Daily Times

KARACHI: “The new Parliament may bring changes in the 18th Amendment of the constitution particularly the financial autonomy of provinces as the federation does not want to give all financial resources under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award,” said Mian Raza Rabbani on Friday.

The former Senate chairman was speaking at a meeting of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of civil society organizations which was convened to discuss the post-election situation. Political leaders, workers and election observers attended the meeting in a large number.

“Using the excuse of the financial crisis, the state may tell the provinces that it was not possible to give NFC Award share to them,” said Rabbani, adding that the actual war was to stop devolution of resources from federation and provinces.

Senator Rabbani admitted that major political parties were also facing corporate priorities. He said that the Parliament had been undermined even during the mandate of the previous government.

He underlined the need to form a broad-based alliance of all pro-people political parties, civil society, intellectuals, writers, rights activists and individual political workers to wage a movement for rights of people.

While speaking on the occasion, Rabbani also expressed concern over the anti-trade union statement by Chief Justice of Supreme Court and suggested that a joint letter be sent to the Chief Justice, protesting his statement regarding trade unions.

He also expressed his concern over free participation of the banned outfits in the General Elections. “Over 250 candidates of the banned and prescribed outfits were allowed to contest elections. Other candidates of the mainstream political parties were facing hurdles to contest elections but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) did not raise any question on election contest of banned outfits,” stated Raza Rabbani.

He said that except for one party all major political parties were not provided a level playing field. He also raised questions on delaying tactics by the polling staff during the elections. He said that the administration was used to limit the election campaigns of major political parties and many parties were barred from holding election rallies on the pretext of security threats. “Only one party was free to hold gatherings and rallies,” he added.

“The actual game happened after the poling as the polling agents were asked to leave the polling stations after the end of polling time,” he said , adding that the concept of ‘fair and free elections’ was violated when the poling agents were not present during the counting process.

He said that the ECP had told the nation that an electronic system will be used for rapid announcement of results but after an unusual delay in announcement of the results, they told the people that the system had actually failed. “This is a waste of the national exchequer and the Election Commission should face investigations by the NAB,” asserted Mian Raza Rabbani.

During the meeting, South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) representative Imtiaz Alam also supported the idea of formation of wider platform of progressive elements.

A candidate of Aam Log Ettehad (ALE) Wali Mohammad Naushad also spoke on the occasion. He said that the polling arrangements were very poor and the ECP did not pay any attention on complaints from the candidates and parties.

A number of election observers discussed their accounts of the polling day during the meeting. The election observers said that, in Karachi, the polling results were deliberately delayed despite the fact the constituencies were very close.

By the end of the meeting, a committee was formed to prepare a set of recommendations for formation of a wider platform of the civil society organisations.

Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Director Karamat Ali, Ayoub Qureshi of National Party, Abdul Khaliq Junejo of Jeay Sindh Mahaz, Nasir Mansoor of National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), Amanullah Shaikh of Awami Jamhoori Party, Ms. Mahnaz Rahman of Aurat Foundation, Ms. Seema Maheahwari from HRCP, Ms. Malika Khan, Ms. Naghma Shaikh, Ms. Abida Ali, Ms. Farhat Parween, Abubakar Yousufzai, Hareef Chandio, Azhar Jameel and others also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Daily Times, July 28^th 2018.