PESHAWAR, Aug 30: The NWFP government has recommended 17 amendments to the Constitution, one of them seeking the office of the president to rotate among the four provinces.
A special committee of the provincial cabinet, headed by Education Minister Maulana Fazle Ali, had proposed at a recent cabinet meeting 25 amendments, 17 of which were approved by the cabinet. Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani presided over the meeting. The recommendations will soon be forwarded to the federal government.
The cabinet had constituted the committee on provincial autonomy to prepare a comprehensive package on administrative and financial rights of smaller federating units facing poverty and backwardness. Besides Fazle Ali, four provincial ministers -- Asif Iqbal Daudzai, Inyatullah Khan, Husain Ahmed Kanju and Amanullah Haqqani -- are members of the committee.
In its previous eight meetings, the committee sought the views of prominent lawyers who had worked on the issue and compiled recommendations.
The committee also considered 21 amendments sent by the federal government. It rejected seven of them on the grounds that these were repugnant to the spirit of provincial autonomy.
Briefing journalists on the cabinet meeting here on Thursday, Fazle Ali said the committee had proposed an amendment to clause (1) of Article 41, demanding rotation of presidency, and suggested that under the process the first president should be from the province with the smallest population.
He said the committee had proposed an amendment to Article 27 of the Constitution ensuring protection against discrimination in services. It recommended to the centre that poverty and backwardness should be made a criterion for distribution of federal services among the federating units.
The committee also proposed an amendment to clause (1 to 4) of Article 48, seeking exclusion from the caretaker set-up of the sitting prime minister who would advise the president to dissolve the National Assembly.
It demanded abolition of the concurrent list and delegation of legislative powers to the provinces. “The provincial governments should make decisions on subjects in consonance with their own environmental and public needs.”
The committee proposed a ban on nomination of a governor from the provinces other than his/her own province and president’s consultation with the provincial government concerned on the nomination.
It proposed that a former chief justice or retired judge should be made chairman of the National Finance Commission which should meet twice a year. The NFC should make poverty, backwardness and geographical location of the provinces as criteria for distribution of financial resources. The commission must submit its five-year report to the president, it said, adding that the National Economic Council should also meet twice a year.
“The committee proposed to the federal government to delegate some of its powers to the chief minister so that the provincial government could run its legislative affairs smoothly,” Fazle Ali said, adding: “If the governor fails to approve an ordinance within a week, it should automatically be taken as a provincial act.”
The committee proposed that the chief election commissioner should be nominated with the consent of treasury and opposition benches.
The provincial minister said the committee had sought opinions of other political parties having representation in the provincial assembly on the issue and incorporated their views in the package.
