ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Judge Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah said the government could not be run by promulgating ordinances as the parliament was the supreme institution in a democratic set-up.
The apex court Judge remarked this during the hearing of a set of petitions seeking review of the Supreme Court’s Aug 17 judgement which rendered almost 17,000 government employees jobless.
Before his retirement, Justice Mushir Alam 17 declared as illegal and unconstitutional a PPP-era law, the Sacked Employees (Reinstatement) Ordinance Act 2010 (SERA), under which hundreds of individuals were either employed or promoted.
A five-judge SC bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, has been hearing the petitions.
Raza Rabbani, who is representing the sacked employees from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in the case, said the government was being virtually run through ordinances. He said the ordinances were not being placed before parliament which is a requirement under Article 89 of the Constitution.
In his observations, Justice Shah said if the legislature votes against an ordinance, the law stands repealed and no protection is available under Article 264 of the Constitution, according to which the repeal of an ordinance would have no effect on any right, privilege or obligation accrued under it.
The Supreme Court gave a set of questions to Attorney General (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan and asked him to address them on Monday (Dec 13), the next date of hearing.
The bench said its priority in the present case was to uphold a fundamental guarantee under Article 25 of the Constitution, which stipulates that all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law. The reinstatement of a “particular group of people” has created a special class of individuals in violation of Article 25, according to the bench.
The court sought the AGP’s assistance on a question whether the court could explore avenues to trim down the illegalities committed in SERA.
The questions framed by Justice Bandial required the government to explain how many of the individuals sacked through the Aug 17 judgement were government employees and how many of them were on the payroll of autonomous or semi-autonomous organisations and corporations.
