ISLAMABAD: The caretaker government faced stiff resistance in the Senate Tuesday, as members from diverse political parties strongly protested on its move to legislate, forcing the chairman to adjourn the House, after lack of quorum was pointed out.
The protesting senators wondered what urgency had compelled the caretaker government, having no mandate for legislation, to lay ordinances and introduce bills in the House with the general elections about 45 days away.
Thus the bumpy proceedings on the first day of the 334th session of the Senate prevented transaction of business listed on the orders of the day for the caretaker ministers to introduce four bills and lay as many recently promulgated ordinances.
As Caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi rose to introduce a bill seeking to amend The Motion Pictures Ordinance, 1979, Senators from different political parties, including PML-N and PTI, raised objections to this move.
They asked as to what was the urgency for introduction of legislative business at a time when the parliament was incomplete, also disputing the promulgation of ordinances with far-reaching implications at this point of time.
PML-N’s Saadia Abbasi was the first to raise objection and noted that the caretaker government had no mandate to legislate and the ordinances as well as bills on the orders of the day couldn’t be introduced and laid respectively.
She continued that the parliament was incomplete and “we should not set new traditions”, as to do legislation was the mandate of the elected government, requesting the chair not to allow to the government to table the bills, being what she called against the sovereignty of parliament.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s Senator Mushtaq Ahmed said that laying of ordinances was tantamount to misusing the Article 89 of the Constitution and reminded the House that the caretakers were only supposed to perform day-to-day maters of the government under Section 230 of Elections Act, 2017.
He pointed out that the caretaker government wanted to introducing strategic legislation, including amendments in financial and economic laws, which was not day-to-day mater, adding the move is aimed at bypassing the parliament, constitution, democracy and masses.
The caretakers, he insisted, could not be allowed at any cost to perform such acts, as this was overstepping of the mandate by the caretaker government, having no right to do legislation.
However, the minister stood up in seat to table the Motion Pictures (Amendment) Bill, the senators protested and sought a voting on it, to which the chair maintained that the bills may be allowed to be referred to the committee and these proposed laws would be put to vote before the parliament after both the houses are completed. Leader of the Opposition Dr Shahzad Waseem supported the views expressed by other senators and said that the caretaker government had no mandate to legislate. “This blanket cover couldn’t be granted and new trend could not be set,” he argued.
He said that the caretaker government should explain the necessity of bringing ordinances and bills and added that only one-time permission could be granted if introduction of legislation was indispensable for the country. “The tradition of bringing a legislative agenda is neither in the interest of the parliament nor the country,” he remarked and requested the chair to look into the matters and stop this tradition.
Senator Dr Humayun Mohmand of PTI said that all the bills and ordinances were not that important and asked why they couldn’t wait till February 8. “What is the emergency that we cannot wait for one and half month and after the completion of parliament, the government can lay the bills,” he said.
“If we want to do this, then the caretaker should be allowed to run the country and we should be sent to home. The chair is requested not to let the government to put the bills before the House,” he maintained.
Then the chair asked the minister to explain the reasons behind the necessity in bringing the bills and ordinances, who contended that the promulgation of ordinances was the power of the government under Article 89 of the Constitution.
He emphasised said that it was mandatory for the government to lay ordinances in the form of bills, adding this is the work of House to decide on the matter. But while he spoke, several members persisted with their noisy protest and in the meanwhile quorum was pointed out. The chair ordered count and the House was not found in order, prompting him to adjourn the proceedings till Friday morning. Earlier, during the question hour, the Senate was informed that the government has decided to gradually outsource three international airports of the country and Islamabad International Airport is the first to be outsourced.
Advisor to the caretaker Prime Minister on Aviation, Air Marshal (Retd) Farhat Hussain Shah said these include Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi and explained that the outsourcing process will be conducted in phases through an open bidding system.
He noted that a Transaction Advisory Services Agreement (TASA) has already been signed by Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank Group on 11th April, 2023 after obtaining approval from the then Federal Cabinet in line with the Public Private Partnership Authority (P3A) Act and its relevant regulations for outsourcing the operations of these international airport.
Islamabad International Airport, he explained, has been selected to be outsourced first for which tender documents have been advertised in international and national press with the date of opening of bids fixed as 9th November, 2023.
In this regard, he said a pre-bid meeting has been held on 26th September, 2023. It has also been decided that Islamabad International Airport would be outsourced for a period of 15 years whereas the time period of the remaining airports would be decided by the federal government on the basis of the detailed study to be prepared by IFC.
“The name of the successful bidder would be known once the bidding process is completed. It is expected that award of concession for outsourcing of Islamabad International Airport should be completed before June, 2024,” he said. He said the bidders will include parties from Qatar, UAE, Turkey and Malaysia.
He said that the PIA suffered a loss of Rs292.68 billion in five years from 2018 to 2022 with the maximum loss of over Rs 88 billion in 2022 alone.
He said it was true that the PIA earned operational profit in Jan-June 2023 but due to high financing cost and exchange loss, it has suffered net loss of Rs1.6 billion as on June 30, 2023. PIACL has also accumulative liabilities of Rs 809 billion as of June 30, 2023. Such a huge volume of liabilities and mark up payments has adversely affected the cash flow, which is looming threat to PIA operations.
He said taking cognizance of the situation, the government has decided to go for privatization of the national flag-carrier. He pointed out that initially PIA will be privatized as a flight entity and the decision on its other properties will be made later by the Privatization Commission, having to pay back on average Rs10 billion per month against outstanding loans.
Earlier, the (Senate) House Business Advisory Committee, in its meeting, decided that the 33th session would continue till January 15, 2024.
