Questions interim govt’s authority to make so many promulgations
Nazrul Islam
The parliamentary special committee on Saturday unanimously decided to examine all 119 ordinances promulgated during the two-year rule of the military-backed government of Fakhruddin Ahmed, according to the members of the committee. ‘We have decided to scrutinise all the ordinances to see which laws have been promulgated on what grounds,’ Tofail Ahmed, a member of the 15-man committee, said after its maiden meeting.
The house appointed the committee Wednesday with senior members from both the treasury and opposition benches to look into the bills and resolutions until the parliamentary standing committees on different ministries were constituted.
Presided over by its chairman Rahmat Ali, the committee reviewed 50 ordinances which a previously formed expert committee had recommended for immediate ratification.
It also decided to invite members of the experts’ panel to get their views afresh.
‘We will listen to the experts at the committee’s next meeting scheduled for Tuesday,’ said Suranjit Sengupta, another member of the committee.
At the first sitting of the ninth parliament on January 25, law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister Shafique Ahmed placed 122 ordinances before the house for its consideration.
‘An ordinance made under clause 1 shall be laid before parliament at its first meeting following the promulgation of the ordinance and shall, unless it is earlier repealed, cease to have effect at the expiration of thirty days after it is so laid or, if a resolution disapproving of the ordinance is passed by parliament before such expiration, upon the passing of the resolution,’ reads the constitutional provision.
According to a document placed at the meeting, out of the 122 ordinances, three were promulgated at the fag-end of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government in October 2006.
After the political changeover in January 2007, the military-backed government promulgated as many as 42 ordinances in its first year and 72 in 2008. In 2009, the government promulgated five more ordinances before handing over power to the elected government.
Among the ordinances, 101 remain in force, it says.
In a series of meetings at the law ministry before the parliament session began, the expert committee had reviewed all the promulgations and suggesting that the government immediately ratify 50 ordinances.
It found 21 of the ordinances redundant and the others less important.
The members of the special committee will try to know from the experts on what basis they had made the priority list, said Tofail, a senior member of ruling Awami League’s presidium.
He said the meeting had also discussed whether the ‘non-party caretaker government’ was mandated to approve too many ordinances in two years.
‘Promulgation of so many ordinances by an unelected government in less than two years is unprecedented,’ said Suranjit Sengupta. He said the ‘extra-constitutional’ government had promulgated an ordinance in six days on an average.
‘We must need to see to what extent they [ordinances] have been promulgated in line with the constitution,’ said the parliament veteran. The previous eighth parliament passed as many as 185 bills in its five-year tenure.
But Tofail said that the committee would recommend whatever was good for the nation. When asked for his comments on the outcome of the meeting, Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker MK Anwar said that he was in favour of examining all the ordinances.
Former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru, also a member of the committee, said the meeting had reviewed previous recommendations by the panel of experts on the ordinances. But the committee members feel that further discussion is needed to get their views on the ordinances that are not recommended.
Almost all the members of the committee attended the meeting.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
