Shaukat Aziz Becomes Prime Minister [2004]

Shaukat Aziz Becomes Prime Minister [2004]


Shaukat Aziz became the 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan on August 23, 2004 after he won two National Assembly seats from Attock and Tharparkar on August 18 by-elections and took oath as Member of National Assembly on August 20. He retained the Attock seat, he took over the charge of premiership of Pakistan from Chaudury Shujaat Hussain who remains the President of Muslim League (QA).
He was born in Karachi on March 6, 1949 and received his early education at Saint Patrick’s School, Karachi and Abbottabad Public School. He was awarded the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in 1969 at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi. He joined the Citibank in 1969, Karachi and served overseas in 1975, holding higher positions in several countries including USA, UK, Malaysia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. He was appointed Executive Vice President of Citibank in 1992 and till he joined the Government of Pakistan as Finance Minister in 1999. Well regarded by global financiers, Shaukat Aziz is, indeed, President Pervez Musharraf's choice for the top post.
Shaukat Aziz who has retained the Ministry of Finance is regarded as an optimist who is determined to use Pakistan's potential and bring Pakistan at par with other Asian countries like China, Thailand, Malaysia and other regional economic giants. He looks for a bright future for Pakistan if its human capital and resources are utilized positively. After taking oath as Member of the National Assembly, Shaukat Aziz has also declared that efforts would be made for provision of good governance, improvement in legal and police systems and provision of opportunities to the people, especially the common man. Analysts say his main duties as premier will be to improve the day-to-day running of the federal government and see that policies are more effectively executed. Many people attribute Pakistan’s economic revival to his prudent policies, while others claim it was the global situation that made it possible. Some others argue that his policies did more harm than good by marginalizing the common man as the poverty level failed to decline. It is, however, hoped that Mr. Aziz who is the choice of a section of Pakistan's rulers will win friends in the international financial institutions.
Although Shaukat Aziz is expected to come up with more concrete relief due to his finance management skill and stress on macroeconomics, Shaukat Aziz will have to take quick steps on the path of learning the intricacies of both the global and national politics. It is an area that is full of pitfalls and various blind alleys. No spiritual or political academy or any book is likely to give him readymade guidelines about unpredictable turns and situations likely to come his way. He is sure to succeed if he is convinced to apply the tricks of the "trade".

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain Becomes Prime Minister [2004]

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain Becomes Prime Minister [2004]


Ch. Shujaat Hussain, who heads the ruling faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, PML (QA) took the post in a caretaker position on June 30, 2004 four days after Zafarullah Jamali resigned all of a sudden. Chaudhry Shujaat was elected leader of the house after securing 190 whereas his opponent ARD’s Makhdoom Amin Fahim got 76 votes. With a 27-member Cabinet, Ch. Shujaat Hussain announced after taking oath as Prime Minister of Pakistan: "We will continue to pursue the policies of the President with regard to good governance and economic development".
Prime Minister Ch. Shujaat Hussain announced formation of a special parliamentary committee to resolve Balochistan crisis by initiating political dialogue and giving representation all parliamentary parties of the upper House in the committee and offered to act as a member of the committee to resolve the problem through talks. Taking into consideration that "the success of the next government will be evaluated on its economic performance," he said this very thinking led the Pakistan Muslim League and its allied parties to select Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz as the next executive head of the country. In an interview, he said: "My nomination by Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and nomination of Shaukat Aziz after consulting the President were in line with the set traditions. There should be no hue and cry over such technicalities". Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain expressed gratitude to Almighty Allah for being the first elected Prime Minister in the country’s history to leave the office, after discharging his obligations (only for 45 days), with dignity and honor.
A notable contribution of the 22nd Prime Minister during his short tenure is the introduction of the Defamation (Amendment) Bill that was hurriedly passed by the Parliament to protect the dignity, reputation and esteem of a person from any false and wanton accusation imposing enhanced punishments for libel. Most probably through the new Defamation Bill, he wanted to save all those from being regularly accused of getting huge bank loans which were later on written off.
Ch. Shujaat Hussain also directed the Punjab Government to declare village Gah in District Chakwal — birthplace of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — as a model village and the Government Boys Primary School at Gah as the 'Manmohan Singh Government Boys Primary School', as a gesture of goodwill to strengthen the peace process between Pakistan and India. Dr. Singh's family migrated to the Indian side of Punjab before Partition. When he became Prime Minister in May, there were celebrations in the Pakistani village where he was born and attended the primary school.
Another significant announcement made by him was that the coffin of Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, who evolved the nomenclature 'Pakistan' before partition, will be brought to Pakistan later this year for a formal burial in Pakistan. Chaudhry Rehmat Ali who is well-known for his historic pamphlet "Now or Never; Are we to live or perish forever?" had died in February 1951 and was buried in Cambridge City graveyard. Later, he coined the word 'Pakistan' for the Muslims who lived in the five northern states of India - Punjab, North West Frontier (Afghan) Province, Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan.

Seventeenth Amendment [2003]

Seventeenth Amendment [2003]


Seventeenth Amendment is basically the Legal Framework Order 2002 that has been accepted as part of the Constitution with minor modifications and may be, therefore, termed as an LFO-amended Constitution. After a surprise deal between PML(Q) and MMA (Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal), the 17th Amendment has now become part of the 1973 Constitution after the formal approval of President General Pervez Musharraf. A year-old constitutional deadlock was broken only because of "flexibility" shown by President General Pervez Musharraf and top MMA leadership. The amendment allows General Pervez Musharraf to serve out his term as President, which ends in 2007, and formalize special powers he had decreed himself giving him the right to sack the prime minister and disband parliament by decree. In return, Musharraf agrees to step down as army chief, supposed to be the main source of his power, by December 31, 2004.
The seventeenth amendment now allows the provision for "vote of confidence for further affirmation of the president in office by majority of the members present and voting, by division or any other method as prescribed in the rules made by the federal government under clause (9), of the electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament and the provincial assemblies". Accordingly a vote of confidence was passed in favor of the President on January 1, 2004 by members of both National Assembly and the Senate. Despite the fact the MMA abstained from giving the vote of confidence to the President, it has indirectly accepted him as elected president by allowing vote of confidence from both houses of parliament and provincial assemblies.
Under the Article 58(2)(b), "the President in case of dissolution of the National Assembly shall, within fifteen days of the dissolution, refer the matter to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court shall decide the reference within thirty days whose decision shall be final".
Likewise, under the Article 112, the governor in case of dissolution of the provisional assembly shall also refer the matter to the Supreme Court with the previous approval of the president and the Supreme Court shall decide the reference within thirty days whose decision shall be final.
Another amendment is the addition of the words "in consultation with the Prime Minister" in place of "in his discretion" in Article 243 of the Constitution giving the Prime Minister a constitutional say in the appointment of services chiefs. Article 152(A) of the Constitution has been omitted that related to the establishment of a National Security Council. The National Security Council may be, however, created with the passage of a bill with simple majority.
17th Amendment has amended Article 41(1)(7)(b) of the Constitution whereby Article 63(1)(d) of the Constitution has been made inoperative till December 31, 2004. Article 63(1)(d) deals with the disqualification for membership of Parliament and under Article 41(2) only a person qualified to be elected as member of the National Assembly, can be elected as President. This means that for the duration that that Article 63(1)(d) is inoperative, the President is not barred from being elected as the President while he holds the office of COAS. But it is interesting to note that the Article 43(1) of the Constitution still remains intact that says: “The President shall not hold office of profit in the service of Pakistan carrying the right to remuneration for the rendering of services,” Since no amendment has been made in this clause, the Article 43(1) disallows a person simultaneously to be the President and the COAS of the country.
The bill granted indemnity to all actions of President General Pervez Musharraf since military action of October 12, 1999 as according to the 270AA, the Parliament has "affirmed, adopted and declared to have been duly made by the competent authority … all laws made between October 12,1999 and the date on which the Article comes into force".
In the Article 179, retirement age of the Supreme Court judges has now been fixed at 65 year. This was a huge concern for the lawyers of the country who have at least welcomed this move.