Re: NRO likely to be struck down by courts.
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Next parliament to approve NRO
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: The ruling coalition is going to leave the enactment of the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) into law to the next parliament. “I don’t think the government seriously wants to get the NRO approved from the present legislature,” a senior official told The News. It was widely believed that the NRO would be tabled in the National Assembly in its session that was apparently convened for this very purpose. But it wasn’t, and the session was briefly held on Saturday and Tuesday before being prorogued sine die. Under the Constitution, it is required to put all ordinances, which had been promulgated when the National Assembly was not in session, before it on the first day of its new sitting. After the brief Lower House session was over, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan, contacted by The News, said that he has asked his staff to place the NRO in the National Assembly library, which would be deemed as if it was presented to the House during its session.
He said the NRO had not been printed in the form of a bill, enabling him to table it in the National Assembly on Tuesday, which caused delay. The minister said an ordinance can be laid before either House of parliament in two ways — it can be moved in the House or even if it is placed in the National Assembly library, it is deemed to have been presented in the House. For now, it is all milk and honey for the government in the National Assembly with the opposition MPs having quit. The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), which did not resign from the Lower House or provincial assemblies to provide legitimacy to the October 6 presidential election, and in return got the NRO, is no more regarded as an opposition force. Now the PPP and the government are hand in glove. Given the present composition of the Lower House, it can pass the NRO, how despicable and discriminatory it is, within minutes. However, the scenario will certainly be different in the Senate because the opposition still stays in it. But the government, naturally supported by the PPPP, a major beneficiary of the NRO, can easily pass it in the Senate as well.
If the government were serious in securing approval of the parliament for the NRO at an early date, it would have promptly moved the proposed legislation in the National Assembly in its just ended two-day session. A presidential ordinance has 120 days constitutional life in the first go but it can be repeatedly extended for the same length of time before the expiration of each period. However, the government can revoke an ordinance any time. The Parliament can also reject such instant law or pass it as it is or with amendments.