RECORDER REPORT
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday opposed further revision of the 18th Constitutional amendment, saying it a consensus document and tampering it will lead to further controversies.
Responding to the reported efforts being made by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government to bring certain modifications in the 18th Constitutional amendment, the PML-N secretary general Ahsan Iqbal opposed the idea saying that the amendment was passed jointly by all the political parties in the parliament.
“What is the purpose of creating new controversies at a time when the nation is in the midst of various crises?” he asked, adding that the major problem of the country right now was to deal with Covid-19 pandemic.
“I’m unable to understand that the logic behind opening a new front on the 18th amendment when the country is already facing a number of challenges including the most urgent Covid-19 pandemic,” Iqbal said, adding that the government should restore the local government system instead of altering the 18th Amendment to effectively cope with the pandemic.
He asked the government to avoid creating political divisions and confrontation between the federation and the federating units, adding that the people were unable to understand such provocative statements of the government.
“The whole nation is fighting Covid-19. We need to become united to deal with the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. In such a situation, no one can understand the purpose of creating new controversy,” he added.
The PML-N leader maintained that govt’s such policies were constantly spreading chaos and creating divisions in the nation, which was damaging our national unity and the ability to deal with the challenges.
At this time, he said there was a need to unite the whole nation to fight the Covid-19 and deal with the impacts of the pandemic on country’s economy.
“National unity should not be undermined by raising unnecessarily issue on which the nation has a consensus,” he added.
Iqbal said if the government was really interested in governance, it should restore the democratic institutions – local bodies’ system — so that the local body representatives could play their due role in combating the Covid-19 pandemic at the grassroots level.
