KARACHI, July 8: The central committee of National Workers Party has supported all the positive steps of the government, including restoration of joint electorate, reducing voting age to 18 years, direct elections to Senate and increase in number of reserved seats for women and workers etc..

The NWP, however, declared that it would oppose all attempts aimed at undermining the spirit of parliamentary democracy.

“The NWP does not believe in opposing merely theoretical and on academic grounds all measures announced by the present government, including even the positive ones that tend to strengthen the democratic process,” said central committee which met here on Sunday at the residence of party secretary general Yousuf Mastikhan. NWP president Abid Hasan Minto was in the chair. Twenty out of 24 members from all the four provinces attended the meeting.

“These positive measures cannot be enforced without corresponding amendments in the Constitution,” said a press release, stating that, “the NWP supports these measures, as these have been party’s demands all along. In fact, if the present government goes further and introduces constitutional amendments to abrogate Ziaul Haq’s anachronistic laws, like Hudood Ordinance and abolish institutions of parallel judiciary, like Shariat Courts, the NWP would welcome such steps.”

However, the NWP would oppose all attempts which were aimed at undermining the spirit of parliamentary democracy by whittling down the powers of elected parliament, it categorically stated.

In the system of parliamentary democracy, the elected parliament is supreme. The NWP cannot support the attempts to concentrate all powers in the hands of the president and create supra-parliamentary bodies, like National Security Council, in the name of check and balances, and use those powers to dissolve the elected parliament and dismiss the government, enjoying the parliament’s confidence, it added, saying that the NSC, for the exclusive purpose of overseeing defence of the country, might be an acceptable proposition and nothing more.

The central committee stated that the NWP would participate in the coming elections and negotiate for electoral adjustments with other like-minded political parties and groups on a minimum common agenda, but would not have any electoral alliances or adjustments with religious parties.

The NWP considered it unethical on the part of the government to hold elections to the women’s and technocrats’ seats through proportional system while conducting elections to national assembly, Senate and provincial assemblies through direct vote..—PPI