ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The opposition in the Senate on Friday railed against what it called an excessive use of ordinances by the government rather than bills for the purpose of legislation.

One senator even went to the extent of saying that an ‘ordinance factory’ was functioning in the presidency “which must be shut down”.

The government, however, defended the practice “aimed at meeting urgencies at a time when parliament in not in session”, and said it was doing nothing different from previous administrations of parties, now sitting in the opposition.

Despite having three sittings during its ongoing session that began on Tuesday, the Senate has not taken up any legislation work, except for reports on some bills and several presidential ordinances promulgated after the Upper House's last session in November.

Three ordinances laid before the house on Friday provoked Safdar Abbasi of the PPP Parliamentarians to call for keeping the house astir after Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro rejected an opposition adjournment motion seeking a debate on reports of plans to allow the import of black cabs from Britain.

Mr Abbasi said he had calculated 62 presidential ordinances promulgated or re-promulgated over the past one year. He demanded end to the practice.

"There is an ordinance factory in the presidency which must be closed down," he remarked.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi said there was nothing wrong in issuing ordinances, required to be brought to parliament for approval as bills. He said the same practice was being followed in many other countries, including India.

In an apparent reference to two uncompleted tenures each of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, he said the present government had issued fewer ordinances than the previous governments. He, however, did not dispute Mr Abbasi's figure for the past year.

Prof Khurshid Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) said the fact that all governments had been doing this could not justify a wrong practice “which is a remnant of the colonial era”.

He took strong exception to the issuance of ordinances sometimes only a day before the start or after the end of a National Assembly session and said that showed the government's mala fide intention to bypass parliament.

The issue also drew Abdul Rahim Mandokhel of the Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party and MMA's Prof Mohammad Ibrahim into the debate. They suggested a constitutional amendment to provide for an automatic conversion of ordinances laid before the Senate into bills as happens in the National Assembly.

Mr Niazi agreed with the suggestion and offered to discuss with the opposition possible amendments that could remove lacunas and facilitate legislation.

Earlier, PPP Senator Mohammad Enver Baig pressed hard the adjournment motion for a debate on what he described as an instance of the present government's massive corruption in allowing the import of Britain-discarded black cabs.

Industries and Production Minister Jehangir Khan Tareen denied any wrongdoing and rejected as mere conjectures Mr Baig's allegation that the government was patronising a particular private company and offering it prime land in Karachi and Lahore for setting up facilities to manufacture expensive cars while other companies were already producing or assembling enough vehicles in the country.

If they were given the permission, it would be the biggest scandal of this government, said the PPP senator. He quoted from what he called a document on the company's website speaking about a meeting with the army corps commander in Lahore and President General Pervez Musharraf's interest in the project.

Mr Tareen said the government wanted to induct maximum number of cabs through imports and domestic production to ease the country's transport problems.

He denied that black cabs would enjoy monopoly in any particular area or that their import would be duty-free. They would be subject to 20 per cent duty as for any completely-built units, he said.

The minister said no such taxi had yet arrived in the country but added: "God willing, they will come and the provincial governments will fix their fares."

"The government of Pakistan is not in the business of sponsoring any company," Mr Tareen said, inviting Mr Baig's retort: "Somebody is”.

The house was adjourned till 5pm on Monday.