ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has been urged to clarify “exercise of power” to enact laws through Ordinances.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader, Barrister Mohsin Nawaz Ranjha, assailed eight Ordinances promulgated by the president on 30th October, 2019.
The IHC on 13th November, 2019, admitted the writ petition and issued notices.
Since then, the case has been taken up for hearing on many dates.
The petitioner on Saturday filed an application in the IHC through advocate Umer Ijaz Gilani under Section 151 of CPC, 1908 for placing additional documents on the record.
He informed that the federal government is unfairly taking advantage of the pendency of the petition and are promulgating fresh Ordinances related to ordinary legislative matters, full throttle, thereby sidelining Parliament.
The ordinances promulgated during the pendency of this petition include, inter alia: Special Technology Zones Authority Ordinance, 2020; Federal Medical Teaching Institutes Ordinance, 2020; Pakistan Islands Development Authority Ordinance, 2020; International Court of Justice (Review and Re-consideration) Ordinance, 2020; Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; Corporate Restructuring Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; Companies (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; Public Private Partnership Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; COVID-19 (Prevention of Hoarding) Ordinance, 2020; Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; COVID-19 (Prevention of Smuggling) Ordinance, 2020 (III of 2020); Financial Institutions (Secured Transactions) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 (IV of 2020); Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 (No.XXV of 2019); Tax Laws (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019; Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019; National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019; China Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority Ordinance, 2019.
This is clear from Article 89 of the Constitution that the exercise of Ordinance-making power is only when doing so is necessary for responding to an emergency situation (such as war, famine, epidemic or rebellion) which arises after the prorogation of one session of Parliament and where waiting for the next session would cause irreparable loss to the people of Pakistan.
The petitioner submitted that Ordinance-making power has been constantly abused by successive governments.
More than 2,500 Ordinances have been promulgated by the presidents of Pakistan since 1947.
This practice, which amounts to a transgression by the executive into the legislature’s domain, is continuing even today.
Umer Gilani submitted that none of these Ordinances can be considered as emergency legislation.
This establishes a systematic violation of this principle is continued even during the pendency of this petition.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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