KARACHI: As the debate on the future of 18th Amendment to the Constitution is going on, Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal has said that the landmark legislation does not need to be scrapped but needs some amendments.

Kamal has been very vocal against 18th Amendment because no provincial government, especially the Sindh government, ever bothered to devolve powers they get from the Centre as a result of the constitutional amendment at the grassroots level i.e. local governments.

Not only the PSP, its nemesis, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan is also very critical of the 18th Amendment, mainly because of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s government in Sindh, and it time and again said that the people had been deceived in the name of 18th Amendment that in fact, according to party convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, led to “accumulation of powers” instead of “devolution of powers”.

“The fruits of 18th Amendment can only be reaped by empowering the people to the grassroots level through legal reforms,” said PSP chief Kamal while speaking at a meeting of his party’s central executive committee and national council.

Commenting about the constitution of the 10th National Finance Commission (NFC), he said that like NFC award, the provincial finance commission (PFC) award was also necessary so that all the funds, which lie with the chief ministers, should flow towards districts in a judicious manner.

“A complete chapter about local governments must be added [to the Constitution] by amending the 18th Amendment,” he said, adding: “An incomplete amendment is harming the country instead of benefiting it.”

He said that this important issue was raised before the 2018 general elections, but the rulers of that time preferred “personal interests over the national interest”.

The latest debate on 18th Amendment has begun after key Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said during a TV talk show that the 18th Amendment had some defects and called for reviewing it.

It gained momentum when Federal Information Minister Shibli Faraz said that the legislation was a hurdle in preparing a uniform policy to fight the coronavirus across the country as after the amendment the federal government’s role in various spheres had been limited to issuing policy guidelines.

However, earlier this week Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had told the Senate that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government had no plans to scrap the 18th Amendment, saying all its “positive” features were acceptable to the government, but there was a need to revisit the “weak” parts.

Major opposition parties — the PPP, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Awami National Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz — had made it clear that they would not allow the rollback of the historic amendment and protect the provincial autonomy granted under the 18th Amendment at all costs.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2020