Because of a huge legal shemozzle, a need has arisen for us lay persons to get our heads around how laws are supposed to be enacted in our country.
Having heard any number of experts on the subject, it seems that the process begins by introducing a proposed legislation [a Bill] for discussion in the National Assembly. After this the subject Bill is voted on. And if it passes in the Assembly, it is sent on to the Senate for discussion and to be voted upon.
If this Bill also passes in the Senate, it is sent on to the President for his approval. This approval is expressed by him by affixing his signatures to the Bill. When this is done, the Bill becomes a law, and is called an Act of Parliament.
But the President has two other options as well. These are:
- He may disagree with the proposed legislation. In this case he must return the said Bill to parliament unsigned, within ten days. In this situation a joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate is to be called, and the said Bill is again voted upon. If it passes the vote in the joint session, it automatically becomes Law, and does not need the President’s assent/signatures, to do so. In this case the President is DEEMED to have signed the respective legislation.
- In case the President disagrees with certain clauses or language of the said Bill, he can return the same to Parliament, suggesting the changes he desires. If the Parliament agrees with the changes desired by the President, it will incorporate the same and send it back to the President for his signatures. But if the Parliament disagrees with the proposed changes, it will proceed as if the President has disagreed with the Bill and returned it unsigned. And from here on the Parliament will proceed by calling a joint session of Parliament to vote on the Bill, which will become Law without Presidential signatures.
The current legal turmoil which has erupted in Pakistan is on account of two Bills recently passed by the Parliament and sent for the President’s approval. These two Bills are a Bill to amend The Pakistan Army Act, and the other one has to do with the Official Secrets’ Act. The President has SWORN that he did NOT SIGN these Bills, and ordered his staff to return the same to the Parliament.
Since the Nation Assembly already stood dissolved, the path to have the said Bills passed by a joint session of Parliament was already closed to the government.
But the government has proceeded as if these Bills HAD BEEN SIGNED by the President and so, have become Laws. It has already charged Imran Khan under these LAWS.
So, EITHER:
- The Presidential signatures on the Bills are FORGERIES, OR,
- The Presidential signatures on the subject Bills are MISSING in which case these Bills cannot be considered as Laws. But MISSING OR NOT, for the government to proceed as if the President has signed the subject Bills into Laws, is itself a case of MANIFEST FRAUD. Whether these be cases of FORGERY or of FRAUD, behind them lurks a mammoth CONSPIRACY by the highest offices of the land.
And how vital this conspiracy is for the powers that be, may be gathered by the fact that without it, the conspiracy which launched the May 9 fraud could not be completed. Trials and convictions were needed to complete that nefarious circle.
Without laws designed for the purpose, with evidence missing, or the compulsion to disallow certain types of evidence in the May 9 trials, certain laws HAD to be concocted. With the concoction of these laws itself being shown up as the fraudulent exercise that it was, it is not merely egg showing up on the faces of our political engineers. What is showing up is the egg which has passed through the entrails to emerge from the nether regions. It is the egg AND the smell.
Now something needs to be done. And it has to be done in a hurry. And what will be attempted to be done is to get rid of the President figuratively or literally.
So, keep your eyes peeled.