Federal Ministry of Law and Justice has informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) during their tenures promulgated 170 presidential ordinances.
A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Tuesday heard the petition of PML-N MNA Mohsin Ranjha. He filed the petition through Advocate Umer Gilani requesting the IHC to declare the impugned ordinances illegal, unconstitutional being ultra vires of Article 89 of the Constitution and having been promulgated in a malafide manner.
The written reply stated that the President of Pakistan is authorized to introduce necessary legislation through an ordinance in accordance with the Constitution. It further said the PML-N and PPP, claimants of Parliament's supremacy, had introduced 170 ordinances during their tenures from 2008 to 2018. The ministry also produced the details of all ordinances before the court.
PPP Senator Raza Rabbani appeared before the bench and requested it to grant some time for preparation of recommendations regarding the matter. Accepting his request, the court adjourned the hearing until February 18.
In this matter, Justice Athar appointed Makhdoom Ali Khan, Babar Awan, Raza Rabbani and Abid Hussain Minto as amici curiae (friends of the court).
The President promulgated on 30th October, 2019 eight ordinances including the Letter of Administration and Succession Certificates Ordinance, 2019; the Enforcement of Women's Property Rights Ordinance, 2019; the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019; the Superior Courts (Court Dress and Mode of Address) Order (Repeal) Ordinance, 2019; the National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019; the Legal Aid and Justice Authority Ordinance, 2019; the Whistle-Blowers Act. The President on 27th December, 2019, promulgated another Ordinance i.e., the NAB (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2019.
In his application, Ranjha said that more than one-and-a-half months later, respondents have yet to file any reply. In the meanwhile, they have continued to promulgate new ordinances with full speed, while completely sidelining the Parliament.
He added that the question of law raised in the petition goes to the essence of the democratic dispensation envisaged in the Constitution 1973.
The petitioner assailed the ordinances, saying the impugned ordinances are ultra vires of Article 89 of the Constitution. The ordinance-making power is an emergency provision and is not meant for routine legislation.
The PML-N leader maintained that the Constitution places strict conditions on the exercise of ordinance-making power. It is to be exercised 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.
He further said that the data suggests that, unfortunately, the ordinance-making power has been constantly abused by successive governments. It appears that more than 2,500 ordinance have been promulgated by Presidents since 1947. This practice, which amounts to a transgression by the executive into the legislature's domain, is continuing even today.
He continued that "[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is," as was famously held in the Marbury vs Madison (1803) and endorsed in countless other constitutional cases since then. The petitioner only seeks from this court a clarification and declaration of the law for the sake of future and nothing further.
Comments
Comments are closed.