What constitutes 'federal government'? Functions of ministries come to a standstill: Dastgir

Commerce Minister Engineer Khurram Dastgir said on Thursday that the functions of several Federal Ministries have come to a halt after the Supreme Court's recent decision in which the definition of federal government was re-defined. He made these comments at a meeting of National Assembly's Standing Committee on Commerce presided over by Siraj Muhammad Khan.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan in civil appeals No 1428, 1436 of 2016 held as follows: (i) Neither a Secretary nor a Minister nor the Prime Minister are the federal government and the exercise, or purported exercise, of a statutory power exercisable by the federal government by any of them, especially, in relation to fiscal matters, is constitutionally invalid and a nullity in the eyes of the law. Similarly, budgetary expenditure of discretionary governmental expenditure can only be authorised by the federal government ie the Cabinet, and not the Prime Minister on his own; and (ii) Rule 16(2) which apparently enables the Prime Minister to bypass the Cabinet has been declared ultra vires.
Commerce Ministry maintained the view that after the Supreme Court's ruling, it is no longer tenable to use the powers of the federal government except in the manner prescribed in the decision. On the other hand, waiting for the approval of the cabinet for such routine matters will have a serious impact on the speed of the decision-making besides consuming considerable time of the federal cabinet. Commerce Ministry has proposed that in line with the spirit of the policy, the words "Federal Government" in the provisions of the Import Policy Order and Export Policy Order may be substituted with the words "Federal Minister for Commerce".
Though the committee had other issues on the agenda, the Chairman of the Committee evinced a special interest in the release of 136 specialised purpose vehicles withheld by the Customs Office Hyderabad allegedly imported in violation of Import Policy Order.
Chairman Standing Committee employed pressure tactics to stop Secretary Commerce, Azmat Ali Ranjha from talking about the issue. However, on the insistence of Parvez Malik, Chairman allowed the Secretary to explain his position for withholding 136 special purpose vehicles by the customs department. The Secretary stated that the matter is sub judice which is why he cannot speak about it. Meanwhile, Minister for Commerce, Engineer Khurram Dastigir, arrived at the meeting which provided relief to the Secretary Commerce.
Siraj Muhammad Khan claimed that Commerce Minister issued eight condonations in 2013, 39 in 2014 and 14 in 2016. The Commerce Minister stated that that the issue of special purpose vehicles had been taken up previously but was pending since August 2016 after the Supreme Court of Pakistan re-defined federal government on a miscellaneous application.
He contended that after the decision of the Supreme Court, a legal question arose on the use of "federal government "as the authority. "We have been informed that the Ministry cannot use the words federal government in the light of SC decision. Everything is at halt after the SC decision," he added Commerce Ministry has taken up this issue with the Prime Minister, he stated adding that the Cabinet will also take up this issue. "Our viewpoint is that where SC rightly stated that legislative or revenue issues exist, Parliament or Cabinet is the final authority but there is also a difficulty in usage of Executives functions where the words 'federal government' are written and the government is trying to resolve it," the Minister stated.
However, Chairman Standing Committee Siraj Muhammad Khan who is pursuing the case of special purpose vehicles entreated the Minister on behalf of entire committee to help in the release of the 136 vehicles even after that would necessitate the imposition of a heavy penalty on the importer.
The Minister assured the committee that he would again request Secretary to reconsider the request to resolve this issue. He argued that it would be better to relax policy for all such cases. However, Alhaj Shah Jee Gul Afridi, who is also a manufacturer of cars, trucks and dumpers stated that if the Ministry releases special purpose vehicles then someone is bound to take up this issue to the court.
According to the brief presented to the committee, during 2013 to 2016 M/s Ehsanullah Construction Company filed 368 Goods Declarations (GDs) at MCC Hyderabad for the clearance of imported special vehicles. So far, 222 vehicles have been assessed provisionally under section 81 of the Customs Act, 1969 and cleared in the light of judgement of Sindh High Court in CP No D.3485/2013 whereas 49 special vehicles are pending clearance on account of non filing of GDs in WeBoC system and 97 special vehicles are pending clearance on account of litigation at various legal fora. Haji Ehan Ullah, the importer, who was not given an opportunity to plead his case before the committee, stated that he did not violate any condition of import policy. The committee also discussed future plans of Pakistan Tobacco Board and deferred deliberation on the Marine Insurance Bill, 2016 on the request of the Commerce Ministry.