The recent decision of the federal cabinet to give approval to the State Owned Enterprises (governance and operations) Bill 2021 should be a matter of some concern since it seems the government did not seek approval of the controversial bill from the Council of Common Interests (CCI) before presenting it to the cabinet and soliciting a hasty approval that is likely to cause consternation from the federating units. Every constitutional expert or believer in federalism should realize that the CCI is the appropriate body that gives approval to such matters after detailed discussions. It has been an unfortunate practice of the PTI government to bypass such bodies that debate and develop consensus. The tendency to bulldoze consensus is not a healthy practice for democracy and the government must avoid such unconstitutional and unilateral approvals. The CCI must be respected and given its due chance to deliberate such issues.
There is a need to involve the CCI for the formulation and regulation of policies that concern Part-II of the Federal Legislative List (FLL-II). According to the constitution, the CCI exercises supervisory control over the related institutions. For a functioning federation, it is imperative that the federal spirit is kept alive and the government should not try to undermine it in any way, as it has been doing lately. We can understand this better by also looking at another bill related to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), which seems to have been a consequence of IMF conditions – since the government is trying to fast-track the stalled IMF programme. The IMF wants the government of Pakistan to implement the reform package it promised while negotiating the bailout deal. The government has also taken some other major policy decisions and the federal cabinet has been approving bills without much consultations with the opposition, which should be the norm in a parliamentary democracy.
First, the proposed autonomy to the SBP sounds good but it should not be left entirely at the behest of the IMF. Similarly, the SOE Bill should not totally comply with all demands by the IMF. By doing so, we compromise our own interests since the IMF is least concerned about the plight of the people and the resultant burden on them. The proposed SOE law aims at freeing these companies from direct interference from the ministries concerned but gives too much power to the fiancé ministry to monitor their finances. Parliament must discuss the unfinished agenda of the IMF so that the people get to listen to the discussions and understand the implications of something that may not be entirely people-friendly. The IMF programme has been under suspension since February 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. It is noteworthy that the PPP government had successfully resisted such pressures during the previous IMF programme nearly a decade ago.