PPP stalwart and former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani on Monday said that there was \u201cno need\u201d for a 28th Constitutional Amendment, saying that the Constitution could not \u201cbear the burden\u201d if it were to happen.<\/p>\n
In a statement, he said, \u201cThe ruling elite should realise that the Constitution, 1973, cannot bear the burden of another amendment. There is no need for the 28th Constitutional Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments had already \u201cdefaced\u201d a number of the original provisions of the Constitution, particularly those relating to the judiciary.<\/p>\n
The former took away the Supreme Court\u2019s suo motu power, while the latter made significant changes to the judicial system and the military\u2019s chain of command.<\/p>\n
Rabbani said the \u201ctransfer of a judge without his or her consent impinged on the independence of the judiciary\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe federal government should be looking at the backlash of these two amendments and, in consultation with the stakeholders, taking remedial measures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He further said that new provinces and provincial autonomy were \u201cno-go areas\u201d, warning that any attempt to \u201cfiddle with the existing arrangements to their detriment\u201d would have very serious consequences for the federation.<\/p>\n
The former Senate chairman said the federal government should stop violating Article 160 of the Constitution and focus on announcing a new National Finance Commission (NFC) Award before the budget.<\/p>\n
He noted that the last NFC Award was announced in 2010.<\/p>\n
Rabbani said that instead of blaming provincial autonomy for a lack of coordination, the federal government should stop violating Article 154 of the Constitution and convene meetings of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) once every three months.<\/p>\n
He added that it had been over a year since the CCI last met and stressed that the solution lay in adhering to and implementing the Constitution of 1973.<\/p>\n
The development comes as rumours abound about another constitutional amendment. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari last week said that the government had not contacted him or his father, President Asif Ali Zardari, regarding a constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PPP\u2019s role in the 26th and 27th constitutional amendments is evident to everyone. We did not allow the rights of the provinces to be reduced; instead, we expanded them. Through our amendments, Balochistan\u2019s representation in the Senate increased,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PPP stalwart and former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani on Monday said that there was \u201cno need\u201d for a 28th Constitutional Amendment, saying that the Constitution could not \u201cbear the burden\u201d if it were to happen. In a statement, he said, \u201cThe ruling elite should realise that the Constitution, 1973, cannot bear the burden of another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18193,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18191\/revisions\/18193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}