Effective role for CCI being studied: New package soon
By Rafaqat Ali
ISLAMABAD, July 4: The government is set to introduce amendments to Part V of the Constitution, relating to federation-provinces relations, making it mandatory for the elected government to convene meetings of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) periodically for resolving the differences between the federation and the federating units.
According to reliable sources, the National Reconstruction Bureau is actively working on the proposed amendments which would be included in the second constitutional amendment package, likely to be introduced shortly.
The amendments are being introduced with a view to strengthening the federation, and providing the provinces a chance to voice their concern at the CCI meeting.
It was being felt that the object of the Council of Common Interests, envisaged by the constitutional makers, was defeated by the successive governments which avoided to hold its meeting as it was not mandatory.
The attitude of the successive elected government was also deplored by the Supreme Court in its two judgments. The Supreme Court in its judgments said that a forum which was meant for ironing out differences between the federation and provinces, had been made ineffective.
The government is considering that at least two meetings of the Council of Common Interests must be held in one year, and the members of the Council of Common Interests should also have the option to convene it.
The government is also considering providing constitutional cover to the National Accountability Bureau. It is, however, not clear whether it would be protected as a constitutional body, mandated to check corruption, or as a body under a law, like the Federal Ombudsman which was created by former military dictaror Gen Ziaul Haq.
Nobody is certain about the future of the NRB and it would be up to the president to take a decision in this regard.
EMERGENCY PROVISIONS: After reading through the provisions the government has apparently decided not to meddle with them.
It had studied the provisions with a view to removing the provision of imposing emergency to deal with internal disturbances.
The idea was based on the Indian experience which had almost identical provisions in its constitution. In India, after the amendment to Emergency Provisions, the central government has no power to impose emergency to control “internal disturbance.”
In Pakistan, the federal government has the option of imposing emergency in the country or any part of it, in case of “war or external aggression or by internal disturbance beyond the power of provincial government to control.”
The emergency provisions would remain unchanged, giving an option to the next government to impose emergency in any part of the country to control “internal disturbance”.
