KARACHI: Former Senate chairman Senator Raza Rabbani has said that the idea of midterm elections in the country is being floated to ensure that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) gets absolute majority in the National Assembly.

Addressing a press conference in the Sindh Assembly building here on Friday, he said: “It seems Imran Khan, who doesn’t have absolute majority right now, will be handed the desired majority in the house through the midterm elections.”

He said the government lacked a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly and it seemed the government “would be given” such a majority through the midterm elections. “What dynamics and forces have compelled him [the prime minister] for new elections that early?” he asked.

He said that it was unfortunate that the jurisdiction of judiciary and other institutions was not being respected as defined in the Constitution. “In my opinion, at present there is a serious crisis of governance in the country. Unfortunately, the mechanisms for judiciary, executive and legislative, as defined in the Constitution, were neither being acted upon accordingly, nor were they being respected,” he regretted, adding that every institution was interfering in the other’s constitutional jurisdiction.

Mr Rabbani said the country was on the verge of an economic disaster and parliament had become virtually crippled.

“No one knows on what preconditions we are getting the loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and on what interest? Neither the people of this country nor parliament is being taken into confidence over such a crucial deal,” he said.

He said it was high time that parliament was strengthened to deal with challenging times. He deplored the waning influence of the Council of Common Interests and demanded that the government announce the new National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.

“The NFC Award was not awarded during dictatorships and such negative tradition should not be followed by democratic governments,” said Senator Rabbani.

He said the Senate should be empowered to allow for any delays in the NFC Award, adding that any cuts in the award would not be in the interest of less populous provinces.

Mr Rabbani proposed an amendment to Article 57 of the Constitution to make chief ministers members of the Senate so that they could raise issues involving their provinces before members of the upper house.

He also proposed that a senator of necessity become a resident of a province from where he or she was being elected. Senator Rabbani also demanded mandatory approval by the Senate for the federal budget.

He said the country could not be rescued from persisting crises until parliament and federation were strengthened “no matter how heavy loans we get”.

He said the 18th Amendment was not a divine book and could be amended. However, he expressed his concern that plans were afoot to interfere in provincial subjects like health and education by the federal government through ordinances.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2018