Passage of services chiefs’ bills: Parliament trampled legal procedures: Liaqat Baloch

LAHORE: JI has said that all political parties have given birth to a new doctrine of necessity and pushed back the narrative of civil, political and democratic supremacy for several decades by surrendering before their political compulsions in voting for extending the retiring age of army and other services chiefs.

The Jamaat leader and former parliamentary leader in National Assembly Liaqat Baloch said political forces in National Assembly and Senate were suppressed for seeking the required majority for passing the legislation but suppression of the democratic sentiments and aspirations of the masses would be too heavy to achieve. In a statement from Mansoora after the passage of the amendment, Baloch expressed sorrow that parliamentary parties in the parliament trampled the constitutional and legal procedures required for the legislation and bulldozed every norm of the parliament in their haste to pass the amendment in Army Act. He said despite that overwhelming majority was present for the amendment but the parliamentary and democratic norms required that amendments to the draft legislation and dissenting notes should also have been put on the record for the coming generations to learn from. He lamented that no amendments were allowed to be tabled in the legislation which was a shameful act. He said entire legislation was not only bulldozed but buried under heavy bulldozer, thus exposing the narratives of ‘change, breaking the status quo, and respect to vote’.