Side-effect Maturing, a bit

The unanimous passing of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution by the National Assembly is something close to a feat in this chaotic, polarised and charged political atmosphere. This happened after much haggling between the treasury and the opposition benches, and, perhaps between the ruling coalition partners as well.
While the nitpickers see the provision of legal cover to 28 members elected to parliament and assemblies during the last four years through bye-elections as the only reason for the amendment, there is so much more to it that should not go unnoticed.
Although one is in favour of providing legal cover to the bye-elections too, more important is the agreement between legislators on strengthening an independent and robust election commission, the process of forming a neutral caretaker government to hold elections and a proviso to nominate members against reserved seats even after the exhaustion of the already submitted priority list of the candidates by respective parties.
Most significant is the delegation of powers to appoint caretaker set-ups from the president at the federal level and the governors at the provincial level to the leaders of the house, i e prime minister and chief ministers, and leaders of the opposition in each house. This process will be supported by respective committees comprising both the treasury and opposition members.
What one would like to see in due course now is the restoration of the elected local governments with full authority and resources to ensure that fundamental municipal services reach every citizen and, subsequently, the abolition of development funds earmarked for legislators in parliament, as well as in the provincial assemblies.
This practice was encouraged during the Zia years but religiously adhered to with increased allocations by all who followed. Legislators must concentrate on deliberating constitutional amendments required from time to time for the smooth functioning of the state and the passing of legislation that is both smart and pro-people. Of course, their oversight and representation roles must continue on the floor as well as through the standing and working committees or issue-based commissions.
One would also like to see a more empowered Senate with more authority around money bills. The reason is simple. Constitutionally, Pakistan is a federation and not a unitary state. It is only in the Senate that all federating units are equally represented.
The induction of four minority members, one from each province, has already been introduced. Gilgit-Baltistan remains to be represented in the Senate. When new provinces are made, they must also not be ignored.
At some point soon, parliament will have to consider setting up a separate federal constitutional court as well. Currently, the regular courts look at the constitutional issues. Both our own experience and good practice elsewhere confirms that the current process in this regard needs to be improved by rehashing the present institutional arrangements.
But our new knight in shining armour, Khan Sahib, who had boycotted the 2008 elections because they were held under a dictator after supporting the referendum for electing the same dictator and serving a full-term in parliament under him, is unhappy. Or maybe he dismissed the 20th Amendment without reading its contents.
The scary bit is that after the national assembly unanimously agrees on setting up a neutral caretaker government and a more independent election commission to hold elections, Khan Sahib warns of a civil war if elections are not held freely and fairly. What does that supposed to mean? If the PTI doesn’t win, there will be civil war? Goodness, the desperation to make it to power without having learnt the ropes.

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and author.
Email: harris.khalique@gmail. com