ISLAMABAD - The legal team of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has sought ‘suo-moto’ action by the supreme court of Pakistan to ascertain against those committed alleged fraud with President Dr. Arif Alvi on the issue of giving assent to the Official Secrets Act and the Pakistan Army Act.
Barrister Shoaib Shaheen and Naeem Haider Panjotha were addressing a press conference at the National Press Club here Sunday after President Alvi denied having given assent to the two bills separately passed by the parliament and sent to the president for approval. Panjotha said the President is the head of the state. He said the president, via a tweet, denied having signed the two bills. He said the president had directed his staff to return the two bills unsigned. He recalled the president’s tweet to say that the president was told that the two bills had been returned which actually were not. He claimed the President’s directions were not complied with and added these two bills are not a valid piece of legislation. Panjotha noted that within the scheme of Article 75, ‘deemed assent’ is relevant to the second time the president assents a bill, and not the first. He said that article 75 of the Constitution sets out a clear procedure for the passage of bills and explained how Article 75 works. “Under Article 75, the president can within 10 days either assent to a bill or return it to the parliament with a message that the bill be reconsidered. He said if the president decides to return the bill, there are two stages: the first stage is returning the bill to the parliament for reconsideration under Article 75(1)(b). The second stage is a joint sitting of parliament actually reconsidering the bill and (with or without amendment) passing it again under Article 75(2). He explained the concept of “deemed assent” even if the president does not in fact give his assent, saying the deeming provision “only kicks in once the bill has been reconsidered and passed by parliament in a joint sitting under Article 75(2). There is no automatic ‘deemed assent’ attached to an unsigned bill, he added. He said the president claimed he has not signed and assented to the Official Secrets Act and the Army Act amendments. Neither of these two bills was ever reconsidered and passed by parliament in a joint sitting, he said and added there can be no ‘deemed assent’ in this case. He said in the light of the president’s claim, neither of these laws are valid pieces of legislation.