The way the PTI government has gone about getting some of the PM’s whizkids inducted into the Senate indicates desperation. Among other things it has tried to seek constitutional amendment through backdoors. Keeping in view the prevailing dislike among PTI lawmakers for the unelected lot who devise policies that the elected lawmakers have to answer for, it was feared by the party leadership that it might become difficult to get them elected in case of secret ballot.
The government first moved a presidential reference in the SC to ask whether changing the Senate election procedure to open balloting required a constitutional amendment. Within days however, the government took the matter to the NA to get a constitutional amendment passed to allow open ballot in Senate polls despite knowing that it lacked the required numbers for the amendment. As the ECP started making preparations for the Senate elections, the government thought time was slipping out of its hands. In sheer nervousness it decided not to wait for the SC opinion and sought the cabinet’s approval, reportedly through circulation, of a summary for presidential ordinance to allow open ballot. The move amounted to taking action on an issue which was sub judice.
As the president had earlier moved the reference in the SC, respect for the highest judicial institution demanded that he waited for the apex court’s opinion before issuing any legislation on the subject.
It has been maintained that the president’s power to promulgate ordinances is limited to emergent circumstances necessitating temporary legislation with a life of 120-days. Using this power with barely a month before Senate elections and when the president had himself prorogued the parliamentary session only two days ago is a clear display of mala fide.
The Ordinance has created an anomalous situation as pointed out by some among the legal community. Using the ordinance-making power to temporarily suspend the parliamentary will and then placing the ordinance for approval at the end of the 120-day period before the same senators — elected through this amended procedure — amounts to making a mockery of the parliament and its legislative process.
The government should take the Ordinance back if it does not want to discredit the system.
