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| September 22, 2005 | Thursday | Sha'aban 17, 1426 |
‘Strong centre given up for stronger Pakistan’
ISLAMABAD, Sept 21: A ruling party leader closed two days of bitter discussions on the relations between the federation and its units here on Wednesday by announcing that the new National Finance Commission (NFC) award will be announced next month.
“A strong centre does not equal Pakistan, rather strong provinces equal strong Pakistan,” Senator Mushahid Hussain, the secretary-general of Pakistan Muslim League, told the concluding session of a seminar on the problems and politics of federalism in Pakistan.
Denial of autonomy and due share to the provinces in the national income was the constant refrain of the political analysts and former bureaucrats, who participated in the seminar organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute with funds from the Haans Seidel Foundation of Germany.
Sen Mushahid Hussain admitted that lack of representation in the power structure, lack of respect for mandate, even under civilian dispensation, and absence of a political culture based on co-existence undermined provincial autonomy over the years.
But “the mindset of the 1950s and 1960s” has been replaced by political dialogue, devolution of power and tolerance, he said.
Moreover, in his view, the 1998 nuclear tests “gave a sense of confidence to the nation and strengthened the federation”.
“Serious discussion on provincial autonomy is no longer a taboo or a holy cow, and separatist regional forces have been included in the mainstream of the political culture,” said the PML leader.
Also, the devolution of power from the provinces to the districts had, for the first time, subordinated the bureaucracy to the elected representatives, he added.
But speaking before him a former senior bureaucrat, Mr Inayatullah, had termed the devolution plan “flawed”, a sure recipe to fortifying ‘Biradrism’ in local politics and an intrusion into the provinces’ powers.
“You cannot confine the provincial government to two secretariat buildings. Whatever is to be done (by the provincial government), they have to do in the districts,” said the bureaucrat with vast experience as federal secretary in various ministries.
Apparently, he saw a rat in the new local government system. “Why they are so keen about it?” he wondered, recalling that Ayub Khan had turned his creation - the Basic Democrats - into his electoral college.
Another former federal secretary, Dr Gulfaraz Ahmad, pleaded for “equitability in developing provincial economic resources”. But he stressed that equality should be based not on rupees per capita allocation but on delivery of public service per capita.
An Honor Graduate of the US Army Engineers School, Virginia, the former secretary of petroleum and natural resources said the constitution did not prevent determining the provinces’ share in development funds on the basis of “economic disparities” - like Balochistan had vast area but small population which raised the cost of development, NWFP suffers from backwardness, Punjab from large population and Sindh complains of receiving less despite collecting the largest amount of taxes for the federation.
Dr Pervez Tahir, Chief Economist in the Planning Commission, however, reminded that distribution was not an economic issue but a problem of attitudes.
Since local consensus on interests of a province defines its claim in the national cake, compromises become difficult in the negotiations on the NFC awards. “You violate the local consensus and you have the problem of Bangladesh,” he said recalling the consequences for East Pakistan to accept parity with the West Pakistan for the sake of the 1956 constitution despite its 54 per cent majority in population.
Economists, he said, look at the economy of a country not its politics. If it is efficient to breakup a country for the sake of optimal size economy, it would be broken up - peacefully like Czechoslovakia or violently like Pakistan.
Former finance minister Dr Mubashir Hasan, who chaired one of concluding sessions of the seminar, disclosed that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had conceded all the financial demands made by the leaders of NWFP and Balochistan during the negotiations on framing the 1973 constitution but late Ghulam Farooq, who helped the NWFP Chief Minister Mufti Mahmud in the negotiations wanted “a mechanism” to make the financial allocations to the province and so the National Finance Commission was created.
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