Constitutional reforms
Zardari begins consultative process
Staff Reporter
Islamabad—President Asif Ali Zardari Friday night kicked
consultative process within the Party for constitutional reforms.
A marathon brain storming session attended by the Party’s leading
members constituting informal think tank was held late Friday night
in the Presidency to deliberate on the issue of making the
Constitution truly democratic, federal and parliamentary in
character.
The brain storming session was the first of its kind within the
Party, outside the central executive committee and federal council,
to discuss the proposed constitutional amendments with a view to
developing consensus within the Party.
Spokesperson former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that at the
outset the Party’s Co Chairman President Asif Ali Zardari said that
the Party was committed to uphold the principles laid down in the
Charter of Democracy CoD signed in May 2006 and also to the
principles enshrined in the Party’s manifesto.
He said that the Party was bound to these principles not only
through the CoD but also through his two addresses to the Parliament
during the last year and a special letter written separately to the
Prime Minister to expedite the process of constitutional reforms.
The President said that the setting up of the Parliamentary
Committee was a great leap forward towards the realization of the
dream of ridding the Constitution of all anti democracy clauses
introduced into it by dictatorial regimes.
He said that the Party should make full use of this opportunity to
hammer out reforms in the Parliament with the consensus and support
of all other parties.
The President said that after completing the consultative process
within the Party we would be in a better position to talk with other
parties. He said that internal consultative process within the Party
should be completed within weeks and not months.
Those who attended the meeting included Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gillani, Khursheed Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Latif Khosa, Masood
Kausar, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Rahimdad Khan, Zahir Ali Shah, Raja Riaz
Ahmad, Makhdoom Shahbuddin, Mirbaz Khetran, Qamar Zaman Kaira,
Chaudhry Manzoor, Mian Raza Rabbani, Afzal Sindhu, Bismillah Kakar,
Pir Mazharul Haq, Ayaz Soomro, Sadiq Umrani, Rukhsana Bangash,
Fouzia Habib and Farhatullah Babar.
After the President’s opening remarks the floor was opened and all
participants expressed their views. An announcement about the Party
position on various constitutional proposals will be made by the
central executive committee of the party after completion of
internal deliberations within the next few weeks, the spokesperson
said.
