The good news is, the daily acrimony between them notwithstanding, the government and the opposition, have reached a consensus on important legislation.
The bad news is the motivation behind the 26th Constitutional Amendment proposed under the new bill is highly suspect. Its immediate effect is likely to be a delay in changing the status quo and a postponement of a popular democratic milestone.
First, the facts: Mohsin Dawar of the PTM, a member from what used to be the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, moved the bill on Thursday. The bill calls for maintaining the 12 National Assembly seats for the region and increasing the number of provincial assembly seats (in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) from 16 (under current arrangement) to 24. The opposition refused to vote on it without a debate. On Friday, treasury and opposition benches agreed to pass the bill with a two-thirds majority in a session to be attended by the prime minister.
Next, the rhetoric: Defence Minister Pervez Khattak said the opposition had responded well to the bill. He said the government wanted to end the sense of deprivation among the people of erstwhile FATA. He said Rs 100 billion a year would be spent on development in the region for 10 years, 30 per cent of it through elected representatives under the local government system. Khwaja Asif, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz parliamentary leader, said the tribal areas people should have special privileges till the completion of work on the 10-year development plan.
Ministers Noorul Haq Qadri and Shehryar Afridi praised the opposition members for their sagacity. In this, they were joined by tribal districts members. Sajid Mohmand expressed hope that the opposition would not oppose the provision of funds to erstwhile FATA under a (new) National Finance Commission award. Ghaus Bakhsh Meher said the allocation of seats should be changed after a census in the area. Jamal Din said a census could not be taken as many people displaced during the anti-terrorist operations had yet to return to their homes.
The rub: the Election Commission of Pakistan has already issued a schedule for polling for provincial assembly seats on July 2. By end of May it plans to issue the election symbols to the candidates. Representation in the provincial assembly is the only early-harvest political change since the FATA-KP merger. By bringing in a new generation of politicians it promises to transform the political scene and reduce the democratic deficit. The status quo leaders, already represented in the parliament, understandably want this transformation to be delayed for as long as possible. Pressure has reportedly been brought to bear on the Election Commission of Pakistan to postpone the polls. So far, the ECP has refused to ignore its constitutional obligation and oblige. A change in the number of seats, however, will force its hand by necessitating fresh demarcation of constituencies and thus an indefinite postponement. *