ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties condemned on Thursday the late night presidential ordinance that increased oil prices, terming it a blatant contempt of the Supreme Court which had made the government lower the prices by suspending carbon tax imposed in the budget.

The ordinance promulgated in the wee hours of Thursday effectively neutralised the Supreme Court’s order and turned the short-lived joy of consumers at the relief provided by the Supreme Court into anger.

Addressing a seminar organised by the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairman Imran Khan, former Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmad and PML-N information secretary Ahsan Iqbal criticised President Asif Ali Zardari for ‘overruling the Supreme Court decision’.

Imran Khan announced that his party would hold a demonstration on Friday in protest against the ordinance that, according to him, undermined the rule of law.

He said the ordinance suggested that the government was continuing with the legacy of the previous regime when former president Pervez Musharraf made all the decisions and parliament merely acted as a rubber stamp. He said that today President Zardari was calling the shots.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the ordinance was a direct attack on independence of the judiciary and would have far reaching repercussions if the government did not withdraw it.

Ahsan Iqbal said the ordinance had not only undermined independence of the judiciary but also humiliated the masses who had overwhelmingly welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court. He said the move showed that the government did not respect decisions of the apex court.

Political observers predict another showdown between the PML-N and the PPP over the ordinance.

JI submits motion against ordinance

Jamaat-i-Islami lawmakers submitted on Thursday an adjournment motion and a disapproval notice to the Senate secretariat against the presidential ordinance.

The motion and disapproval notice, moved by senators Prof Khurshid Ahmed, Prof Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and Afia Zia, said that because of the ordinance prices of petrol had increased by Rs10 per litre, diesel by Rs8, light diesel by Rs3 and HOBC by Rs14.

The senators said the Supreme Court judgment declaring the carbon tax ‘unjust and uncalled for’ had for the first time provided relief to the general public.

The senators said that people had suffered immensely from extravagant non-developmental expenditures of the present and previous governments.

The JI lawmakers said that the presidential ordinance was an ‘assault on the rights of people and breach of the Supreme Court verdict’ because it had been promulgated after the prime minister and his adviser on finance had accepted the court’s decision.