By Syed Shahid Husain
IT was in 1996 that a caretaker government announced the current 5th NFC Award, which went into effect in July, 1997. It was valid for five years. The award has outlived its constitutional life. It has been carried forward for close to ten years. The federal government doesn’t seem to care. It has other worries, of which the provinces are the least. Leaders of the smaller provinces, including Sanaullah Khan Baloch and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, have added their voice to the demand for a fresh award.
Constitution Of Pakistan, states, "Within six months of the commencing day and thereafter at intervals not exceeding five years, the President shall constitute a National Finance Commission consisting of the Minister of Finance of the Federal Government, the Ministers of Finance of the Provincial Governments, and such other persons as may be appointed by the President after consultation with the Governors of the Provinces." {Part VI, Finance, Property, Contracts and Suits, Chapter 1. - Finance, Distribution of Revenues between the Federation and the Provinces, Clause 160(1)} A plain reading of the constitution makes even the composition of the NFC unconstitutional.
We should not forget history. East Pakistanis were sick and tired of the shenanigans of the federal government. They demanded a fair share of resources, besides, of course, a share in political power. The Awami League’s Six Points - the main issue of contention which led to the dismemberment of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971, the 31st anniversary of which lies this week - contained elements, which revolved around a fair share in resources.
There was nothing blasphemous, treasonous or sinister in this demand. I should like to reproduce the six points for the benefit of the readers so that they could draw your own conclusions with reference to the present state of affairs where federalism has been reduced to a crude joke:
1. The Government shall be federal and parliamentary in which elections to the Federal Legislature and to the Legislature of the Federating Units shall be direct and on the basis of universal adult franchise. The representation in the Federal Legislature shall be on the basis of population.
2. The Federal Government shall be responsible only for Defence and Foreign Affairs and, subject to conditions provided in (3) below, currency.
3. There shall be two separate currencies mutually or freely convertible in each Wing for each region, or in the alternative a single currency, subject to the establishment of a Federal Reserve System in which there will be regional Federal Reserve Banks which shall devise measures to prevent transfer of resources and flight of capital from one region to the other.
4. Fiscal policy shall be the responsibility of the Federating Units. The Federal Government shall be provided with requisite revenue resources, which would be automatically appropriable by the Federal Government in the manner provided and on the basis of the ratio to be determined by the procedure laid down in the Constitution. Such Constitutional provisions would ensure that the Federal Government’s revenue requirements are met consistently with the object of ensuring control over the fiscal policy of the Governments of the federating units.
5. Constitutional provisions shall be made to enable separate accounts to be maintained of the foreign exchange earnings of each of the Federating Units, under the control of the respective Government of the Federating Units. The foreign exchange requirements of the Federal Government shall be met by Governments of the Federating Units on the basis of a ratio to be determined in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Constitution to negotiate foreign trade and aid within the framework of the foreign policy of the country, which shall be the responsibility of the Federal Government.
6. The Governments of each of the Federating Units shall be empowered to maintain a militia or paramilitary force in order to contribute effectively towards national security.
A time may perhaps come not far into the future when demands for adoption of a similar platform by political parties may grow strident. A plain reading of the Six Points does not lead one with an open mind and some understanding of constitutional issues to the conclusion that the people of East Pakistan were not bent on seceding. They were only clamouring for their rights clad in constitutional guarantees. A point-wise examination with reference to erstwhile province of East Pakistan is in order.
The first point deals with the basic structure of the government, which shall be federal and parliamentary where elections would be held on the basis of universal adult franchise. There is nothing sinister about this. Only that the polity should be more democratic, participatory and allow each adult voter one vote long since denied for 25 years on the basis of contrived formula of parity, which itself was a negation of the principle of democracy where 44 per cent people of West Pakistan were equal to 56 per cent people of East Pakistan.
Mujeeb’s Six Points were at the centre of things that led to the dismemberment of Pakistan back in 1971, but they were part of the party manifesto which was announced before the elections. If they had that alleged streak of secession, why were they maligned only after the Awami League had swept the polls?
The second point limits the scope of the Federal Government to defence and foreign affairs and by implication allows the remaining subjects to the provinces. One single foreign and defence policy with one single flag provided the best guarantee against the breakup of a country, which the ambitious military junta of this country so blatantly engineered. Nobody can fault this point for any treasonous overtones. Provincial autonomy constitutes the most endurable guarantee for a strong federation. It is its absence that underlay the crisis and brought us face to face with the 1971 disaster, and continues to plague the relationship amongst the provinces of what remains of Pakistan. The strength of the United States, Canada or any other functioning federation in the world owes much to the autonomy their states enjoy under the constitution.
Unfortunately this is an act of faith with Muslims, particularly of the subcontinent, that a strong centre is a guarantee for their progress. This reflects on a fascistic streak in their thinking. An unwilling province cannot be coerced to remain within the federation for long. A sense of participation for every one living in a country is the guarantee for a strong federation.
In 1971, the extent of autonomy was yet to be determined by the National Assembly. This was not allowed to meet by Yahya Khan and his cohorts in the military. These points were the election manifesto of the Awami League. In case the military rulers found something amiss they could have disallowed the manifesto or some particular point before the elections. That they permitted them to be freely discussed and debated meant either that they found nothing wrong with them or else they had sinister designs where they anticipated the events to unfold the way they did so as to provide them an easy excuse for blaming Bengalis for the breakup forced on them.
The third point relates to two separate currencies, mutually or freely convertible in each wing or in the alternative a single currency subject to certain safeguards like the establishment of the Federal Reserve System with regional Federal Reserve Banks. This point was not immutable, and left scope for give and take. An option with single currency subject to adequate safeguards was suggested. The idea was to prevent the transfer of resources from backward agricultural East Pakistan to West Pakistan for the latter’s industrialization.
Obviously, there is nothing wrong with this demand because independent economists admit massive transfer of resources from East to West Pakistan as one of the causes of ill will between the two Wings. This may not be relevant today because globalism demands an opposite strategy, requiring fewer not more currencies. Even the Indian prime minister has suggested one single currency for our two countries.
Having separate currency does not amount to a call for secession. It only guarantees non-transfer of resources from a poor region to the less poor. The people of East Pakistan had full legal and moral right to their own resources. If anything, they were poorer and were entitled to subsidies on the basis of backwardness.
To those who may have forgotten, East Pakistan was kept politically and economically backward with the application of the contrived principle of parity. They were given not even half the share in political power. As a matter of fact, they were kept out of it. As for the resources, their claim for distribution on the population basis was stubbornly resisted until 1971, when suddenly Punjab found great merit in the idea because it had now emerged as the most populous province besides being the most powerful anyway.
The fourth point relates to the fiscal policy, which was to be the responsibility of the federating units. The federal government was to be provided funds in accordance with appropriate constitutional provisions which would ensure "that the Federal Government’s revenue requirements are met consistently." This point envisaged that the federal government should be subservient to the people and get allocations according to the wishes of the people of the two wings.
The demand was based on the sad experience of the federal government denying due share to the federating units in the ’national resources’ as it considered them. This too is an unexceptionable demand not inconsistent with greater autonomy.
The four provinces of the remaining Pakistan have not been able to reach an agreement on distribution of resources for the last several years. The federal government has been encroaching on the provincial turf in utter disregard of the constitution, which has been mutilated beyond recognition. The federal government now controls even local government elections, organized by the Chief Election Commissioner. It decides on who should be the Nazims under the much ballyhooed devolution scheme of General Pervez Musharraf. It collects octroi tax, purely a municipal subject, and deducts heavily for its effort of collection.
The fifth point deals with separate foreign exchange earning accounts to be maintained for each of the federating units. This obviously was also intended to prevent transfers of foreign exchange earned through export of jute, jute-products and tea for industrialization and development of West Pakistan. This point stipulates that the federating units will negotiate aid and foreign trade. The units, "in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Constitution", shall meet foreign exchange requirements of the federal government.
Foreign aid negotiated by the federal government on behalf of the provinces on concessional terms is re-lent to the provinces at a usurious rate of interest of 18 to 20 per cent. This point was intended to deny the federal government an unearned income off the provinces through re-lending and to provide relief for the dwindling finances of the underdeveloped regions and provide greater leeway to the federating units to benefit from lower rates of interest by directly dealing with the foreign lenders.
The last of the Six Points deals with the establishment of paramilitary force for the national security of each federating unit. At present the paramilitary forces like Rangers, Frontier Constabulary, and Coast Guards etc. are the coercive arms of the federal government and operate at its behest. Their presence is a negation of the principle of federalism. The people consider, for example, 35,000 FC troops in Balochistan as an occupation force. So this point was intended to be a safeguard for the provincial autonomy, which East Pakistan demanded.
All these paramilitary forces are funded on the civilian side of the budget through the Ministry of Interior or Cabinet Division etc., but, contrary to the law establishing them, they take orders from the GHQ.
When in 1996 the Supreme Court restored the government of Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and he ordered the Rangers to install the Chief Minister or the Governor of his choice, the Rangers simply refused to move, having first checked with the GHQ, which was acting in concert with the conspiring President to undermine the representative government.
Talking of constitutionalism, who cares? This document has been much abused in the country. There is no Council of Common Interests. Then the ’President’ is supposed to address the joint session of the Assembly every year. He hasn’t done that for a few years. Then the NFC award is to be announced every five years. The wait on this count thus far has been worth nine years and the count has not stopped yet. Probably it is time for the civil society to assert itself and get organized for putting pressure on the rulers to yield space to it.
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/dmag1.htm
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