ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party has expressed concern over the inordinate delay in laying the ordinance pertaining to the Higher Education Commission before either house of the parliament and demanded that it be presented to the parliament immediately.
“Issuing an ordinance when either house is in session is unconstitutional. But not laying it before the parliament even after promulgation makes it a criminal assault on the independence of the regulatory body for higher education,” said PPP Secretary General Senator Farhatullah Babar while rejecting the ordinance on the HEC. He said the ordinance was not laid even when the sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate were called after its promulgation, exposing the grossly mala fide intent behind it. He said all provinces are stakeholders in the HEC and added: “By not consulting the provinces, the federation has assaulted the constitutionally-guaranteed provincial autonomy.”
He said any legislation pertaining to the regulatory bodies like the HEC falls within the domain of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) but it was not discussed at the platform of the council either. “The timing of the ordinance also raises serious issues of transparency, accountability and conflict of interest,” he said.
He asked what were the compelling circumstances and what was the urgency to issue the ordinances to cut short the tenure of the HEC chairman on the one hand and rob the HEC of its autonomy without discussion on the other. He said placing the regulatory body of HEC under the Ministry of Education is unconstitutional. It is also a blatant misuse of the president’s powers.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary leader of the PPP in the Senate Sherry Rehman questioned how the ordinances are not being brought to the parliament.
“The National Assembly has been in session and till date the HEC ordinance has not been laid before the parliament, whereas according to the Constitution, a presidential ordinance should be laid in the house during the parliamentary session and it is clear that all constitutional obligations are being flouted in Naya Pakistan,” she said while addressing a press conference here on Thursday.
She said the presidency has become an ordinance factory and the government is bent on destroying the state institutions. She said like the HEC and the State Bank of Pakistan, ordinances that alter the nature of public institutions are being promulgated without recourse to constitutional obligations to bring them to the parliament. “One institution, the HEC, is being stripped of its autonomy to become the handmaiden of the government while the other is being given the kind of ‘autonomy’ that makes it above all parliamentary oversight of Pakistan,” she added.
Sherry said despite the parliament being in session, the HEC ordinance was not brought to the parliament. So the federal government’s decision to sack the chairman of Higher Education Commission (HEC) comes as a shock to the system. Under the second HEC Amendment Ordinance 2021, she said, the term of the HEC chairman has been changed to two years against the existing four years. “This is an attack on the HEC autonomy,” she said, adding that the power to pass an executive ordinance is vested in the president through Article 89 of the Constitution only for emergency purposes and if any of the two houses of the parliament are not in session, but “Ad hoc Sarkar” has made presidential ordinances its preferred route for law-making.
She said the PTI government should remember that a presidential ordinance is only valid for 120 days and can only be extended once. “How long will they misrule the country like this? How was passing the HEC ordinance overnight an emergency situation?” she asked and said the government is constantly issuing ordinances and bypassing the parliament. The state institutions are being destroyed by “Tabahi Sarkar” and cronies are being awarded institutional offices in complete disregard to rules, quality or merit. She said the country is being run on ordinances, the parliament is being kept in the dark and no one knows what’s going on. “No ordinance is being laid in the house for discussion that is a matter of concern as it is a flagrant violation of the Constitution.”
