An obsolete ordinance on smuggling into the mainland is being saved from the scrapheap as a row brews over how it should be repealed.
Lawmakers refused to accept the Security Bureau's view the law should be dropped because it did not conform with the post-handover status.
While legislators agreed the law was no longer useful, they warned it would 'politicise the law' if it was repealed under the adaptation of laws exercise.
The Smuggling into China (Control) Ordinance, enacted 51 years ago, gives effect to a 1948 Sino-British agreement.
Signed by the then Nationalist Government, the agreement with Britain was never ratified by the communists, Principal Assistant Secretary for Security Carrie Willis said.
And as Hong Kong was no longer a British colony, the purpose of the law was thus 'totally spent', Mrs Willis said.