Opposition parties and the joint electorate issue

http://www.ppp.org.pk/articles/article27.html

Leader of the Opposition

Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto

Budget Speech

June 15, 1998

(…) Our Country is calling out for drastic Reforms. The old ways will not do. This regime has squandered the massive engineered majority given to it by President Farooq Leghari in a deal brokered by Governor of the Punjab. It has miserably failed to chart out a course of self-reliance and reform. Women's seats have not been restored. Minorities have not been given joint electorate. Blasphemy Law has not been amended. (…)

http://www.gulf-news.co.ae/150998/world5.htm

Leghari announces manifesto

From Salahuddin Haider
Our Karachi Correspondent
Former Pakistani president Farooq Leghari announced the first part of his Millat Party's manifesto here yesterday. It demands a return to the system of joint electorate's and greater autonomy for the country's federating units. He, however, avoided answering whether Pakistan should have more than four provinces, knowing that a commitment at this stage may jeopardise his interest in Punjab, the most powerful political unit of the country.

(…)

The enlarged houses, he said, will have at least 33 per cent seats for women and another 10 per cent for professionals, technocrats and workers from agricultural and industrial sectors. He said the late president General Zia-ul-Haq had amended the constitution unilaterally to introduce a system of separate electorate's which had caused consternation in the country.

Position of the PAKISTAN PEOPLE'S PARTY (Shaeed Bhutto)
http://www.pppsb.com.pk/ref3.htm

THE CONSTITUTION

The legal framework of a constitution can guarantee no progress if it is made in the interests of the ruling classes. The Party's conception of a progressive constitution includes:

(a) full democracy; (b) parliamentary government; (c) federal system; (d) guarantee of full-fledged working of local self-government; (e) guarantee of full Human Rights.

The Concurrent list of the Constitution needs to be drastically revised in favour of the provinces.The notorious Eighth Amendment should be scrapped. The system of joint electorates should be adopted.Women's seats in the parliament should be restored and the proportion should be raised to twenty percent.Local Bodies should be accorded constitutional protection just as National and Provincial assemblies are given.any constitution the unity of the country can be preserved only on the condition that the economy of the country is not fragmented, and a uniformity of the legal system prevails throughout the republic. There must be no privileged and retarded areas. The areas under tribal regime must be absorbed within the general system. Human rights need to be further and expressly eloborated in the constitution.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Observance of Human Rights in a society is the measure of its degree of being civilised. Pakistan has yet to travel a long way in amending its constitution and laws to reach the goal of being in a position of full observance of its obligations to its own people and the world. Women, children, religious and ethnic minorities, working people stand at a considerable disadvantage of not being treated as fully equal as citizens.

The Party stands for signing without reservations the UN conventions and protocols on civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights. Pakistan should also sign the convention pertaining to the rights of women and children.

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