The two mainstream opposition parties - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)- have rejected the National Accountability Bureau (Amendment) Ordinance 2019, saying the ordinance has been promulgated to save the skin of 'blue-eyed cronies' of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, the PML-N said the NAB Ordinance has been brought to "dry-clean PTI regime and to halt all inquiries into their mega corruption scandals in all projects."
"The Ordinance is a recipe cooked by the 'selected' Prime Minister to grant limitless NROs to his blue-eyed beneficiaries and his corrupt regime. If Imran and his regime are honest and have done no wrong, why he conjured up this new standard of accountability for his government after grilling the opposition through the previous laws, and why he is trying to use this to shut down probes into his projects against those who are already neck deep in corruption," she questioned.
It further said, "There is only one objective of this new Ordinance. The selected Prime Minister wants to cover the corrupt tracks of his imposed illegitimate regime. Fictitious and false cases through NAB (are) for the opposition and special NAB NRO Plus (is) to guard investigation into PTI regime's true corruption."
The statement said the NAB Ordinance has been brought to "quash the Peshawar Metro corruption inquiry, Malam Jabba case, helicopter case, the all-important and crucial foreign funding case, to grant further NROs to the corrupt."
Vice President PPP Sherry Rehman tweeted, "National Assembly is not in session and regular Senate has not been called for 116 days. In this forced legislative vacuum, the government has introduced an ordinance on the NAB which completely bypasses the parliamentary process, let alone transparency and the principle of one law for all."
In the recent past, the opposition parties strongly criticised President Arif Alvi and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for 'habitually' promulgating the presidential ordinances, which, they said, was tantamount to bypassing the Parliament's authority. Lawmakers from opposition parties including PML-N, PPP and smaller political groups staged walkouts from the respective sessions of the National Assembly and Senate against the promulgation of presidential ordinances.
Constitutionally, an ordinance can be promulgated for 120 days but if a resolution disapproving the ordinance is passed in National Assembly or Senate then the ordinance stands repealed. Moreover, an ordinance can be extended for 120 days but if a resolution to disapprove the ordinance gets passed by either house of the Parliament, it stands repealed.
Furthermore, an ordinance that is lapsed permanently, after being extended once, remains no more into effect and requires parliamentary legislation to become a law. Parliamentary legislation (requires passage from both houses of the Parliament) can also be done any time before an ordinance is lapsed to make it a law.
The Article 89 reads, "Power of President to promulgate Ordinances.-(1) The President may, except when the (Senate or) National Assembly is in session, if satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary to take immediate action, make and promulgate an Ordinance as the circumstances may require. (2) An Ordinance promulgated under this Article shall have the same force and effect as an Act of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) and shall be subject to like restrictions as the power of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) to make law, but every such Ordinance-(a) shall be laid - before the National Assembly if it contains provisions dealing with all or any of the matters specified in clause (2) of Article 73, and shall stand repealed at the expiration of one hundred and twenty days from its promulgation or, if before the expiration of that period a resolution disapproving it is passed by the Assembly (or Senate), upon the passing of that resolution.
Provided that the National Assembly (or Senate) may by a resolution extend the ordinance for a further period of one hundred and twenty days and it shall stand repealed at the expiration of the extended period, or if before the expiration of that period a resolution disapproving it is passed by the Assembly (or Senate), upon the passing of that resolution: Provided further that extension for further period may be made only once."
Earlier on September 4, the government had to withdraw the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 after strong criticism from opposition parties, public circles and media. The ordinance was promulgated on August 27 and was not laid in the Senate.
Through this ordinance, the government waived half of the outstanding liabilities of fertilizer, textile, power generation and compressed natural gas (CNG) sectors and waived up to Rs 208 billion that were payable to the government by some powerful industrialists of the country as their pending liabilities.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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