EDITORIAL: The primary function of Parliament is to legislate, but governments in this country tend to rely heavily on legislation by executive decree. Quite understandably, therefore, while on Thursday a five-member bench of Supreme Court was hearing the federal government’s intra-court appeal against an earlier verdict that declared illegal the amendments the then outgoing PDM government made to the National Accountability Ordinance, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa remarked “why not suspend the Parliament” if the practice to legislate via ordinances is to continue.
Some functioning democracies do permit legislation by executive decree, but their number is very small. In the case of Pakistan, Article 89 of the Constitution allows for it but in exceptional situations as it states “the President may, except when the (Senate or) National Assembly is in session, if satisfied that circumstances exist which render necessary to take immediate action, make and promulgate an Ordinance as the circumstances may require.”
Clearly, the intent of this provision is a sparing use of ordinances in case an emergency issue comes up and Parliament is not in session nor can be summoned immediately for whatever reason, that too for a limited period of 120 days.
But more often than not, governments have promulgated ordinances a day or two before the start of a parliamentary session, and repeatedly renewed them on the expiry date. It is difficult to find an instance that justifies the resort to an ordinance.
Yet successive governments, civilian as well as military, have turned to that mode of legislation so many times that keeping a count is an arduous task. According to those with an eye on the subject, legislation through ordinance has been done nearly 2000 times!
This they have been doing to avoid checks and challenges from the opposition members, and also to get their way in the event they lacked majority in the National Assembly or the Senate. Debate and discussion in Parliament is the essence of a democratic order, helping peoples’ representatives to bring necessary changes and modification to a proposed law in the greater public interest.
A common tendency has been either to steamroller important bills through Parliament, or to take the easy route of legislating via executive order. Although the Eighth Amendment put a bar on promulgation of an ordinance more than two times, still governments retain the ability to bypass Parliament whenever it suits their purposes. To say the least, it is unfortunate, indeed, that legislation on vital issues of the day should be made without scrutiny by those whose chief responsibility is to legislate.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024