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ISLAMABAD: It has now been finally and unanimously agreed by the Raza Rabbani constitutional reforms committee that all discretionary powers of the president of Pakistan will be transferred to the prime minister to make his office the real source of political power.
These powers will include the authority to appoint services chiefs, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and provincial governors. If these amendments are carried through in parliament, President Asif Zardari will be relegated to a figurehead, almost equal to Rafiq Tarar and Fazal Elahi while Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani will become a powerful person. But Zardari will still be the PPP co-chairman, a key position.
It has also been decided with the consensus that other presidential discretionary powers like dissolution of the National Assembly and dismissal of the federal government (Article 58(2)(b), and appointment of the Federal Public Service Commission chairman will also be shifted to the prime minister through the new constitutional amendment package, a committee member told The News.
He said at present the presidents power to nominate provincial governors was not discretionary, but it was exercised after consultation with the prime minister under Article 101, which would also go to the prime minister.
The president will be left with the job of receiving credentials of foreign ambassadors and putting his signatures on whatever laws he will receive from parliament controlled by the prime minister, another committee member said.
He said not even the representatives of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the 26-member parliamentary body resisted undoing of the presidential powers and giving them to the prime minister. A complete consensus was worked out through debate and discussion, he added.
However, notwithstanding the public vows and declarations of top government leaders, doubts are being continuously expressed whether President Zardari would actually concur to shedding all his vital powers.
This raises two serious political possibilities. One is that the president may fight to keep his powers, which could even derail the whole process of constitutional amendments. The second is that Zardari may try to climb down and once the office of the prime minister is empowered, he may want to occupy that office instead of Gilani.
The member said now the committee was engaged in the most sensitive issue of fresh determination of the quantum of provincial autonomy. He said considerable time would be required to hammer out a consensus in this connection as smaller parties and nationalists, especially from Balochistan, have pressed for enhanced provincial autonomy.
He said these representatives are emphasising the centre should retain only three subjects defence, foreign affairs and currency and hand over all others to provinces. The PML-N is opposed to this kind of provincial autonomy.
The member said smaller parties have made it clear they would support the constitutional amendment bill only if their demand about greater provincial autonomy was accepted. Another issue, he said, that still needed resolution was the renaming of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Awami National Party (ANP) demands that the NWFP should be renamed as Pukhtoonkhwa and the PPP subscribes to this while the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and the PML-Q are opposed to it but have agreed to find out some other universally acceptable title for this province. During discussions between the PML-N and the ANP, different names like Abaseen, Khyber and Gandhara have been considered.
Yet another member said the law ministry would actually draft the new constitutional amendment bill, incorporating consensus recommendations of the committee. He said the parliamentary body would hand over its proposals to the law ministry for this purpose. Since drafting is a technical job, it will be done by the law ministry, not the committee.
However, he said after preparing the draft the ministry would send it to the committee, which would scrutinise it to see whether all its recommendations have been included in it in their true spirit.
But doubts prevails whether the constitutional bill will pass the Senate and the National Assembly before March 23 or would it be just tabled in both the houses of parliament by this deadline given by the prime minister for quite some time.
The bill can be passed within no time without any debate if the parliamentary parties so agree because it were their representatives, who had approved it after intense deliberations spanning more than a year.
The second Nawaz Sharif government had done away with the presidents discretionary powers, contained in the Eighth Amendment, in a few minutes as the Senate and the National Assembly had passed the constitutional bill with lightning speed the same day. This had become possible only after the then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the then-opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had reached an out-of-the-house agreement to cancel the presidential powers.
Committee sources say although the parliamentary body has been moving at a slow pace, it has never been hit with a serious impasse. They say regardless of what the government leaders have been publicly trumpeting, their representatives in the committee have been cooperating and accommodating each others views.
They say the new constitutional package would knock out the most controversial parts of the 17th Amendment passed by parliament during Pervez Musharrafs era. But its provisions like reduction in the voting age to 18 years, increase in the number seats of the Senate, the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies and grant of voting right to the minorities have been kept in place by the parliamentary body, they say.
All agree that Zardaris powers should go
These powers will include the authority to appoint services chiefs, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and provincial governors. If these amendments are carried through in parliament, President Asif Zardari will be relegated to a figurehead, almost equal to Rafiq Tarar and Fazal Elahi while Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani will become a powerful person. But Zardari will still be the PPP co-chairman, a key position.
It has also been decided with the consensus that other presidential discretionary powers like dissolution of the National Assembly and dismissal of the federal government (Article 58(2)(b), and appointment of the Federal Public Service Commission chairman will also be shifted to the prime minister through the new constitutional amendment package, a committee member told The News.
He said at present the presidents power to nominate provincial governors was not discretionary, but it was exercised after consultation with the prime minister under Article 101, which would also go to the prime minister.
The president will be left with the job of receiving credentials of foreign ambassadors and putting his signatures on whatever laws he will receive from parliament controlled by the prime minister, another committee member said.
He said not even the representatives of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the 26-member parliamentary body resisted undoing of the presidential powers and giving them to the prime minister. A complete consensus was worked out through debate and discussion, he added.
However, notwithstanding the public vows and declarations of top government leaders, doubts are being continuously expressed whether President Zardari would actually concur to shedding all his vital powers.
This raises two serious political possibilities. One is that the president may fight to keep his powers, which could even derail the whole process of constitutional amendments. The second is that Zardari may try to climb down and once the office of the prime minister is empowered, he may want to occupy that office instead of Gilani.
The member said now the committee was engaged in the most sensitive issue of fresh determination of the quantum of provincial autonomy. He said considerable time would be required to hammer out a consensus in this connection as smaller parties and nationalists, especially from Balochistan, have pressed for enhanced provincial autonomy.
He said these representatives are emphasising the centre should retain only three subjects defence, foreign affairs and currency and hand over all others to provinces. The PML-N is opposed to this kind of provincial autonomy.
The member said smaller parties have made it clear they would support the constitutional amendment bill only if their demand about greater provincial autonomy was accepted. Another issue, he said, that still needed resolution was the renaming of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Awami National Party (ANP) demands that the NWFP should be renamed as Pukhtoonkhwa and the PPP subscribes to this while the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and the PML-Q are opposed to it but have agreed to find out some other universally acceptable title for this province. During discussions between the PML-N and the ANP, different names like Abaseen, Khyber and Gandhara have been considered.
Yet another member said the law ministry would actually draft the new constitutional amendment bill, incorporating consensus recommendations of the committee. He said the parliamentary body would hand over its proposals to the law ministry for this purpose. Since drafting is a technical job, it will be done by the law ministry, not the committee.
However, he said after preparing the draft the ministry would send it to the committee, which would scrutinise it to see whether all its recommendations have been included in it in their true spirit.
But doubts prevails whether the constitutional bill will pass the Senate and the National Assembly before March 23 or would it be just tabled in both the houses of parliament by this deadline given by the prime minister for quite some time.
The bill can be passed within no time without any debate if the parliamentary parties so agree because it were their representatives, who had approved it after intense deliberations spanning more than a year.
The second Nawaz Sharif government had done away with the presidents discretionary powers, contained in the Eighth Amendment, in a few minutes as the Senate and the National Assembly had passed the constitutional bill with lightning speed the same day. This had become possible only after the then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the then-opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had reached an out-of-the-house agreement to cancel the presidential powers.
Committee sources say although the parliamentary body has been moving at a slow pace, it has never been hit with a serious impasse. They say regardless of what the government leaders have been publicly trumpeting, their representatives in the committee have been cooperating and accommodating each others views.
They say the new constitutional package would knock out the most controversial parts of the 17th Amendment passed by parliament during Pervez Musharrafs era. But its provisions like reduction in the voting age to 18 years, increase in the number seats of the Senate, the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies and grant of voting right to the minorities have been kept in place by the parliamentary body, they say.
All agree that Zardaris powers should go
