Democracy to weaken if institutions misuse power: Rabbani

ISLAMABAD:  The Senate Chairman, Mian Raza Rabbani, reiterated that all the state institutions working under the Constitution must respect trichotomy of power and any institution that misused its power was undermining democracy.

“We have to use our powers as defined in the Constitution. If any institution misuses them, it won’t be positive for democracy,” he maintained while chairing the House proceedings on Friday.

Rabbani said if the government was serious about strengthening the democratic system, it has to strengthen  parliament through which the parliamentarians’ instinctive desire to see democracy flourish could be fulfilled. “We have to learn from our mistakes to strengthen democracy and ensure the rule of law,” he said.

As per his direction, Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal was present in the House to make a statement on a recent ‘disclosure’ made by former interior minister that only four persons — two civilians and two men in uniform — were aware of grave security threats to Pakistan. However, the chair asked him to make the statement on Tuesday.

PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said now a totally new form of threat had reared its head, adding it was a new threat model of "back seat driving syndrome" to exercise power without responsibility and accountability. He continued that in this syndrome the person on the wheel was outmaneuvered by the real controllers of vital levers, adding such a vehicle was fated to meet a disastrous accident. Babar said all the state institutions must respect their ambit and not tread into the domain of others, as this was the only way forward to strengthen the nascent democratic system in the country.

Speaking on a point of order in connection with the International Day of Democracy, Senator Babar said direct assault on democracy and outright abrogation of Constitution had given way to the use of instruments like Doctrine of Necessity, Legal Framework Order (LFO), Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) and suspension of the Constitution to undermine the democratic institutions.

Babar drew attention of the chair towards expulsion of Doctors sans Borders from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and demanded reversal of the decision. He said Fata had already been turned into a black hole and closed to visitors, adding even the human rights committee of the Senate has been discouraged from visiting the area on one pretext or the other, which is not a good omen at all.

Mohsin Leghari said democracy will not flourish unless lawmakers start getting tougher instead of getting smarter on their shortcomings. Senator Usman Kakar of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party  said democracy was never allowed to take root in the country after Ziaul Haq’s military dictatorship, and if any political party made it to the power corridors, it did so through a ‘power-sharing deal’.

PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi said civilians stood up to the army tanks in Turkey because the government delivered, and people will emerge as real protectors of democracy if lawmakers fulfilled their expectations.

Meanwhile, the opposition lawmakers termed the presidential address to the joint sitting of parliament disappointing, saying as head of the state he failed to give policy guidelines on key issues facing the country. Talking part in the debate, they said the president read out a written speech by his party which lacked substance.

Referring to a statement by President Mamnoon Hussain in which he had termed Panama Papers case as “God-sent”, Senator Rehman Malik of PPP wished the president could have delivered such a hard-hitting speech during his address to the joint sitting of parliament. “The president should have at least given some piece of advice to his party’s government…the way he speaks outside parliament is wonderful, but I don’t know what happened to him when he was addressing the joint sitting.” 

Fata Senator Hidayatullah said tribal areas directly come under the administrative control of the President of Pakistan, but he hardly said anything about development of the area except repeating the rhetoric ‘brave tribal people.’ He also regretted that Rs400,000 compensation to temporarily displaced persons  (TDPs) for reconstruction of their house was a joke, adding billions of rupees were spent on constructing metro buses but the total development budget for Fata was about Rs400 million.

Senator Javed Abbasi of PML-N said the president spoke well on the foreign policy, saying it was on the right track due to vision of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, which proved in the aftermath of US President Donald Trump’s recent tough talk against Pakistan, encouraging Russia and China to announce their support for Pakistan. “If we had had a flawed foreign policy in place, we would not have been able to muster any support from China and Russia, and again this is because of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is a visionary leader,” he claimed.

Senator Khalida Perveen of PPP said foreign debt has doubled, but the president did not suggest anything to expand the tax net, curtail foreign borrowing and cut expenditures to get rid of the International Monetary Fund.

Senator Murtaza Wahab of PPP regretted that the president talked about education, but he should know that it was the federal government which was still not ready to devolve the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to provinces in the light of 18th Constitutional Amendment, which was the main reason that hundreds of deserving students were not given scholarships to study abroad.

Meanwhile, Leader of the House Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq shared good news with the senators that the government had decided not to import onion since the crop was ready in Balochistan. The other day, two senators from Balochistan asked as to why onion rates were sky-rocketing and the government was considering its import, as the crop was ready in Balochistan but was not being procured by the authorities. They warned that the growers would throw their commodity into the sea, if it was not purchased. The situation caused Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq to pursue the matter. Rabbani praised Raja Zafarul Haq and also gave credit to the Senate for its timely intervention on the issue.

Earlier, absence of  minister for Capital Development and Development Division, forced Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani to suspend the proceedings in the House. As Rabbani took up a calling attention notice moved by MQM’s Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, he wondered who would respond to the notice. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sheikh Aftab Ahmad stood up to say he was not aware, as he was busy in the National Assembly.

This left Rabbani annoyed and he remarked, “If the minister is not coming, should't we pack up, as I can’t do business this way. The minister does not have the decency to at least inform the House about his unavailability. The House stands suspended till the pleasure of the minister…when he comes”. However, within a few minutes Minister for Capital Development and Development Division Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry came to the House following which the proceedings started.

The Senate chariman then gave the floor to minister for Capital Development and Development Division who first explained that he had no idea that the question hour would finish before time. He also shared a good news with the House that the government had submitted a petition in the Supreme Court against a High Court decision of restraining the ministry with regards to fee being charged by private academic institutions.

The minister noted that the three-member bench of SC, headed by the Chief Justice, had directed the registrar to fix the case for last week of September and said the case would be decided within two weeks. Mashhadi had drawn his attention towards the unlawful increase in monthly fee by private schools in Islamabad and that top schools were even charging Rs35,000 to 40,000 fee from one child. He wanted some regulation with regard to fee increases by the schools.

In response to another calling attention notice by PML-N Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi, the minister explained how the building code and by-laws were being violated with impunity since long. He also informed the House about the measures already taken and in the process to check the trend. However, Rabbani after taking consent of the House, announced constitution of a special committee of the Senate on alleged negligence and non-implementation of building code and civic regulations by the CDA in Islamabad, particularly unauthorised construction in Sector H-13 and high-rise buildings around Sector E-11. This he will announce after consulting Leader of the House and Leader of Opposition in the Senate next week.

The House was told earlier during the question hour that there were as many as 61 pending cases against the Pakistan Cricket Board in various courts and that there were 23 panels of lawyers, including Ms. Asma Jehangir, Khalid Ibne Aziz and Syed Bilal Haider.

Rabbani referred the case of failure to depute the Motorway Police on the Kuchlak-Zhob-Chaman Highway despite occurrence of many accidents, to the House committee for consideration and report.