ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: A People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) member on Thursday moved a resolution in the Senate to disapprove the ordinance promulgated on December 22 last by President Gen Pervez Musharraf curtailing the term of office of members and chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) from five to three years.

The resolution has been moved by PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar under Rule 132(2) of the Rules and Procedure for Conduct of Business in the Senate 1988.

The resolution says, “under sub-paragraph (ii) of paragraph (a) clause 2 of Article 89 of the Constitution, this House disapproves the Ordinance No XXV of 2005 issued on December 22, 2005 amending the Federal Public Service Commission Ordinance 1977 (Ordinance XLV of 1977).”

According to Mr Babar, he has moved the resolution under the provisions of the Constitution leaving no room for the government to either get it killed in the chamber of the chairman or disallow discussion on it.

Explaining the rationale and need for the resolution, Mr Babar in a special note attached to the resolution said the said ordinance was promulgated just a few days before the National Assembly session was to begin and three weeks before the Senate session.

Mr Babar said the ordinance was first promulgated last year but was never brought up before either of the House for enactment despite the fact the both houses had met separately for several times during this period. “It has now been re-promulgated with a view to bypass the Parliament,” he said.

The PPP senator said the ordinance was “manifestly void, unconstitutional, based on mala fide and ulterior motives without lawful authority and of no legal effect.”

He said the government wanted to move the ordinance in the coming Senate session starting from Friday.

The ordinance, he said, sought to reduce the term of office of the members from five to three years. “Not only that but under 1(A) it had been given back-dated effect. Those who had been appointed for five years and taken oath as such have either been sent home or will soon go home,” he said, adding that four members of the commission namely Gul Hanif, Justice Abdur Rehman Khan, Javed Akram and Tariq Saeed Haroon, who had not yet completed their five-year term, had already been relieved.

Chairman Gulzar Kiani would be sent home in the next few weeks in March, long before his legal term of office.

He said it was significant to note that on November 6, 2004, the FPSC chairman submitted his annual report to the president as required under the law. The commission’s reports, he said, were also to be laid by the president before the parliament under the law.

He said two reminders were sent to the Presidency on December 3, 2004 and June 16, 2005, but there had been no response from the Presidency and the report had not been laid before the Parliament.

Mr Babar claimed that the FPSC report for 2003 also contained a memo containing objections to the contract appointment of two retired senior military officers namely Agha Masood Hassan as DG Post Offices and Brig Maqsoodul Hassan as DG of the federal government educational institutions.

“That is why the report has been lying dormant and is not being laid before the Parliament,” he said in his note.

“In circumstances like these of the re-promulgation of this ordinance, it is important that the Senate exercises its Constitutional prerogative to disapprove the same,” he said.