-reaching impact,” she said.

She claimed no government policy was as such, which would disturb provincial harmony. Another ruling party MNA Awais Leghari, who is chairman of the NA standing committee on foreign affairs, defended the government policy on the Saudi-Iran situation and said the statement of Sartaj Aziz was also realistic and prudent.

He alleged the opposition was doing politics on an extremely sensitive issue, which could disturb sectarian harmony in Pakistan.  The MNA also welcomed Pakistan’s readiness to play a role to defuse tension between the two Muslim countries and said this could be done by engaging both and also involving 10-12 other OIC member countries.

He insisted the prime minister was fully aware of the fact that both countries were equally important and by siding with one, relations with the other could be undermined. Earlier, as Nafeesa Shah concluded her speech, PPP’s Imran Zafar Leghari rose to point out that the House lacked quorum. Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, chairing the sitting, called for recounting, upon which, some opposition MNAs started exiting the House while treasury lawmakers began to come in. 

He ordered a recount but the House still lacked quorum, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till Thursday morning.