Your views on 18th Amendment Bill?

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Re: 18th Constitutional Amendment… Concurrent List

^
:k:

It means that we now have headed towards Provincial Autonomy in its true meanings

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Re: 18th Constitutional Amendment… Concurrent List

Actually no. It means that we will have 5 different legal systems on how to married. 5 different education systems and more importantly 5 different forms of taxing.

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Are you current with the concurrent list!

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Re: Can Zardari do any good?

Can Zardari do any good?

Yes.

Can Zardari do much much better?

Of course yes.

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Re: 18th Constitutional Amendment......... Concurrent List

If so, this is exactly what the "enemies" want, divide and conquer they will.

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Nothing wrong with that, in my opinion.

Why would we want to impose what kind of marriage and taxation laws Baluchis should have from a concensus of Punjabi and Sindhi parliamentarians in the center? The representatives of Baluchistan people should have the right to determine what they want in the province.

Provincial parliaments are a circus as of now. Only 13 bills have been passed by Punjab and Baluchistan Assemblies in the last 3 years and those have been mostly inconsequential in terms of law making. For example, two of the said 13 bills in Baluchistan Assembly related to allowances of speaker or chief minister and most of the bills in Punjab assembly related to establishment of universities.

If they are not supposed to be making laws, why spend billions of rupees on running provincial assemblies and providing for perks of parliamentarians and provincial ministers?

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For last 60 years those assemblies existed for show shaa only. Let provinces fix their own problems and make laws that are beneficial to the provinces. Its 1st step & lot more needs to be done, but Zardai & the PPP govt deserve credit for it.

27

Re: Your views on 18th Amendment Bill?

18th Amendment is a victory and a great achievement for Pakistani parliament. They finally performed their democratic duties, but it seems like entire credit will be given to PPP and President Zardari.

28

Re: Your views on 18th Amendment Bill?

Okay so when a person moves from Karachi to say Lahore, the fact his or her kids have to start a completely new education system makes sense to you?

Or what if you own property in Quetta but live in Islamabad, do you end up paying taxes twice?

There are certain things that belong to the provinces. True. But the US model is so much better than this **** up we have. If anything they should borrow the US model regarding state and federal jurisdictions.

29

Re: Your views on 18th Amendment Bill?

as far as education goes, dont we already have that, seems to work okay? the education boards are different in provinces even within provinces, which means different coursework, different examination systems, different required courses (you're required to learn sindhi in sindh) and so on. schools usually have a choice between boards (i think federal vs local vs private such as AGK). Where the schools themselves work I think that system works fine. I.e. the problems education has in Pakistan isnt because of differences between provinces in coursework.

true about the taxes, america has a pretty nice state vs federal tax code system.

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How is US model different from the proposed one? They have different taxation, marriage and many other civil laws in each state. Even professional licencing like for doctors and accountants is state dependent.

There are mechanisms that let people avoid double taxation and frameworks for developing harmonious education system.

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If the 18th amendment helps prevent future military takeovers in Pakistan then it is a step in the right direction. It is clear however that the PPP government has targeted Zia for political reasons, for appeasement of party workers/jiyalas.

But I believe something had to be done to diminish the possibility of (if not absolutely prevent) future military coups. While the 18th amendment might still not be enough to avert that threat, it atleast puts a military dictator in his rightful place. But they should do the same for all of them, Ayub, Yahya and Musharraf or-else the law is discriminatory and to anyone it only looks like political vengeance.

Look at what they did in Bangladesh. They hanged all of the 6 surviving generals (most of them were around 70 when they were hanged) who participated in the coup that killed Mujibur Rahman. Now no koi mai ka lal (in Samb’s words and I do not disagree with him there) General w’d ever dare impose martial law there

I must commend PPP for resisting the temptation to go after the generals (who took part in the coup of 1977) or judges esp. Chief Justice (r) Sheikh Anwarul Haq, CJP at the time of Zia’s martial law. Reconciliation is necessary to bring a bitterly divided nation like ours together after decades of military dictatorship…credit where it is due

True Zardari tried to unseat NS using that lota Dogar as a tool and even twice tried to take panga with the judiciary but he finally gave in to public and media pressure and perhaps to pressure from the still powerful Pakistan Army. This is the difference between a civilian and a military dictator. Musharraf had absolute power yet failed in his attempts to curb militancy in the North. Infact Taliban extremism flourished during MMA’s 5-year government in his time. While Mush deliberated on Swat and gave Mullah Fazlullah too much dheel, the present government and military leadership managed to get rid of Taliban miscreants in Swat in no time and have had considerable success in FATA…again credit where it is due.

In hindsight both Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif deserved their fate in some ways. Both committed gross injustice by ignoring 3 or 4 more senior generals for personal or political reasons in order to appoint their pithoo or favourite general as COAS. Too bad it badly backfired in both cases…good for them! I don’t know about Zia’s time but Gen. (r) Quli Khan was the seniormost (and therefore the most deserving) general at the time of Musharraf’s appointment. jab aap kissi ka haq marein gey then you should be prepared to face the consequences…a lesson there for Gilani

Kayani’s was probably the first instance when the seniormost general was also promoted to the position of COAS by Musharraf…once again credit where it is due.

Unfortunately the same holds true for most top positions within ministries and departments (incl. PIA and PCB) in Pakistan. i.e most are political appointments rather than based on merit. We recently saw how disgraced ex-senator Jamshed Dasti was accomodated by PPP when the Supreme Court ruled him ineligibile because of fake educational qualifications. He was quickly made a musheer or advisor by Gilani/Zardari!

Although there is no tradition in Pakistan (like there is in the US), Gilani might even be thinking of giving Kayani an extension not least because the present government seems to have a good rapport with the current military leadership and the military is doing a commendable job in FATA…not that I am in favour of such an extension because again aap kissi ka haq maar rahe hain!

It takes years of training, hard work and dedication to become an army general

Contrast that with the easy path taken by some of our naalaiq politicians (I know some generals are *naalaiq *too!) Belong to a political family (in some cases that is not necessary) >> Do a simple graduation from an average institution (in some cases even that is redundant. case in point: Dasti!) >> join one of the main parties >> excel at boot-licking and khushamad and you are a party leader. Bravo!!

I do not support any particular party in Pakistan. I know there are namooney in every party but I just cannot esp. stand Zulfikar Mirza, Babar Awan and Firdous Aashiq Awan (jaisa naam waise kartoot) within PPP. I just want to see good governance by those elected by the people.

Cannot really say that the present government has delivered on the economic front but I am prepared to give them more time. The PPP government should be allowed to see out their term. Loadshedding no doubt started during Musharraf’s time (2006/7) but people were atleast getting cheeni, *aata *and gas back then.

Dictatorship is never good but Pakistan is such a corrupt society that democracy always fails here. Unfortunately no democratic government has ever improved the GDP of Pakistan and reduced poverty and created jobs. Pakistan’s economy was probably doing much better under Musharraf than now. Musharraf should be tried for high treason too although I am against the use of capital punishment.
Economic Indicators 1999-2009 Economic Pakistan

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Re: Your views on 18th Amendment Bill?

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Provinces not ready for more responsibility

     Provinces not ready for more responsibility       
            By Kalbe Ali

Sunday, 11 Apr, 2010
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Finance ministry officials said that Punjab had sought a delay of three years. “It doesn’t mean obstructing the implementation of the NFC award,” an official of the ministry said, adding that when the centre had transferred revenue sources to the provinces they should take responsibilities. - Photo by APP.

**ISLAMABAD: The provinces have sought a delay in transfer of federal departments and ministries falling under the Concurrent List, saying they are not financially sound to bear additional burden.
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In separate requests to the federal government, the four provinces said the transfer of responsibilities from the next fiscal year was not feasible and they needed at least two years to generate funds and reap benefits of the National Finance Commission award under which the provinces would get higher allocations.

Finance ministry officials said that Punjab had sought a delay of three years. “It doesn’t mean obstructing the implementation of the NFC award,” an official of the ministry said, adding that when the centre had transferred revenue sources to the provinces they should take responsibilities.

He said the delay in transfer of 24 ministries and departments would cost the centre about Rs180 billion in 2010-11.
The officials said that another option for the federal government was to transfer development projects worth Rs240 billion financed by it in four provinces. “The provinces can complete these projects with increased revenues they will get under the seventh NFC award,” they added.

Under the award, the share of the federal government in net proceeds of the divisible pool will be 44 per cent during 2010-11. It will be reduced to 42.5 per cent during 2011-12.

“The increase in provincial share is linked to the transfer of functions under the repealed Concurrent List to the provinces from the next fiscal year,” the officials said.

At a recent meeting presided over by the prime minister’s adviser, Dr Hafeez Sheikh, finance ministry officials suggested that some departments needed to be transferred to provinces from next fiscal year.

The officials said the ministry would suggest the federal government to transfer ministries of education, health and sports from the next financial year because these functions were mainly handled at the provincial level.