18th Amendment bill tabled, Zia’s name deleted

The Federal Cabinet in a special meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday unanimously approved the proposed 18th amendment bill 2010.The bill is placed before the both houses of the parliament by the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said the passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2010 will strengthen the federation and democracy.
He further said that the bill would serve as a landmark in the constitutional history of the country and that the people would long remember this achievement of their elected representatives.Earlier, Raza Rabbani, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms explained salient features of the bill.He said it was a unique peace of legislation in many ways.The most important feature is that an incumbent President himself has given away his powers to the parliament and the people of Pakistan.Moreover, the bill will seek to repeal LFO as well as 17th amendment which were the symbols of dictatorial regime. General Zia-ul-Haq’s name has also been stricken out from the Constitution, he said.He further said that the passage of the bill will take the nation back to original constitution of 1973. This legislation has enjoyed maximum consensus of political parties on the issue of provincial autonomy.He informed the cabinet that the federal government will set up a committee to oversee the implementation and to provide guidance in framing the rules that will be required for implementation of the provisions of the bill.Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said 18th Amendment was a dividend of politics of reconciliation that would strengthen institutions and create balance of power between the President and the Parliament. “Today all stakeholders are on one pitch.The President, the Prime Minister, Supreme Court and the Parliament are working in complete harmony and it is the biggest dividend of reconciliatory politics,” he said soon after Senator Raza Rabbani presented the 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill in the National Assembly.“Politics of reconciliation not only made us achieve this great goal but also paved way for Aghaz-e-Huqooq Balochistan, NFC Award and successfully fighting terrorism with full might,” he added.“It was the politics of reconciliation that the nation stood united in war against terrorism and it was for the first time in history of mankind that 2.5 million IDPs were repatriated to their houses within three months,” he added.He eulogized the national leadership who, he said, were united at one platform for the supreme national interest. “It is unity in diversity to do away with wrong doings of dictatorial regimes.” He appreciated the Constitutional Reforms Committee as well as its Chairman who brushed aside all confusions regarding these amendments. “I hold them in high esteem as they held 77 formal and more than 40 informal meetings to nullify the amendments of dictators. It manifest their commitment to the constitution.”
He said Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif realized the mistakes of past and jointly signed the Charter of Democracy (CoD) for restoration of real democracy in the country. “And these amendments constitute number of those sections as well as fulfillment of the manifesto of political parties.”
The Prime Minister appreciated the sacrifices of the nation and the armed forces in fight agaisnt terrorism.He said it was not an ordinary task to bring all state organs in their constitutional ambit because if only President had refused, there could have not been balance of power.“The amendments, this Parliament is going to make, are for strengthening the institutions, and not any individual as the dictators did in the past,” he said.
“When I met President Zardari, I said power is a musical chair. One should not go after a thing, that is not permanent. So we need to strengthen institutions and not the persons,” he said.The Prime Minister said during his tenure in the government neither there was any incident of political victimization nor there was any political prisoner.“What we have today, is a fruit of unity. No matter we are in government or in the opposition, let us pledge to stand united for supreme national interests,” the Prime Minister said and once again congratulated the Chairman and the members of the Constitutional Reforms Committee.