After observing silence over the political troubles of the top leadership of his party in connection with mega money laundering scam through fake bank accounts PPP senior leader and former Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani raised questions on the recent appointment of some advisors. He joined the chorus of fantasies and fallacies which is being sung by the leaders of PPP and ANP. Speaking on a point of order in Senate he said that all important portfolios of the federal cabinet have been given to unelected advisors which give credence to the perception that the country is being pushed towards presidential form of government and a setup of technocrats shall be installed.
Appointment of advisors and making them in-charge of ministries according to their rich expertise had never been so strongly objected in the previous elected governments. Even the PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto made such appointments in his government. Benazir Bhutto did the same in her two tenures of government. How come that in the present elected government appointment of technocrats as advisors shall be treated as prohibited tree? Former Chairman Senate sometimes brings a farfetched conceit by drawing similarity between dissimilar things or works. The original 1973 constitution has envisaged federal structure of the federation of Pakistan. According to some legal experts the 18th Amendment has diluted the contours of the constitution to confederation. But Mian Raza Rabbani argues that the amendment has restored the original 1973 constitution and in his address at Bari Imam Urs in 2016 he equated it with sacrosanct “Charter of Medina” notwithstanding the bitter fact that none of the elected governments ensured basic rights to the people enshrined in the constitution.
The PTI leadership has categorically repudiated the imaginative stories of scrapping the 18th Amendment and switching over from parliamentary form of democracy to presidential one. Instead the main focus of the present government is on strengthening the democratic institutions at the grassroots level by devolving powers to elected local bodies institutions. It would be worthwhile if elected leaders of the opposition parties cooperates with ruling party in making legislations on the issues confronting the people and refrain from agitating non-issues for debate in the parliament. The bogies which are raised about the undoing the 18th Amendment and presidential form of government cannot hoodwink the public opinion about the case of mega money laundering. Curbing of money laundering is one of the core points of Financial Action Task Force 27 points’ action plan that Pakistan has to implement to be removed from grey-list.
