8th amendment (1985): by
President Zia-ul-Haq, which allowed the president to unilaterally dissolve NA
(National Assembly). Parliamentary democratic system was replaced by
semi-presidential system. Sub-section 2(b) under Article 58 was added to
dissolve NA.
13th Amendment (1997): removed Article 58(2)(b) of the
Constitution by Nawaz Sharif government.
17th Amendment (2003): President Pervez Musharraf reversed the 13th amendment with some
addition like; president can dissolve NA and governor can dissolve provincial
assembly but subject to an approval/veto by Supreme Court of Pakistan.
18th Amendment (2010): passed
by NA on 08-04-2010, by senate on 15-04-2010 and finally by president Asif Ali
Zardari on 19th April 2010.
Constitution of Pakistan after 18th Amendment:
· 17th amendment was reversed, which removed the powers of president to dissolve the parliament.
· Provinces became more autonomous.
· NFC (National Finance Award) was restructured.
·
LFO
(Legal Framework Order) by president Musharraf was repealed.
·
Name
of Zia ul Haq & Pervez Musharraf was removed from the Constitution.
·
Pakistan
became parliamentary democratic republic.
·
Name
of NWFP was changed to KPK (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).
·
Ban
on 3rd time election of PM and CM was lifted.
·
Suspension
of Constitution became a high treason.
· Council
of Common Interests (CCI) established to resolve power-sharing disputes among
federal and provinces.
· A
parliamentary commission will appoint the superior judges on the
recommendations of the judiciary commission.
· Appointment
of Chief Election Commissioner through consensus between treasury and opposition.
· Establishment
of Islamabad high court and high court benches in Mingora and Turbat.
· Free
compulsory education up to the age 16. (Article 25A)
This amendment increased provincial autonomy and devolved power to
provincial as well as to local government.
president cannot declare emergency in provinces without consent of
provinces.
Supreme Court will adjudicate in case of conflict between
federation and provinces.
34% of the constitution was changed by adding 102 articles.
Some of ministries were abolished at federal level and many of them
were devolved to provincial level.
Right to a fair trial (Article 10A) and right to information
(Article 19A) was added.
Transferred greater administrative and fiscal authority to the provinces, but also gave more powers to parliament.
7th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award (2010): allocated 82.98% of financial grants to provinces.
Punjab: ~51.75%
Sindh: ~24.50%
KPK: ~14.50%
Baluchistan: ~9.25%
Critical Analysis (Causes / Remedies / Advantages &
Disadvantages / Pros & Cons):
Two points from 14th points of Jinnah:
·
The form of the future
constitution should be federal, with the residuary powers vested in the
provinces.
·
All provinces must be given equal
Autonomy.
An important point from Pakistan Resolution:
·
Pakistan shall be a federation
and its constituent units will be autonomous.
After creation of Pakistan, denial of autonomy resulted in the six points demand of Sheikh Mujib and consequently the fall of Dhaka (1971).
Agriculture land tax is under provincial governments. Elite class
being the kingmaker influence provincial government and thus a very large
agriculture area is exempted from tax net.
Weakened the center and empowered the provinces administratively
and financially to such an extent that resulted in bad governance and national
financial crisis respectively. It created dictatorship of some political
parties in their respective provinces, like PPP in Sindh.
Incumbent government could not dictate provincial government
because each province is rules by another political party from opposition.
It secured provincial autonomy but failed to secure local
government system.
Provincial governments delay in elections and allocation of
resources at local government. If local government is not allowed to work
properly, political process will be hijacked by provincial governments and true
democratic system at grass-root level will not be exercised.
Provincial autonomy strengthened the state through inter-provincial
harmony.
An independent Audit Commission should be made to monitor and
improve the allocation of resources by Federal and Provincial.
Local government must be empowered for the exercise of democratic
values at grass root level. For this, timely elections as well as allocation of
resources at local level is essential.