Daily Times

Since the swearing in of the PTI coalition administration in Islamabad, the talk of the division of Sindh into two provinces, or the separation of Karachi from Sindh as a federal city or handing over the Metropolis to the Army for good years has shown surprising consistency. This sinister campaign against the territorial integrity of the second large federating unit gained intensity after the recent spate of differences of the Federal Ministers from Karachi with the PPP provincial administration. The campaign became more pronounced during the current heavy rainfall. The inundation of certain areas of the city was not something exceptional. The heavy rains have caused deluge in our cities all over the country and greater parts of Sindh and Balochistan. The MQM-Pakistan being the coalition partner of the federal government and the greatest protagonist of the division of Sindh has been egging the current campaign.

I have extensively dilated on this during the past two years. Let us, today, review the issue in the light of the relevant constitution clauses. Article 1 of the Constitution defines Pakistan as a democratic federation, consisted of KPK, Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh and the federal capital city of Islamabad. The Parliament, on certain conditions, could include others areas in the Federation. In all the 280 articles of the Constitution, it is mentioned nowhere that the Parliament or any institution has the power to include the capital city of a province or a tehsil or a small piece of its land into the Federation because under article 239 (4), any scheme seeking to alter the territorial limit of a province, shall have to be passed by the Legislative Assembly of that province with two/third majority.

The article is explicit in its contents about changes in the limits of a province. Thus, the Parliament of the country cannot alter the limits of any federating unit or include a piece of provincial territory in the Federation without the approval of the respective Provincial Assembly – what to talk of separating a capital city from a province. Recently when the Federal Government wanted to amalgamate the FATA into KPK, the Provincial Assembly of that province was called upon to adopt the scheme first by two/third majority. The practice of the merger of FATA in KPK was exactly in conformity with the above constitutional clause.

Similarly, the imposition of Governor Rule is not as easy as is being consistently portrayed by the imprudent Federal Ministers from Karachi. The Governor rule imposed by the federal regime in any province has to be validated by the Provincial Assembly of that province and the Parliament within 10 days. The federal regime does not have majority in the Sindh Assembly. It will incur humiliation if it commits such political blunder at the insistence of its coalition partners. The other option is that the Provincial Assembly of any province passes a resolution inviting the central authority to impose Governor Rule. Why will the PPP axe its paws?

The powers of the federal government are specified under Article 97 of the Constitution according to which the federal regime only has control over the federal departments or subjects in any provincial capital

Our worthy Minister for Law who is a barrister once talked about the application of Article 149 to take Karachi out of the constitutional control of Sindh and hand it over to the Federation. The powers of the federal government are specified under Article 97 of the Constitution according to which the federal regime only has control over the federal departments or subjects in any provincial capital. It has nothing to do with any provincial subject. According to Article 149, the federal regime can issue directive to a provincial administration about the federal subjects or federal departments situated into that province if the same, in the federal regime’s view, are not functioning well or the federal regime has difficulty in exercising its control over them. For example, federal departments like PIA, National Highway Authority, Civil Aviation, Karachi Seaports and many more are situated in Sindh. If the federal regime has any problem in exercising its writ on any of these departments, it can direct the provincial government to do this or that about it. The article cannot be stretched arbitrarily to include any provincial subject in this directive let alone the separation of the capital city from the province.

As elaborated above, all the four provinces including Sindh are included in the Federation of Pakistan under article 1 of the Constitution. To talk about the territorial division of Sindh is tantamount to a sinister attack on the territorial integrity of the Federation of Pakistan if we have an iota of respect for the constitution of the country. Thus, it is the duty of the federal regime nay all the state organs to stop this anti Sindh talk. If the separation of Karachi is not constitutionally possible in the current status of Provincial Assembly and the Parliament, why this theatric of absurdity is being played. The simple reason seems to be keeping the provincial administration under constant political pressure and misleading the Mohajir community that the woes of the city owe a great deal to the misrule of the landed gentry of the PPP who do not feel any stake in Karachi and who do not allow their genuine and sincere representatives (read MQM-Pakistan and PTI) to deliver.

In their political bankruptcy, they forget that by challenging the territorial integrity of Sindh, they are unwittingly deepening the ethnic division in province and strengthening the PPP in the constituencies outside Karachi. The PPP owes all its electoral success in Sindh due to this ethnically driven campaign against the geographical oneness of the province. The local body elections are drawing closer and hence intensity in the campaign. The politics should not mean playing with the security of the country. The PTI lost the chance of organizing itself in Sindh by banking on discredited landlords and getting stuck into the quagmire of the Karachi politics.

Pity the political bankruptcy of its Sindh leadership.

The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books