ISLAMABAD  -  Senators belonging to different po­litical parties on Tuesday questioned the caretaker government’s powers to legislate through ordinances at a time when the parliament is incom­plete and general elections are just 45 days ahead. The lawmakers pro­tested in the house by not allowing Caretaker Information Minister Mur­taza Solangi to move a bill and forc­ing the Chairman Senate Sadiq San­jrani to adjourn the Senate till Friday.

The issue was raised after the care­taker federal government brought as many as four bills and an equal number of recently promulgated or­dinances on the orders of the day to put before the house.

As Murtaza Solangi rose from his seat to introduce a bill seeking to amend the Motion Pictures Ordi­nance, 1979, the lawmakers from PML-N, PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) raised objections. They pressed the chair not to allow the caretaker gov­ernment to set this new tradition, which “undermines the sovereignty of the parliament.”

PML-N Senator Saadia Abbasi was the first to speak over the matter. She pointed out that the caretaker government had no mandate to leg­islate and the ordinances as well as bills on the orders of the day couldn’t be introduced and laid respectively.

“Parliament is incomplete and we should not set new traditions,” she said. She requested the chair not to allow the government to table the bills. “This is against the sovereignty of the parliament,” she said.

JI Senator Mushtaq Ahmed said that the government was misusing the Article 89 of the Constitution by lay­ing ordinances. He said that caretak­ers were only supposed to perform day-to- day matters of the govern­ment under Section 230 of Election Act 2017. Senator Mushtaq said that the caretaker government had no right to legislate and the present one was overstepping its mandate by do­ing so. When the chair asked infor­mation minister Solangi to table the Motion Pictures (Amendment) Bill, the senators protested and sought a vote on it. The Chairman Senate in­sisted that the bills should go to the committee and these proposed laws would be put to vote before the par­liament after both the houses com­pleted. “This is the prerogative of the government,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition Dr Shahzad Waseem also endorsed the view point of other lawmakers by saying that the caretaker govern­ment had no mandate to legislate. This blanket cover couldn’t be grant­ed, he added.

PTI Senator Dr Hamayun Mohmand said that all the bills and ordinances were not that important; they couldn’t wait till February 8 – the date fixed for the general elec­tions of the national and provincial assemblies. On this, the chair told the information minister to explain the reasons behind the necessity in bringing the bills and ordinances.

The minister said that the prom­ulgation of ordinance was the pow­er of the government under Article 89 of the Constitution. He said that it was mandatory for the government to lay ordinances in the form of bills. “This is the work of the house to de­cide on the matter,” he said.

The members, however, contin­ued with their noisy protest and in the meanwhile, quorum was pointed out. The chair adjourned the house as it lacked quorum.

Earlier, during the question hour, the government informed the house that it has decided to grad­ually outsource three internation­al airports of the country Advisor to the Prime Minister on Aviation, Air Marshal (Retd) Farhat Hus­sain Khan said these include Islam­abad, Lahore, and Karachi. The out­sourcing process will be conducted in phases through an open bidding system, he said.