It is never too late to mend the fiasco created by presidential ordinances as the federal cabinet has convened the Senate and National Assembly to discuss suggestions of the opposition about the newly promulgated National Accountability (Second Amendment) Ordinance of 2019. This is a meaningful gesture by the government in the new year, and hopefully parliament will get more voice in legislation in the future. Earlier, when the government amended National Accountability Bureau (NAB) rules, the opposition had little to frown about. It, however, objected to government’s usual attitude of bypassing parliament. Since accountability is the government’s main driving point, it does not want to implement the NAB ordinance by force and has put it up in parliament for debate. Moreover, the passage of the ordinance requires the Senate’s approval where the treasury lacks majority. Since its inception, all parties, including the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, and NAB authorities have been demanding reforms in the accountability watchdog’s laws. Earlier, both PPP and PML-N governments failed to fix them, and the credit goes to Prime Minister Imran Khan for taking the initiative. When the government came up with a surprise move on NAB laws last week, it soon generated controversy when it retreated on its earlier draft and within a day reissued a revised ordinance. The new NAB ordinance is business friendly and ends the collision course between NAB and tax related departments.
The move to convene sessions of the two houses in haste, however, has not gone well with the opposition. The government’s strategy, if any, to take the opposition by surprise will backfire given opposition’s ability to maneuver the debate to their advantage. Opposition members come up with arguments in their parliamentary speeches, laced with technical as well as political rhetoric, whereas the treasury mostly relies on its old anti-status quo line. The treasury may it hard to justify the convening of the houses on a day’s notice, when law makers from across the country may not be able to arrive on time because of fog. Also, senators will demand an explanation from the government for convening the house when the opposition requisitioned it a day before. The Senate is going to meet after a gap of 124 days, whereas under Article 54 of the Constitution, the president might from time to time summon either house or both houses of parliament. The government must seek guidance of parliament on important issues to have public representatives’ voices for greater unity and pro-public legislation.. *