07 January 2004	Wednesday	14 Ziqa'ad 1424

PESHAWAR, Jan 6: Opposing the idea of creating new federating units by dividing Punjab, Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan has recommended a more active role for the Senate to ensure level playing field for all the four provinces.

"ANP is against the idea of increasing the number of federating units or creating parity among them in the National Assembly, rather, it seeks greater powers for the Senate to make it an entity effective enough to guarantee equal rights," Mr Asfandyar Wali told newsmen here on Tuesday.

He suggested that the Senate should have powers to vote on the annual money bill, otherwise, it would remain to be a 'toothless' entity as it was today."We don't say that the federating units should have equal number of representatives in the National Assembly, but we believe that the Senate needs to be placed with more authority to remove the sense of deprivation among smaller provinces."

At the press conference attended by a large number of party leaders and supporters, he focused on the adoption of the 17th Amendment agreement on provincial autonomy and greater role for the Senate.

He said the 17th Amendment had caused negative effects and feared that it might resultinserious consequences. He took exception to the MMA-PML (Q) deal and accused the religious parties' alliance of helping President Pervez Musharraf to seek vote of confidence and legitimize his election as president under the referendum.

"MMA had opposed his election through referendum, but now it helped him to get validated the same by parliament under the 17th Amendment," the ANP chief added.

Similarly, he pointed out that in clear contradiction to its earlier stand against giving cover to district governments under the 6th schedule of the Constitution, the MMA had now inked approvaltomaintain the same under the 17th Amendment.

"This has clearly reflected the MMA's true character and double standards," Mr Asfandyar said. Terming the presidential vote of confidence as against the Constitution, Mr Asfandyar said the pattern introduced was aimed at helping Mr Musharraf, which posed potential threat to the integrity and sovereignty of the country.

The result of the vote of confidence had clearly reflected thatMrMusharraf had been reposed trust onlybythe parliamentarians and members of the provincial assembly of Punjab.

"This reflects that he lacks confidence of other provinces and is the President of Punjab not Pakistan," he added. The votes polled to him in the provincial assemblies of NWFP and Balochistan had were much lesser than needed, he said.

"Had the MMA not taken part in the proceedings of the NWFP and Balochistan their sessions could not have been held due to lack of quorum," the ANP chief said.

The voting criteria introduced for the presidential vote of confidence had given an absolute edge toPunjab establishing its 'hegemony' on other provinces as, from now onward, candidates supported by Punjab's legislatures would not need support of other provinces' representatives, he added.

The country, he added, was once again confronted the situation posed to it in 1971 when it lost its eastern wing. "Smaller provinces are fast losing sense of participationand this trend is against the interest of the federation," the ANP chief said.