Govt destroying institutions through ordinances, says Sherry

ISLAMABAD: PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate, Ms Sherry Rehman, has strongly condemned the government for bringing out a plethora of ordinances that are destroying critical institutions and avoiding to discuss them in the parliament in violation of all the constitutional obligations.

Talking to a group of media-persons here in Islamabad Thursday, Senator Sherry Rehman said that the National Assembly has been in session and till date, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) ordinance has not been laid in the parliament. Whereas, according to the Constitution, the presidential ordinance should never be tabled in the house during the parliamentary session.

Senator Rehman slammed the president, saying “the Presidency has become an ordinance factory and the government is hell-bent on destroying the state institutions. Like the HEC & State Bank, one after the other, ordinances that alter the nature of public institutions are being promulgated without recourse to constitutional mandatory obligations to bring them to parliament.

One institution, the HEC, is being stripped of its autonomy to become the handmaiden of the government while the other is being given the kind of autonomy that makes it above all parliamentary oversight of Pakistan.”

“The power to pass an executive ordinance is vested in the president through Article 89 of the Constitution only for emergency purposes and if any of the two houses of the parliament are not in session but ad hoc Sarkar has made presidential ordinances their preferred route for law-making. The PTI government should remember that a presidential ordinance is only valid for 120 days and can only be extended once. How long will they misrule the country like this? How was passing the HEC Ordinance overnight, for example, an emergency situation?” she asked. Rehman said, “The government is constantly issuing ordinances and bypassing the parliament. State institutions are being destroyed by Tabahi Sarkar and cronies are being awarded with plum institutional offices in complete disregard of rules, quality or merit, removing all remnants of oversight and institutional integrity.”

Rehman said that on several key issues, they promulgated over 55 ordinances so far, one of which destroyed the PMDC. Similalry, ordinances regarding PTDC, PIA, Steel Mills and PMDC are all examples of Na Ehl Sarkar’s destruction. People are now getting desperate and taking issues that should be settled in parliament to the courts rendering the parliament powerless. Perhaps that is the plan, as Tabahi Sarkar is uncomfortable with running public issues via parliament.

The PPP Parliamentary leader said that there are various judgments that prevent ordinance-making as a ruse to by-pass parliament. In Ikhlas v Noorunnabi (PLD 1958 WP 283), the Sindh High Court held: “The normal legislative authority is parliament. The president’s powers of making ordinances are confined to emergencies which require immediate legislation and which arise when the Assembly is not in session.” They only throw issues at parliament which they do not want to handle.There are multiple rulings on this by the chairman Senate also.