Amid objections by former Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani, the government on Tuesday managed to lay Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 in the Senate, after a delay of about two months. The Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, which the President had promulgated in February this year, means all individuals and entities outlawed by the UN carry the same designation in Pakistan.
The Ordinance was laid before the House by Law and Justice Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Bahsir Virk, without explaining the delay in laying it before the House. But, Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani did reserve his ruling after Rabbani objected over the delay. "I reserve my ruling and will announce it later," said Sanjrani when Rabbani pressed for seeking an explanation from the government for the delay as the Ordinance had been promulgated two months ago.
Rabbani said that delaying an Ordinance is unconstitutional as well as it a violation of Senate rules, adding the chair must seek explanation for the inordinate delay in laying such an important ordinance before the House. "The Ordinance was promulgated by the President on February 9, 2018, and then two sessions of Senate were held but the government did not bother to lay it before the House despite the fact the it is mandatory to lay it in the House within ten days of its promulgation," he added.
He said if an ordinance is not placed before the House within ten days of its promulgation, the House has to condone the delay, and if there is a delay more than ten days, the minister concerned has to explain the reason for it. Speaking on a calling attention notice, Opposition Leader in Senate Sherry Rehman said that Pakistan's foreign reserves are falling at an average of $200-250 million per week. "The fall marks the 16th successive week of decline," she said.
According to her, Pakistan has the fastest depleting foreign exchange reserves in Asia due to which the economy is surviving on loans. She said that non-transparent government reports show economic growth but at the same time key foreign reserves are depleting. "Pakistan's current account deficit rose by over 50% in the first eight months of this current fiscal year," she added.
Responding to the calling attention notice, State Minister for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal said that there is no need to worry about the country's economy as exports, remittances and foreign direct investment have increased. He said that a decline of $3.6 billion has been witnessed in foreign exchange reserves because of increased imports, adding the country's GDP has crossed the barrier of 5.3 per cent which has resulted increase in the economic activity along with investment in CPEC projects.
He said all these things have created demand for machinery, petroleum products and other productive imports. He also said that PML-N had inherited a fragile economy in 2013 as flawed policies of PPP regime had brought the economy at the brink of bankruptcy.