Terming the government’s disposition to pass ordinances as “ordinance-gardi”, PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman said, “Only the government’s ordinance factory is working in full-swing in the country right now, all other businesses are shutting down due to its disastrous economic management. None of these ordinances are being laid in the upper house because the government is quite evidently intimidated by the opposition’s majority there.”
She said, “Yesterday the National Assembly was stripped of all rights to debate bills, bypassing standing committees and rules. Ordinances are being laid in the National Assembly but not being brought to the Senate. Eleven ordinances were passed within a matter of minutes shunning debate from the opposition. It indeed is a black day for the Parliament when controversial laws like the Medical Tribunal Bill and Medical Commission Ordinance are bulldozed through the National Assembly along several others”.
“The opposition called a requisition to discuss some of the most significant issues and to give voice to the concerns of the people who are suffering because of them but neither the ministers nor the federal secretaries care to be present in the houses to at least note down the concerns. The sanctity of the Parliament is being violated at every step and needs to be restored. Every other session of the parliament is marked by protests from the opposition over this outrageously undemocratic behaviour but the government is impervious to criticism, whether inside the parliament or out on the streets,” fumed Rehman.
She concluded, “The government is taking unconstitutional steps. Its PMDC Ordinance is in clear violation of the Supreme Court which said there would be no legal justification of an ordinance if the Senate and the National Assembly disapproved it. The ordinance has made hundreds jobless overnight. Everyone is asking the same question, is this the change that we were promised?”
