Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Mohsin Ranjha on Saturday filed a petition in Islamabad High Court (IHC) challenging promulgation of eight ordinances by President Arif Alvi.
Ranjha's counsel Umer Gilani requested the IHC to declare the impugned ordinances illegal and unconstitutional being ultra vires of Article 89 of the Constitution and having been promulgated in a mala fide manner. The petitioner made the president, secretaries National Assembly and Senate, the Prime Minister's principal secretary and secretary law and justice as respondent. He prayed the court to order the government to restore the respect of the Parliament and bar it from issuing the ordinances.
The president on 30th Oct, promulgated eight ordinances including: Letter of Administration and Succession Certificates Ordinance, 2019; Enforcement of Women's Property Rights Ordinance, 2019; Benami Transactions (Prohibition) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019; Superior Courts (Court Dress and Mode of Address) Order (Repeal) Ordinance, 2019; National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019; and Legal Aid and Justice Authority Ordinance, 2019.
At the time of promulgating these Ordinances (Oct 30), the president had good reason to be aware of the upcoming Senate session starting from 5th Nov and the upcoming National Assembly Session starting from 7th Nov, 2019. However, without waiting for these upcoming sessions of the Parliament, the president rushed to promulgate eight ordinances in a single day.
"The obvious reason why the federal government rushed with these ordinances is because it did not want to meaningfully engage with the opposition in the Parliament," stated Gilani.
The petition requested the IHC to declare that the president's power to promulgate ordinances can be used to bring about such legislation only when the government needs to respond to an emergency situation such as war, famine, epidemic or rebellion which has put the life, liberty or property of the people of Pakistan at stake.
It further pleaded that such powers can be used in case of an emergency after the prorogation of the last session of Parliament or when waiting for the commencement of the next session of either house of Parliament would cause irreparable loss of life, liberty or property to the people of Pakistan.
"This represents a completely unconstitutional and authoritarian approach of the government is against the spirit of our federal and democratic Constitution, and which cannot be defended," said the petition.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
Comments
Comments are closed.