Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Pakistan - ‘Centre, provinces lack of trust increasing’

Leader of opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah on Wednesday said that lack of confidence was increasing between the federal government and the provinces and the country was facing both internal and external challenges.

Speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly, he said that Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had openly expressed their differences with the centre on many issues. He said that the federal government was not serious to remove lack of trust with the provinces as evident for not calling the meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

He said that the CCI was the forum where the problems between the centre and the provinces could be resolved and according to the 1973 Constitution and its sessions should be held twice in a year. He said that the federal government was not calling CCI’s session fearing that the provinces would raise the issues being faced by them. It was total deviation from the constitution.

The opposition leader said that the federal government was not giving due respect to the parliament. It was evident from the fact that neither Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif nor his cabinet members, except a few, attended the sessions, which was a matter of serious concern.

Khursheed said that the parliament had helped the government on many occasions to come out of troubled situation. Since the government now considered it secure, therefore, it was ignoring it. He said that it was regretted that one-third members of the House belonged to the opposition, but their presence outnumbered those present on the treasury bench.

“The parliament was mother of all institutions. If it will be strong then all other institutions would be strong. If this cannot do its main function of legislation and guiding the government in devising national policies, then it will lose its importance,” he said.

He said that the legislation process was too slow. The present government had almost completed three years of its tenure and got passed only 37 bills from the parliament till date.

He said that the parliament stood nowhere if every matter was to be decided by courts. He said that the parliament had lost people’s trust but the government was not taking it serious. The contradiction in the statements of Adviser on Foreign Affairs at the floor of the House had made the country a laughing stock in the world.

He urged the Speaker National Assembly to take notice of the “indifferent attitude” being meted to the parliament by the government.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/national/06-Jan-2016/centre-provinces-lack-of-trust-increasing

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