Rabbani moves bill to amend Article 89 of Constitution

ISLAMABAD: Ex-chairman Senate and PPP senior leader Senator Mian Raza Rabbani Friday moved a private members bill in the Senate Secretariat seeking to amend Article 89 of the Constitution to make it binding on the government to lay an ordinance in the first sitting of either house of the Parliament after its promulgation.

The bill said that if the government failed in laying a promulgated ordinance before Parliament then it stood repealed. Article 89 of the Constitution deals with the powers of the president to promulgate an ordinance when Parliament is not in session and such extreme circumstances exist wherein a legislation become imperative. In a statement of object and reasons of the bill, Rabbani said there is a long history of the power of the president to promulgate an ordinance when Parliament is not in session and such extreme circumstances exist wherein a legislation becomes imperative.