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| August 2, 2002 | Friday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 22,1423 |
Govt begins study of people’s reaction to proposed amendments
ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: The government on Thursday began wading through 6,000 pages of public reaction to deeply controversial constitutional changes proposed by President Pervez Musharraf.
The National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), a government think-tank tasked with redesigning Pakistan’s political and civil structures, said it had received a huge public response to the proposals by the July 31 submissions deadline.
“We’ve received thousands of faxes, we’re also scanning editorials, newspaper columns, political party statements, letters to editors, and opinions from direct sources,” an NRB spokesman told AFP.
“Altogether we’ve got 6,000 pages of public comment.”
Musharraf unveiled his proposed changes in two separate instalments on June 26 and July 12, inviting “public debate”.
Despite a storm of outrage at the proposals, Musharraf has proclaimed he has the backing of “the silent majority” and said he would enact “essential changes” before national elections in October.
Further reforms would be left to the post-October parliament to debate, he has said.
Almost all political parties, civil organisations, lawyers’ groups and analysts have slammed the proposals as a move to bolster Musharraf’s power and give the military a permanent role in politics.
Central to the changes is the establishment of a National Security Council, to be headed by Musharraf and to include the country’s four top military chiefs, which would be empowered to sack the elected prime minister and cabinet.
The Council would give the armed forces a constitutional political role for the first time in Pakistan, although they have ruled the country for more than half that period.
The NRB, headed by a retired army general, will draw up a summary of the responses and present it to Musharraf after his return Friday from a five-day Asian trip.
“We are making a thorough study of suggestions that have been made by different quarters including parties, intellectuals and experts,” he said.
Critics say Musharraf is “mutilating” Pakistan’s 1973 Constitution and trying to turn the country’s parliamentary system of government into a presidential system.
They also say that as an unelected military ruler, Musharraf has no right to tinker with the Constitution, as the document states it can only be amended by an elected parliament.
Musharraf however insists his government was authorized to make changes under a May 2000 Supreme Court ruling.
Musharraf has insisted the changes were aimed at ensuring “checks” on government power.
He has repeatedly said that the four democratically elected governments in the turbulent 11 years that preceded his takeover were riddled with misrule, corruption and weak governance.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), one of the two largest parties which is spearheading a 15-party alliance opposed to Musharraf, has taken its complaints over the constitutional package to the United Nations.
PPP wrote to UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson laying out the “negative effects on democracy and civil society” of the “drastic and fundamental” changes and urged the rights chief to examine them urgently.
The proposals “seek to institutionalize dictatorship and change the status of the parliament from the sovereign to an irrelevant institution,” PPP human rights coordinator wrote.—AFP
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