Post by Islamic Revival on Jan 10, 2006 16:35:19 GMT -5
By Irfan Ullah Khan
Published: January 04, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ews item: "The federal cabinet decided to reconstitute the Council of Common Interests (CCI), a key constitutional panel meant to sort out differences among provinces." (Jan 2, 2006) The government thus acknowledged the internal combustion between the provinces and the federal and also among the provinces themselves which is a part and parcel of the ruling system of federation and which was now ignited due to the issue of KBD. The constitution of Pakistan provides for the formation of such a council which shows that the framers of the constitution had in mind that if Pakistan is going to be a federation then such a council would be needed as differences among provinces is a natural outcome of the federation system.
The ruling is decentralized in a federation which means that provinces can legislate in the matters that are provided in the concurrent list provided in the constitution. Giving legislation in the hands of a province means by itself that it would legislate keeping in view the interests of the province. Now the interest of one province may not match the interest of another province and here comes the use of such a council. Thus the criteria for judging issues become the interest of my province and not the interest of my nation as a whole.
Secondly, the lack of confidence of the provinces on the federal unit is another matter that is inevitable if the federal unit has a history of favouring the major province at the expense of minor provinces. The provinces don't have any confidence on the federal and they are not even ready to accept KBD even after legal and constitutional assurances. All this has always hindered the progress and development of Pakistan.
The reconstitution of CCI is another patchwork that is made to cover the fallacies of this form of ruling. The solution is not to do a patchwork and cover the fallacy of a system but to abolish the system itself and bring a new system where these problems will not arise. The Khilafah, the ruling system revealed on Muhammad (peace be upon him), is the alternative to the federal system which will cure this problem because ruling is centralized in Khilafah and provinces are only for administration purposes and not ruling.
The shape of the ruling system in Islam is not a federal one, where its regions separate by autonomy, but unite in the general ruling. It is rather a system of unity, where Marrakesh in the West is considered to be the same as Khurasan in the East; and the province of Al-Fayoom would be the same as Cairo if it were the Islamic capital. The finance of all the regions will be the same, as will their budget. Funds are spent equally on the affairs of the subjects, regardless of their wilayah (province). If for instance, the revenues of a single wilayah were double its needs, the funds spent will be in accordance with the needs of the wilayah but not in accordance with its revenues. If another wilayah's revenues fell short of its needs, this would not be taken into consideration, and funds will be spent to satisfy the wilayah's needs from the general budget whether it raised enough revenues or not.
Therefore the ruling system is unitary and not a federation. That is why the Islamic ruling system is distinguished from other known systems, in its origin and basis, even if some of its aspects were similar to some of the aspects of other ruling systems. Furthermore, the Islamic system is centralised in its ruling, where the high authority is at the centre, and where the authority and power engulfs every single part of the state, no matter how small or large it is. Independence of any part of it is not allowed thus preventing disintegration. When the Khaleefa is looking after the affairs of the provinces equally, then all the provinces have confidence on the central authority and issues like KBD do not seem to be huge issues because they are not seen through the narrow lens of the interests of the provinces.
Notes to the editor:
Irfan Ullah Khan is a Public Finance Accountant by profession from Islamabad and can be reached at irfanunderscore@gmail.com