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Mr. Zardari, once reviled as a corrupt man is getting accolades from even his worst critics. This site has written reams of critical analysis on Mr. Zardari. However we must call a spade a spade Mr. Zardari has been absolutely brilliant in the way he maneuvered himself into power. Since then, each and every one of his moves has been based on collaboration and consensus building. He first shunned parochialism in Sindh, made peace with the provincial parties, and even brought the nationalists on board. He then formed coalitions with the smaller parties in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa and Balochistan. He even tried a government of national unity, but that didn’t quite pan out. However he eliminated the rancor between the government and the opposition.

Mr. Zardari passed the Balochistan package reaching out to the nationalists, consecrated the National Finance Award, formed the “province’ of Gilgit-Baltistan, and then worked for a year “in secret” to revise the constitution and sanitize it of all bad influences. The 18th amendment is a miracle–who knew that Mr. Zardari could pull it off.

Hats off to you Mr. Zardari, for a job well done.

THANK YOU

Parts of the vitriolic press is beginning to take notice and the results have taken the edge off the Pakistanphobic rhetoric.

The constitution foresaw a parliamentary system of government and significant competencies for the four provinces, but soon power shifted to the president, a trend that became even more marked under the periods of military rule by Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf.

The reform, known as the 18th amendment, moves powers from the president to the prime minister and parliament, and from the federal level to the provinces. The president can no longer dissolve parliament at will, but only in specific, narrowly defined circumstances. The provinces will be exclusively in charge of a wide range of tasks, including social legislation, family law and criminal law. In signing the amendment, President Asif Ali Zadari will lose much of his authority, though he will remain extremely influential as co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples party.

Beyond the outcome, the constitutional reform is the result of an impressive process. In contrast to the fractious and poisonous relationships between political parties in the past, over the past 10 months all parliamentary parties negotiated the reform in 77 sessions of a parliamentary committee, ably steered by senator Raza Rabbani.

Dissent on various issues was recorded, but all members of the committee reached agreement in the overall interest of reform. Before final signature by the president, the amendments were approved unanimously by parties in both the lower and upper houses of the parliament.

In recent years, democracy has also flourished in other ways: the media has become much more free and courageous, the courts have asserted their independence and the 2008 elections saw a peaceful transfer of power.

There are two main problems facing Pakistan today–terrorism and energy shortage. The way the PPPP government has planned things, they will be tackling it with consensus.

After the removal of Mr. Musharraf, the restoration of the judiciary, and the ratification of the National Finance Commission (NFC) Awards, the 18th Amendment has been approved by the Parliament’s Constitutional Reforms Committee (CRC).

This is a great step forward.

This is a gargantuan step forward, and represents the fourth time when the provinces, the people and the government have once again reaffirmed their commitment to the federation. That reaffirmation which stems out of the Lahore Declaration of 1940, became the Qarardad e Maqasid, and eventually the 1956 constitution. In 1962 the principles of 1940 were once again consecrated in the 2nd constitution of Pakistan. In 1973, the people once again reconfirmed the federation. In April 2010 the people have once again given their vote of confidence to the 1973 Constitution and taken care of the “Concurrent List” which were not decided upon on the 1973 constitution.

All the corruption of the constitution and infestations have now been removed, resorting the letter and the spirit of the voice of the people.

With the reversal of the 58(2)b and the elimination of the 17th amendment, the PPPP has placed itself in the right spot to lead the people through constitutional reform.

Thus Mr. Zardari has become one of the first Pakistani leaders to give up his powers. Of all his negative points, Mr. Zardari has a great knack for consensus building. He has done so since coming to power. Today he has become a statesman and a great leader.

Mr. Zardari began with a slow start and made some bad decisions. He however has got his stride and is moving forward in the right direction.

As a great fan of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto–this is the first time since the removal of Mr. Bhutto that the PPP has made us proud.

Thank you Mr. Zardari, the PPP and all the members of the Constitution Committee.

The Pakistan Peoples Party’s co-chairman had promised to pass the 18th amendment–reversing the illegal infestation of 58(2)b in the holy constitution of Pakistan–twice he failed to deliver.

The PPP is trying again, and media reports seem to suggest that they are close to getting consensus. The PPP brilliantly passed the NFC award which was accepted by all the provinces. Now that success will assist the parliamentarians in getting consensus on the three major issues:

1) The Name of the NWFP

2) Reframing the balance of powers between the president and the prime minister

3) Provincial autonomy

There is hardly any issue left on the name of NWFP. All parties seem to have agreed to Pakhtunkhawa-Abaseen. The ANP wanted Pakhtunkhwa, and the PLMN wanted Abaseen. The PPP, and all other parties had agreed to Pakhtunkhwa.

The explosive topic of “provincial autonomy” was so sensitive that even Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto could not resolve it. The NAP-PPP had agreed to resolve the issue within ten years. After the turmoil of the 80s, this was never resolved. It seems that the major political parties are on the verge of a solution.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly stretched its calendar on Thursday to begin what is billed to be a historic spring session in which the government said it intended to bring promised constitutional amendments to restore a genuine parliamentary system in the country.

And a strenuous job awaiting parliament members to make changes ranging from empowering parliament to granting more provincial autonomy appeared lightened by an off-the-cuff promise by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that he could allot them residential plots of land in Islamabad if they all agreed to take them.

But what the ruling coalition and at least one opposition party saw as a promising beginning of a likely three-week session was marred by a tirade from opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who, true to his usual form, lashed out at the government for “making a fun of itself and this house” over the past two years, especially targeting President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Rehman Malik, and protested for not being taken into confidence for calling an “unscheduled” session.

However, from the government side, PPP chief whip and Labour and Manpower Minister Khurshid Ahmed Shah came out with a cool-headed response, telling the house that the session had been called out of the parliamentary calendar primarily to receive the report of an all-party parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms and then a constitutional amendment bill designed mainly to implement the famous Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed by assassinated PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif in 2006.

“We want that bill to come before this parliament before the start of the next parliamentary year,” he said after recalling Mr Zardari’s initiative at the start of his presidency in September 2008 to call for constitutional amendments that would rid his office of the usually prime ministerial powers assumed by former military president Pervez Musharraf such as dissolution of the National Assembly and appointment of armed forces’ chiefs and provincial governors.

The minister also said the parliamentary committee headed by PPP Senator Raza Rabbani would submit its reports to the house “as soon as possible”, but he gave no date for this or for the presentation of the constitutional amendment bill, which must be passed by a two-thirds majority in both the 342-seat National Assembly and the 100-seat Senate.

As the new parliamentary year begins on March 16, it was earlier speculated that President Zardari would make a mandatory address to a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the Senate on the same day or on March 23 and that the constitutional amendments could come about that time.

But the current session began five days before the end of the outgoing parliamentary year and would spread to the new year without a break.

Mr Shah said if the session had not been called before March 16, the opposition would have accused President Zardari at the time of his address of delaying the amendments, which would make him only a figurehead president as originally envisioned by the 1973 Constitution.

The minister said he had tried but could not contact Chaudhry Nisar before the house was summoned although he had consulted the chief whip of the opposition PML-N, Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, as well as parliamentary leaders of other parties in the house.

Before Chaudhry Nisar — who threatened his party would in future boycott a session if it were not consulted beforehand — took the floor, PML-Q’s senior member Riaz Hussain Pirzada actually thanked the government for keeping him informed about its plans to bring the constitutional amendments during this session, which a press release issued after a meeting of the house business advisory committee earlier said would “continue for approximately three weeks”.

“The committee was informed that the report of the constitutional reforms committee is likely to be presented in the ensuing session of the National Assembly if it completes its work,” the release said.

The prime minister’s assurance about plots in Islamabad came after a PML-Q member, Shahnaz Sheikh, asked whether a salary raise given to the superior judiciary earlier this week was “a political bribe” and wondered why parliament members were criticised for demanding plots and deprived of them when such plots had been given to judges, bureaucrats and journalists.

Mr Gilani said the pay raise had been given to remove “discrimination” and, while referring to plots, said: “If the MPs agree on this, I will have no objection.”

Earlier, the house approved a bill seeking an amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure of 1908 to increase the amount of compensatory costs a court might award in case of false or vexatious claims or defences to Rs 100,000 from Rs25,000 as recommended in the national judicial policy. Dawn.

The PPP should not have tackled the entire problem in one go. This should have been done piecemeal. The PPP should have reversed 58(2)b and then looked at the other issues. This would have given it a lot of credibility and defanged the opposition.  However the PPPP wanted the bill passed with consensus–thus they wanted to carry their coalition partners in Sindh, Balochistan and Sarhad with them. The PPP however would not have faced any opposition from any party, if the had proposed a bill reversing the major parts of the 17th amendment (except women’s representation).

The deadline is March 23rd, 2010. The bill is expected to be put forward in front of the house on March 17th. The Senate has been called on March 25th, in anticipation of the bills passage in the next few weeks.