December 30, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 6, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: The Constitution (Seventeenth Amendment) Bill was greeted with more brickbats and less flowers as it was introduced in the Senate for a general debate on Monday hours after being passed by the National Assembly.

PPP parliamentary leader Raza Rabbani opposed even the introduction of the bill by Minister of State for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Raza Hayat Hiraj and accused the government of not giving members enough time to review the bill’s contents.

“Are heavens falling? What is the urgency and how it is hampering the government’s functioning?” he asked.

But Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro allowed the minister to move the bill and gave opposition until noon on Tuesday to submit amendments.

Most of the 11 opposition members who took part in the debate opposed the LFO’s inclusion in the Constitution and termed it against the interests of provinces and an encroachment on provincial autonomy.

From treasury benches, only Senator S. M. Zafar of the ruling PML-Q, rose to defend the bill that he said would lead the country to a “win-win path”.

Initiating the debate, Mr Rabbani said the bill would change the basic structure of the 1973 Constitution and its passage in the National Assembly had identified forces that would continue to struggle for the supremacy of the Constitution and those who had colluded with undemocratic forces to disfigure it.

He said the present parliament had no right to change the basic structure of the Constitution that could be done only by a constituent assembly elected for the purpose.

He said the LFO had damaged the parliamentary, federal and democratic structures of the Constitution and changed the parliamentary form of government to a presidential form. “The prime minister and the parliament have been made subservient to the president through the LFO,” he added.

The PPP senator regretted that the fate of five elected assemblies was being given in the hands of an individual with no authority to challenge him and said the chief justice had also been made a part of the power equation.

PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar said those who had in the past voted against the Article 58-2(B) were now sitting on the other side supporting inclusion of the same article in the constitution. Criticising the MMA, he said those who had declared General Musharraf a security risk for the country due to his policies on Kashmir and Afghanistan were now supporting him. He asked why the government, despite having two-thirds majority in parliament, was not bringing the whole LFO for approval?

Referring to the bar placed on former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto from becoming prime minister again, he regretted that individual-specific laws were being enforced.

ANP chief Asfandyar Wali said a message had been sent to three smaller provinces that only one federating unit would now decide about the future president of the country and asked the rulers to learn lessons from the history and do not impose Islamabad’s decisions on smaller provinces.

Sanaullah Baloch of the BNP (Mengal) described the LFO as “Legal Fraud Order” and the amendment bill as “constitutional terrorism” to throw acid on the face of the Constitution and said the government was in a hurry to get all “misdeeds” of an individual validated before the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Mr S. M. Zafar, who was a member of the ruling coalition team that finalized the deal with the MMA, said the amendment bill would lead Pakistan to “a win-win path” in the same way as it helped in breaking a deadlock that had pervaded the country and parliament for one year.

He said the bill had laid the basis of a democratic culture in which parliament and democratic norms would function fully.