Pakistan News

Adil Najam

Late Wednesday night the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) led my PPP’s Mian Raza Rabbani signed the draft text of the “18th Amendment” to the Constitution of Pakistan.

The News reports that some are describing this as “the best constitutional thing to happen since the 1973 consensus Constitution. It is, indeed, a major - even a ‘historic’ - development.

However, given that this is Pakistan politics, it will be wise to wait until this actually passes through Parliament, actually becomes reality and its provisions are actually made clear. After all, we are quite used to things changing - dramatically at that - at the last minute, and sometimes even after the last minute!

I have been searching for a full text of the current draft but have not found it yet, meanwhile as I wade through the various reports of just what thsi means, here are a few salient points that seem to be clear. Will appreciate if readers can add more on exactly what changes are included and what they will mean for Paksiatn and its Constitution (from various news sources):

• Reportedly the draft of what is to become the 18th Amendment itself includes 95 amendments to the 1973 Constitution. These 95 amendments will effect 70 Articles of the existing Constitutions. There are three “schedules” and one “Annexure” in the draft package.
• In particular, the 18th Amendment will undo the impacts of the 8th Amendment (enacted by Gen. Zia ul Haq) which had altered over 90 Articles of the Constitution, and the 17th Amendment (enacted by Gen. Pervez Musharraf) which had altered 26 Articles of the Constitution.
• The famed article 58 (2) (b), which had first been inserted into the Constitution by Gen. Zia ul Haq and allows the President to dissolve Parliament, and which was re-enacted by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been removed from the Constitution in the draft.
• The new name of the NWFP is to be Khyber-Pakhtunkwa. The PML-N which had long held out on this issue has reportedly agreed to this name change, although PML-Q has maintained some reservations to it as has PPP-Sherpao.
• On the other controversial issue of the composition of the Judicial Commission, the PML-N proposal of adding a seventh member who is a retired Supreme Court Judge has been accepted.
• The draft proposes removal of many past amendments added by military rulers, including the 17th Amendment.
• The draft abolishes the “concurrent list” and gives much more provincial autonomy than is now available to the provinces. The Council of Common Interest has been given additional powers and the provinces have been given more say on national matters by enhancing their representation in the council.
• Reportedly the draft “purges” the name of gen. Zia-ul-Haq as President from the Constitution (it is not yet clear what this means in practice).
• The next step in the process is for the draft to be now presented to the National Assembly after which the Government is expected to move the 18th Amendment for Parliamentary approval. It is expected that the draft will be tabled in Parliament within the next couple of days.
• The committee which worked on this draft for nine months includes representatives from all the political groups having representation in the two houses of parliament. It included: Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, Syed Naveed Qamar, Babar Awan, Haji Lashkari Raisani, Ishaq Dar, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi, Wasim Sajjad, S M Zafar, Humayun Saifullah, Farooq Sattar, Haider Abbass Rizvi, Ahsan Iqbal, Afrasyab Khattak, Haji Muhammad Adeel, RehmatUallah Kakar, Abdul Razaq Taheem, Mir Israr Ullah Zehri, Professor Khursheed Ahmed, Hasil Bizenjo, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Abdul Rahim Mandokhel, Shahid Bugti, Munir Khan Orakzai, and Mian Raza Rabbani.
• The original Constitution was passed in the first PPP government, which has also been the architect of the first amendments to it.

KARACHI: The International Monetary Fund is likely to meet by mid-April to approve the fifth tranche of a loan to Pakistan and a delay was purely for a oebureaucratica reasons, a government official said on Monday.

Zong Revamps its Website is a post from: ProPakistani

Zong has got new design and layout for its corporate website. Apparently, transition is in process – however most part of revamp is done.

New look gives professional feel that old design was lacking. Also elements are better arranged with top menu well in place. Enough space on home page is designated for featured offerings, for instance its BlackBerry for now – we may see scrolling featured offerings in a day or two.

Zong has incorporated very intelligent, search button. It’s not intelligent only in terms of search results but its predictive nature will save you time of loading a new page.

Zong has added new features, including Media Center, CS Center, about us along with enhanced form of coverage map, career portal.

Rest you click on this link to see yourself – do share your experience and thoughts in comments, particularly about the color scheme.

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Five Americans accused of plotting attacks on Pakistan face up to life imprisonment in a terror trial that opened Wednesday in the city of Sargodha.

Mumbai The trial in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case against Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab and two Indian conspirators concluded on Wednesday, almost a year after it commenced, and the judge will pronounce his verdict on May 3. Special judge M L Tahaliyani reserved his judgement after the prosecution and defence counsels wrapped up their final arguments ...

Wateen Pays Tribute to Icons is a post from: ProPakistani

In these tumultuous (turbulent) times our nation needs to take inspiration from the Icons whose heroic efforts have been immortalized in the pages of history.

These Icons, both living and dead, have been an inspiration for us over decades but a reminder of their struggles and victories will help to once again revive the pride of this nation and regain the confidence of achieving what we aim for.

Wateen Telecom has taken an audacious step to bring these Icons in the limelight felicitating them for their lifetime achievements by dedicating its 2010 Diary and Calendar to the true Icons of Pakistan.

The focus revolves around 12 iconic personalities that depicts a synopsis of their life and achievement that people of Pakistan should remember, the trials and troubles that these heroes went through to accomplish their dreams bringing honor to their homeland.

Wateen chose to honor 12 Pakistanis from different walks of life connected by only one quality; brilliance in their respective fields.

Nazir Sabir, Muhammad Abdur Rahman Chughtai, Dr. Rail Muhammad Chaudhry, Abdul Sattar Eidhi, Sadruddin Hashwani, Pathanay Khan, Patras Bukharl, Dr. Atta ur Rahman,, Shoaib Mansoor, Saadat Hassan Manto, Nigar Nazar, Hashim Khan: defying all stereotypes these 12 people have influenced not just Pakistanis but dazzled the whole world through their achievements.

via TheNation

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People protesting against prolonged power outages, in Peshawar, Pakistan, yesterday.

PTCL Privatization Deal Unfair, Contrary to Rules: NA told is a post from: ProPakistani

The Federal Minister  for Privatisation  Senator Waqar  Ahmed Khan  Wednesday revealed  before the  National Assembly  that the  privatization deal  of PTCL  with Etisalat  was not  transparent and  made in  violation of  rules and  procedures.

“The  deal of  privatization of  PTCL was not transparent. It was made contrary to rules and procedures, said the minister replying to a question and later the House referred the subject matter to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Privatization for probe.

The members from the opposition party requested the chair to form a special parliamentary committee to probe the deal that was not opposed by the minister concerned but the Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi said as the matter is already under discussion with the standing committee concerned.

“The matter is referred to the standing committee. However, if the committee members feel that formation of special committee was essential it would be done,” the deputy speaker assured.

He told the House that the SPA was finalized and transaction was made without taking the Privatization Commission Board into confidence, adding that Etisalat has withheld $800 million over the mutation of land issue to be transferred to the UAE-based company.

He told the House that around 3,500 properties were to be transferred to Etisalat which also comprise lands not even owned by federal or any provincial government rather either those are private properties are under litigation.

In total, the minister said the government has received an amount of US$ 1.79 billion from the Etisalat out of that an amount of US$ 1.5 billion has been remitted to federal government for debt retirement and poverty alleviation.

Besides, an amount of US$ 251 million has been utilized for payment of 50 percent share of government on account of PTCL employees VSS dues. The remaining amount of proceeds has been utilized for payment of the transaction cost on account of financial advisory and legal experts.

Waqar Ahmed said as the matter involves two states, the government is trying to resolve the issue of withheld amount amicably through diplomatic channels but he added, so far there is no headway in this regard.

Senator Waqar told the House that the deal was full of flaws and the legal advisors had asked the then government to scrap it otherwise it would be considered contrary to rules.

On a supplementary question, Khawaja Sheraz suggested the formation of a special committee to look into the matter referring to the standing committee concerned that has already given its decision on the issue.

Raza Hayat Haraj told the House that as the minister concerned has not opposed the formation of special committee then there should be no more discussion over it and the body be formed with the mandate to investigate the callous deal.

Later, minister for privatization also requested the chair to reconsider the decision and form the committee in what the deputy speaker said it would be formed if the committee members express their desire in this regard.

Via APP

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Ufone Solid Offer is Expiring Today…! is a post from: ProPakistani

Just a friendly reminder to those blessed Ufone users who were using Solid Offer for last three months, Ufone Solid Offer is expiring today, with no further extension this time.

Ufone extended Solid offer twice, before it decided to permanently end the package tonight. Our sources at Ufone and Help Line have confirmed us that Solid Offer is ending tonight at 11:59 PM – sharp.

Ufone has already notified its customers about expiration of this package, through SMS and other communication channels.

After expiration of Solid Offer, Ufone users will retain normal Ufone packages, as they had before Solid Offer.

With Solid Offer Ufone customers could make free on-net calls after first three minutes.

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Pakistani troops repulsed an attack by dozens of armed Taliban militants on a checkpoint close to the Afghan border Wednesday in fighting that killed six soldiers and at least 20 insurgents, the armed forces said.