ISLAMABAD: Sherry Rehman, Parliamentary leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the Senate on Friday said promulgating ordinances while the house is in session, is a bad practice and it must be stopped.
“We are not here to compete how many ordinances each government passed. There cannot be any legislation while the committees are being neglected,” she said in a statement.
The Enforcement of Women’s Rights Ordinance, has been laid in the Senate after a lapse of 23 days since the commencement of the session whereas Senate Rule 145 (1) requires ordinances to be brought not later than ten days after the commencement of the session, she said. Sherry said the government has breached this rule. ”Public interest litigation does not mean you rule by ordinance”, she remarked.
In response to why Rights Bills came to Senate committees after NA committees Sherry Rehman said, opposition wants Zainab Alert Bill to be approved by the Senate Committee as well, because that is the process all bills have to go through, so why should we strip important bills of input from Senate, where a number of stakeholders present their views and have the opportunity to give valuable inputs.
According to her opposition cannot agree to bypass parliamentary process. Unfortunately, what this government has been doing is that first it delays the session by 4 months and when they finally call one, they want bills to pass through Senate without going through it’s Committees, which is completely unacceptable and unprecedented, she added.
”I want to make it clear that we will not compromise on parliamentary rules nor will we let the Senate become a procedural rubber stamp,” PPP parliamentary leader remarked.
With input from INP
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