Senate opposition stages walkout over amnesty scheme

ISLAMABAD: The joint opposition staged a walkout from the Senate on Monday against the alleged illegal amnesty scheme and asked the government to review this step, as State Minister for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal defended it and said the opposition’s attitude was unfortunate.

The opposition, led by former chairman Mian Raza Rabbani and Leader of the Opposition Sherry Rehman, grilled the government on the scheme and insisted that it was a breach of the Senate as well as parliament. They challenged the government to prove with documents that the cabinet had given approval to the scheme.

Raza Rabbani raised the issue of promulgation of four ordinances by President Mamnoon Hussain a few hours before the commencement of a Senate session, which he himself had summoned. He added the National Assembly’s session was also to start within a little over 24 hours when the ordinances were promulgated.

The first sitting of the maiden session of the new parliamentary year was marred by lack of coordination between the treasury and opposition benches while Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani chaired the proceedings of the formal session.

On a point of order, immediately after the House unanimously adopted a resolution against the fresh wave of Indian atrocities in the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK), Raza Rabbani pointed out that there had been a breach of this House and that of parliament and the cause of action was promulgation of four ordinances by the president. “An ordinance factory was established just 12 hours before the Senate session near the Parliament building,” he noted.

He continued that it was unfortunate that the president did so despite being a part of the parliament under Article 50 of the Constitution, who had already summoned both Houses of parliament to meet and hence it was most inappropriate to promulgate ordinances but the matter did not stop here.

Then, Raza Rabbani narrated how the prime minister announced concessions at a news conference after the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) meeting, which had no place in the Constitution and the law and the federal government’s rules of business. “How a council, made on the basis of a notification, can take far-reaching taxation decisions, which are governed by Article 77 of the Constitution, which says that if the federal government is to impose a tax or reduce it, it shall be through an act of Parliament,” he argued.

Raza Rabbani also noted that the president did not take into consideration this very fact that these ordinances were not placed before the cabinet, as the council had no constitutional or legal status. Then he read out relevant portions of the Supreme Court judgement, which said that the prime minister could not bypass the cabinet, as this would be ultra-vires of the Constitution. He insisted that the president should have made it sure that the ordinances must first go to the cabinet for its consideration and approval. He urged the chairman to give his ruling, as a breach of privilege of the House had taken place.

Rana Afzal was on his feet to maintain that there had been no violation of the law or Constitution and that the ordinances were also promulgated as per the time-frame, adding that the cabinet’s approval was obtained via circulation of the document (amnesty scheme). He insisted the point of order was misplaced.

Raza Rabbani stated how could such an important scheme was being offered by just hoodwinking the cabinet and it was approved through circulation. “If their hands are clean, they should bring the scheme in the House for debate. I challenge that as per the minister’s statement, the circulated document be produced in the House during the sitting,” he said.

The minister responded that he had stated it in categorical terms in the House, prompting Rabbani to again insist on production of the circulated document.

PTI’s Azam Swati also wanted the chair to decide on the question of privilege as he said the government had shown blatant disregard to the Senate. Sherry Rehman rose to allege that the government had breached the privilege of the Senate and the National Assembly and said the opposition stood united on this matter, as they had already discussed it. She questioned the logic behind bringing this scheme with the budget to be presented within a few weeks in the parliament.

“We have not got elected for TA/DA, we are here for transparency. We will have to decide today that for how long the government will continue undermining the parliament as neither the prime minister nor his ministers come here,” she charged. Sherry urged for referring the matter to the House Privilege Committee.

Treasury Senator Haroon Akhtar disputed the opposition’s contention and said there was no mention of the scheme in the council meeting and for the cabinet approval, there were rules of procedure and asked was this for the first time that a scheme was announced or ordinance promulgated. He claimed all the three points that few hours before the session, the ordinances were promulgated, the cabinet had not approved the scheme or the council carried no legal status, did not constitute breach of privilege.

Rabbani rose to say that a government senator had opened a bigger Pandora’s box by saying that the council had not discussed it. “Then, where was it discussed, as the scheme is the PM’s brainchild. He thought of it and then held a news conference on it,” he wondered. JI’s Sirajul Haq claimed the common Pakistani considered such wealth ill-gotten, which the government wanted to bring back and wanted to make it ‘halal’ through a ‘haram’ way. He wanted discussion whether the scheme was legitimate or not.

The minister assured the House that due diligence was done with regards to the scheme and thousands of officials and government employees had given their input spread over several months of hard work. He regretted that the legitimate earning of Pakistanis was termed as ‘haram’, which was not correct.

“There was time when electricity was not available for 20 hours a day, which forced people to shift their investment to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Dubai. The government now wants them to return to Pakistan,” he said.

Sadiq Sanjrani ruled that the question of privilege would be taken up at the time of laying of the ordinances in the House. By that time, the opposition senators had staged a walkout from the House.