ISLAMABAD: The opposition in the Senate was up in arms on Wednesday over frequent promulgation of ordinances as six ordinances, including the one meant to provide right of appeal in the high court to convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, were laid in the house.

Former chairman of Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said that Ordinance No 6, as tabled in the house, was aimed to facilitate an Indian terrorist.

He said under the ordinance, a right had been given to the Indian spy to seek review against his conviction by a military court.

“When the Peshawar High Court sets aside a decision of a military court, a stay is given and a debate starts, but now a terrorist is being facilitated,” he said.

Rabbani says one of the ordinances is meant to facilitate Indian spy

He conceded that he had agreed to vote in support of the law to provide for a parallel judicial system in the form of military courts after his strings were pulled by the ruling elite. He said so was also the case when it came to amending the law to give extension in the term of an individual.

He said now he felt his strings had gone into the hands of the world establishment. Terming the money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog as part of the international establishment, he said the constitutional and fundamental rights of the people of Pakistan were set to be trampled on by FATF dictates.

“But I happen to be tightened by ropes and will start dancing when my strings are pulled,” he remarked, giving a clear indication that he will vote against his conscience again in favour of the two FATF-related bills.

Javed Abbasi of PML-N said under Article 89 of the Constitution, the president had limited powers to promulgate ordinances.

He said that these powers were not discretionary in nature and could be exercised only when the parliament was not in session and some emergency existed.

He regretted that the ordinances were not brought before the parliament for months and implementation on them started soon after being signed, to take away the parliament’s right to legislate. He said the ordinances were not laid before the Senate particularly for the fear of their disapproval by the house.

PPP parliamentary leader in the house Senator Sherry Rehman said the frequent promulgation of ordinances was in utter disregard of the democratic process.

She said the government wanted a parliament where lawmakers had a limited role to play.

Senator Sirajul Haq also said the government did not want the parliament to legislate. He said promulgation of ordinances when both houses were in session amounted to a no-trust against the Constitution.

He said Indian pilot Abhinandan, who entered Pakistan’s airspace with aggressive designs, was freed within 24 hours and regretted that efforts were afoot to facilitate Jadhav.

Law Minister Barrister Farogh Naseem while defending the president’s powers to promulgate an ordinance made it clear that no ordinance had been promulgated while the parliament was in session.

He said that Ordinance No 6 had been promulgated in accordance with judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

He agreed that the US had refused to accept a judgment of ICJ, but said “we are not United States”.

He said that requirements of FATF were applicable to all countries as it reviewed their anti-money laundering laws.

“If Pakistan doesn’t want to become a rogue state and is to act as a responsible state, then we will have to accept decisions of the ICJ and also to fulfil requirements of FATF,” the law minister said.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2020