“This is an achievement of our reconciliation policy,” Prime Minister Gilani said about the vote, and described the amendments as realisation of the visions of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the late PPP leaders Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, Mr Sharif who signed the Charter of Democracy with Ms Bhutto as well as the entire political leadership of the country to make the supremacy of parliament possible. But he said it was not the end of the road and promised his government would be prepared to bring more changes if it received similar support in the future.

“We are not thinking of power, we are thinking about our future generations who could say that (people’s) representatives of today have given a direction to the nation,” Mr Gilani said.

He said the amendments would restore a “truly parliamentary system” in the country on the Westminster model that he said was closest to the thinking of the Quaid-i-Azam and the late Mr Bhutto and best suited to this region, while the one being replaced and given by dictators was a hotchpotch, neither parliamentary nor presidential.

Opposition leader Nisar Ali Khan indirectly lauded President Zardari’s role in bringing about the amendments as PPP leader and said the bill’s approval showed the country’s politicians could rise above party politics and take decisions.

He said he felt proud as a member of this parliament and assured the government of opposition’s full support in matters such as solving people’s problems and ridding the country of the “legacy of military dictators” and foreign dictation.

The opposition leader also appealed to all politicians to make a commitment never to lend a helping shoulder to any military dictator and repeated his demand for the trial of Gen Musharraf for high treason.

More parties’ leaders wanted to speak but the speaker said she would allow them time on Friday.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/03-18th-amendment-approved-with-majority-vote-ss-04

Somersaults of Ansar Abbasi in the “Garb of Filing a News Report on Political Statements”

PML-N also sniffs Army intervention
Monday, April 26, 2010
By Ansar Abbasi

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=28497

ISLAMABAD: After the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), now apprehensions are also being expressed by the PML-N about some alleged conspiracy being hatched by certain elements belonging to the Army and intelligence agencies.
Though it is whispered and not publicly said in so many words, in their off-the-record discussions with media persons, some PML-N leaders express their fears that the third force is preparing the ground to do something extra-constitutional.
Ahsan Iqbal is on the record as having said on Saturday that a third force wants a clash between the judiciary and parliament. He did not name the third force precisely in the same fashion as has been done repeatedly by President Asif Ali Zardari during the recent months.
According to a PML-N leader, the Army is trying to pitch the judiciary against parliament and for this purpose it is using certain elements in the media. The N-leader, however, did not have anything concrete to support his argument.
After the recent bloody riots in Abbottabad and Hazara, another PML-N leader told this correspondent strictly off-the-record he believed that some intelligence agencies had played tricks to trigger violence in the area.
When asked if he says this on the basis of some solid information or it was just based on his analysis or calculation, he said it was his educated guess. However, in the same breath, he contradicted himself by saying that the PML-N Hazara leadership had told him that the Hazara-based PML-Q leadership and the champions of the Hazara province, who led the recent movement there, were given a shut up call by the military. He said that the violent riots ended after the likes of Haider Zaman, Gohar Ayub and others were asked to stay peaceful.
Retired Lieutenant General and former ISI chief Hameed Gul was asked on Saturday by Dr Shahid Masood in his programme, Meray Mutabiq, if he sees the possibility of the Pakistan Army getting into politics at a time when there are fears of a clash between the two main pillars of the state.
Gul said that the military had learnt lessons from its past mistakes. He added that the military had no interest in getting into politics or pushing institutions into a clash with each other. The Pakistan Army and the ISI were already put on the defensive after being repeatedly but subtly blamed of conspiring against democracy by no less than the president. At that time, there were not many even among the politicians to believe this but now such apprehensions have started being raised by the Leaguers.
If there is any truth in such apprehensions, then it is vital to understand the fact that parliament has done its work by producing the 18th Amendment and now it is the judiciary’s turn to do a judicial review of some of the 101 amendments, which have been challenged in the apex court.
The Army or intelligence agencies have no business to get worried or do anything on issues which clearly fall in the domain of either parliament or the judiciary. Out of the 101 constitutional amendments, only a few have been challenged, meaning thereby that generally and mostly parliament has done good work. In other cases, now it is for the apex court to do its work and decide the cases on merit and in line with the Constitution and law.
With the exception of a few controversial amendments, parliament has done well. The judiciary is doing extraordinarily and enjoys the complete support of the masses. It is supposed to continue adjudging the cases placed before it in line with law and the Constitution without any fear or favour.
It should not be bothered about the negative propaganda unleashed by anyone against the judiciary or those threatening it that it should keep its hands off the constitutional amendments, already challenged, to avoid a possible confrontation.
An evolution of institutions in this evolutionary process is going on and the military should remain focused on its soldiering matters and must stay away from politics, say analysts.

Aamir Mughal
http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/