February 04, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 15, 1428

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HYDERABAD, Feb 3: Speakers at an interactive dialogue on Saturday advocated complete autonomy to provinces, direct elections for Senate and appointment through Senate to important government posts including that of superior judiciary.

They also sought the abolition of concurrent list and opposed the bifurcation of provinces in the name of provincial autonomy while expressing their views at the dialogue on "National Integration and Provincial Autonomy" organised by Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Department at a local hotel.

Over 30 speakers discussed constitutional, provincials and legal aspects of the present system, provincial issues, inter-provincial harmony and rights of provinces and submitted their recommendations to the IPC secretary.

Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) President Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah said that the rulers must learn lessons from the situation in Balochistan. The silence of Sindhis should not be mistaken for complacency. If remedial measures were not taken in time anything could happen here, he warned.

Jami Chandio, a writer, said that the state was confronted with multidimensional crisis. Even if the constitution was restored it would be of little use until the establishment’s role was done away with, he added.

He spoke about a conspiracy being hatched in Islamabad to bifurcate provinces before granting them autonomy and said if it happened it would lead the country to disintegration.

The Senate should be granted political and financial rights and the constitutional post of governor and the local bodies system should be cancelled. "Regional languages should be declared national languages," he said.

Prof. Inam Sheikh referred to the signing of National Finance Commission award by Mumtaz Bhutto-led interim government in 1997 which changed the formula of NFC’s divisible pool reducing the share of provinces to 37 per cent from 80 per cent.

Amanullah Sheikh Advocate threw doubt on the present 1940 Resolution and said that the resolution drafted by Sikandar Hayat should be incorporated in the Constitution. The words of "provinces" should be replaced with "nation states" in the resolution, he said.

Prof. Miskeen Manzoor, an academic, said that the federation was like a family and its prosperity was linked to the integration of four brothers. He supported decentralisation quoting Ashoka, the great, who he said disbanded his army of 0.7 million when he saw 0.1 million people killed and maimed in Kalinga war though he continued to rule his empire comprising the present India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The patriotism could not be instilled in people through TV or press alone. It was basically a question of the restitution of rights to people, he said.

Barrister Zamir Ghamro said that subjects of police, land and local governments were in the federation’s control in utter violation of the constitution. All the subjects which were part of Federal Legislative List-II were to be controlled by Council of Common Interests (CCI), he said.

He pointed out to disparity in the distribution of seats of Federal Pubic Service Commission according to which 75 per cent went to Punjab while the remaining 25 per cent were divided among three provinces.