ISLAMABAD, April 22: The hastily constituted National Security Council (NSC) will militarize the 1973 Constitution and infringes upon the provincial autonomy, said PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate Raza Rabbani here on Thursday.
Speaking at the Islamabad Bar Association, Mr Rabbani said the 13-seat NSC body tended to circumvent the civil-military equation and attempted to revert back to military form of governance without realizing the fact that the same experiment was exercised during Ayub Khan's period, which proved to be a complete failure.
The senator focussed his speech on the implications which flow from the passage of NSC and the 17th constitutional amendment, which, according to him, had put the institutions against an individual. He also described the 17th amendment as an "illegal document."
"The existence of the national and four provincial assemblies is now dependent on the whims of President Pervez Musharraf as even the governor of a province would have first to seek the advice of the president before dismissing the assembly," he explained.
Referring to MQM's amendment to the NSC bill, Mr Rabbani said it was, in fact, aimed to weaken the parliament because after its becoming part of the legislation, the supreme body has reduced to the status of a mere implementing agency of the NSC.
He said vague and ambiguous terms had been deliberately used in the bill only to enlarge its jurisdiction by suggesting that the council would discuss matters relating to the national security, sovereignty, defence and crisis management.
"This means that whenever there is a water shortage in Islamabad, or price hike, law and order situation or any national calamity, the jurisdiction of the NSC will be invoked in the name of crisis management," he said.
