Cabinet okays two special ordinances

The cabinet yesterday approved a proposal to place in parliament two recently promulgated special ordinances in the form of bills to turn those into laws.
The two sepcial ordinances comprise 172 ordinances promulgated under the martial law regimes of Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad.
The approval was given at a special meeting of the cabinet held at the Prime Minister's Office with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told journalists that the two special ordinances were placed in the House on January 27, 2013 for continuation of the ordinances promulgated during the military regimes in the 70s and 80s but declared "void ab initio" (to be treated as invalid from the outset) by the court while nullifying the 5th and 7th amendments of the constitution.
Of the ordinances, 91 were promulgated from August 20, 1975 to April 9, 1979; and 81 from March 24, 1982 to November 10, 1986 under martial law, he said.
As many as 16 ministries and divisions yesterday placed 133 drafts on those ordinances in the form of bills for the cabinet's nod.
But, the cabinet decided to bring the drafts of bills under two umbrella bills on the basis of their promulgation time, and place those in the Jatiya Sangsad by February 26 next.
The cabinet also asked the respective ministries to place the 133 bills separately later in the cabinet after necessary scrutiny, revision and amendment.