Senate session: Govt warned against touching 18th Amendment

ISLAMABAD: The government in the Senate Monday was warned against any bid to touching the 18th Amendment ‘against the interests of smaller provinces, as people would then forget the laid down procedures to push for the confederation.

During the ongoing discussion on the budget, opposition legislators, particularly from Balochistan regretted how their province was exploited for its natural resources, including gas and gold and then kept completely backward, denying its constitutional rights even. On the contrary, the treasury termed the budget, the best one in the corona-tainted environment.

The House also witnessed noisy scenes, when PPP Senator Behramand Tangi accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of totally working against his much-touted party manifesto of massive job creation, not going to IMF and preferring suicide, promotion of harmony among the provinces, turning Pakistan into a welfare state on the pattern of the Madina State, provision of justice to masses, combating price hike and bringing down power and gas tariffs.

The Senate also echoed with taunts of sugar thieves and flour thieves by the opposition legislators during Senator Tangi’s speech, as one of his remarks against the prime minister was expunged on the request of Leader of the House Dr Shahzad Waseem, who asserted that PTI manifesto was mentioned in the name of the prime minister, it would not work in the House and that there must be no wrong statement here.

“Bread, clothe and house were also given as a manifesto while generations were ruined, the same Prime Minister went to Larkana and he distributed Rs2.2 billion to 125,000 families there. The prime minister distributed this money where they have ruled for decades. Who implemented the manifesto and who did not will be decided by the people,” he noted.

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani had to repeatedly request the members to resume their seats after some treasury and opposition members had a shouting match.

Senator Usman Khan Kakar of PkMAP from Balochistan hurled warning about ‘the confederation and the United States of Pakistan,’ if the 18th Amendment was changed to the disadvantage of the smaller provinces.

The nationalist senator contended that people had been attracted after the 1940 resolution was passed and it became the basis for the creation of Pakistan, consisting of states and there was no mention of provinces in the resolution and that while India had a strong Centre and weak states, it would be vice versa in Pakistan but this never happened.

He claimed there had never been transfer of power in real terms and then went on to allege that all parties, including PPP and PML-N and PML-Q had made compromises with the generals and added even now, no political party was independent. “All parties are in the grip of establishment,” he alleged.

“The two major opposition parties are equal partners in the sins of this government and are silent on the corona issue, price hike of goods and unemployment,” he charged.

JI Senator Sirajul Haq reminded the prime minister about his promises made to the nation and asked how there could be a welfare on the pattern of Madina State, when Rs3,000 billion had been mentioned as interest to be paid to the donors.

He said the budget affected each and every person of Pakistan but no consultations were held with the stakeholders and instead of the dictations of donor agencies, the budget was made, having no plan to deal with food security challenges, the virus and locust crisis. He saw no difference among PPP, PTI and PML-N, being part of a rotten system, which would not take Pakistan forward.

Balochistan senators including Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini, Mir Kabir Shahi and Gul Bashra alleged that Balochistan had got no project under CPEC and disputed the claim that Gwadar would be a game-changer. It was mentioned that there were just Rs10 billion grant in the budget for their province (being 45 percent of Pakistan) while there were Rs55 billion for AJK and Rs32 billion for GB.

They said that Balochistan senators and MNAs failed to get regularised 13 engineers from Sui, who continued to work on daily wagers for the last 14 years while gas facility was available to only 8 percent people and 12-13 percent had electricity and they underwent 18-hour loadshedding daily.

The House adopted a condolence resolution at the death of leading religious scholars Allama Talib Johari and Mufti Muhammad Naeem and lauded their services to Islam.