ISLAMABAD: the Raza Rabbani-led constitutional committee has completed only 25 per cent of its work so far and it may take several years to complete its task if it continues working at the current pace, a federal minister told the News.
The committee has also diverted from the primary mandate of repealing the 17th Amendment and implementing the Charter of Democracy (CoD) to achieving consensus on all issues.
The committee, headed by Senator Raza Rabbani and comprising 27 members, is taking up each article of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan rather than confining its work to its mandate.
Only 70 out of the 280 articles have so far been reviewed and discussed with federal and nationalist parties (provinces) having different stands, the federal minister, also a committee member, told the News here Monday.
The committee, he maintained, has yet to complete 75 per cent of its work. I do not believe that the job will be over even in years though there were and there are many non-controversial clauses, for which, the PML-N had suggested an amendment package in two phases, the minister said.
The nationalist parties from three provinces are using the opportunity to get greater provincial autonomy under the pretext of repealing the 17th amendment and the CoD.
The federal legislative list is the most crucial subject after the concurrent list wherein national parties took a hard stand and are forcefully calling for some subjects to be moved from the federal legislative list too with major parties expressing reservations, another minister said.
The PPP, the PML-N and the PML-Q have raised questions about the concurrent list items as well as the federal legislative list while arguing that the provinces do not have the capacity to keep these subjects with them, both administratively and financially.
Once the committee reviews all the 280 articles of Constitution, others including Musharrafs self introduced laws put in schedule 6 and his post-November 2, 2007 emergency would also come under discussion, the minister said.
The part 1 and part 2 of Fourth Schedules Article 70(4) is under discussion in the committee as it comprises concurrent list (47 items) and second one federal legislative lists (68).
Electricity, newspapers, books and printing presses, Auqaf, ancient and historical monuments, archaeological sites, public order, environment, ecology, population, shipping and navigation, criminal laws, court power such as marriage, divorce, infants, minors, adoption, wills, intestacy and succession, arms, firearms and ammunition, explosives, opium cultivation and manufacture are important points of the concurrent list.
Labour, provident funds, trade unions, agricultural land, bankruptcy and insolvency, administrators – general and official trustees, arbitration, contracts, registration of deeds and documents, actionable wrongs, removal of prisoners and accused persons from one province to another province will also be provincial subject.
The 68 federal legislative list items, now under consideration before the committee, are the most crucial as nationalists want delegation of many of them to provinces.
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