Presidential bombshell

President Arif Alvi sent out a bombshell of a post/tweet on Sunday, saying: he did not sign the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023; did not agree with these laws; had asked his staff to return the bills unsigned within stipulated time to make them ineffective; found out only now that his staff – despite assurances to him that these bills had been returned – had “undermined [his] will and command”; and apologized to those who will be affected by the law. With this one post, the president has managed to unleash a constitutional debate in the country. First, the government’s stance: Caretaker Law Minister Ahmad Irfan Aslam has said the two amendment bills were not received by his ministry from the President House. The law minister – and the government – interpret that as a bill becoming law in case it is not signed by the president within 10 days. In this, they are using the provision of ‘deemed assent’, with the Ministry of Law and Justice saying that “returning the bills without any observations or assent is not provided for in the constitution. Such a course of action is against the letter and spirit of the constitution”. PML-N and PPP leaders have asked for Alvi’s resignation as they say that if the president is not aware of what is happening in the Presidency, he should step down. They have also wondered why the president brought this issue up more than 24 hours after it was reported in the media that these two bills had become laws. Legal experts, however, say that there is no provision of ‘deemed assent’ in the first phase of presidential approval of legislation.

This is where things stand now: there is confusion whether or not these two amendment bills have become laws or are in limbo till elections take place and there is a new National Assembly in place. Last week, the president had returned over a dozen bills for the reconsideration of parliament, basically making them ineffective as there is no National Assembly at the moment. There is a strong impression among legal experts that under Article 75, when the president says he did not give assent as per Article 75(1) – something also confirmed by the caretaker law minister – then his assent is not ‘deemed’ to have been given. But there are others who say that there is a procedure when bills are returned by the president under Article 75(1), and that he should have sent a note with his reservations so if no note was sent back and it was purposefully delayed without returning it to the law ministry, Alvi’s tweet is mala fide.

There are legitimate questions about President Alvi’s tweet. One, he did not sign the bills and asked his staff to return them. Was anything placed in writing? Two, why does the president’s post/tweet make it sound like the law is now in effect if it isn’t? Three, where is the official communication related to all of this and why hasn’t President Alvi taken any legal action against his own staff? Now that everything has become quite confusing, many analysts believe that this matter too – much like everything else in the country – will be taken to court and these laws will be challenged. There are also questions over the timing of the president’s reservations. If these laws are challenged in court, it is anyone’s guess how long it takes to establish whether these were verbal orders or written and whether or not it remains law or not. The president’s tweet has made things quite confusing. But if he is right, then calling ourselves democratic may be too much of a stretch.