ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence is set to take up on Monday (today) a controversial ordinance making it binding on the federal government to provide unlimited funds to the National Command Authority (NCA).

The NCA, established in 2000, is the apex civilian-led command to oversee the policy formulation, exercises, deployment, research and development, and operational command and control of the country’s nuclear arsenals.

The NCA (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was tabled by the government in the National Assembly and the Senate during the budget sessions — three months after its promulgation in the form of an ordinance.

Promulgated on March 13, the ordinance was placed before the National Assembly in the form of a bill on June 14 and in the Senate on June 15 by the government.

When no one objected to the introduction of the ordinance in the National Assembly, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani took the government to task for delay in its tabling in the upper house and announced that he would hold a formal hearing on the “unconstitutional act”.

When Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Aftab Shaikh laid the NCA (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016, (Ordinance No 1 of 2016) before the Senate as required under Article 89(2) of the Constitution, the Senate chairman informed the house that the government was tabling it 92 days after its promulgation.

Reading out Article 89 of the Constitution, Mr Rabbani had stated that the president could promulgate the ordinance whenever there were extreme circumstances and if the National Assembly and the Senate were not in session. However, he said, the government was required to lay it before the house of the parliament which would go into session after its promulgation. He said that since March the Senate had held three sessions, but the government had presented it in the house when the ordinance was about to lapse.

Interestingly, no one from the opposition spoke on the issue when the government presented a resolution before the National Assembly seeking a 120-day extension to the ordinance a week after the Senate chairman’s strongly worded observation. The resolution, which was presented by the government soon after the passage of the federal budget and minutes before prorogation of the house was approved by the assembly without any resistance.

However, in the Senate Farhatullah Babar of the PPP not only criticised the government for delay in the bill’s presentation but also objected to some of its provisions.

The bill states: “(The) Federal Government shall ensure provision of funds and make contributions in local and foreign currencies to the Authority through Strategic Plans Division as may be necessary to the Authority.”

Talking to Dawn, Mr Babar said he had already submitted a resolution to the Senate Secretariat seeking disapproval of the ordinance. He alleged that the government had tabled the ordinance in a “surreptitious manner” to amend the NCA Act, 2010.

Reading out extracts from the bill, he claimed that it sought to nullify court’s judgements and all existing laws applicable to the employees of organisations under the NCA, besides seeking unlimited funds for its functions beyond the purview of audit and without any oversight.

The PPP senator was of the view that as a result of the amendment, all court orders and existing laws were rendered ineffective and non-applicable “unless approved by the federal government and published in the official gazette”.

Senator Babar said the court judgements and laws had their own force and did not depend upon “approval of the government and publication in the gazette” for implementation as stated in the law.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016