PHOTO: FILE
The house passed nine private members bills mostly belonging to the opposition benches while the government got passed two of its bills which were the part of supplementary agenda.
‘The Acid and Burn Crime Bill 2017,’ a private member bill was moved by Marvi Memon and the house passed several amendments in it which were moved by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Naveed Qamar. The bill was first introduced in 2014 and was passed after four years.
According to ‘statement of objects’ of the bill, acid throwing and burn crimes are increasing every year and hundreds of women and children fall victim to them with no possibility of justice and support.
The bill proposes that whoever commits or attempts to commit an offence of acid or burn attack and the act results in death of any person shall be awarded life imprisonment. Whoever intentionally causes hurt by acid and burn attack shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for not more than seven years.
The National Assembly also passed another private member bill ‘Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (Amendment) Bill 2017,’ seeking access to rehabilitation services and support for children with disabilities living in remote and disadvantaged areas.
The purpose of the bill is to establish rehabilitation centres for the disabled children where they could be provided occupational and speech therapy including for cerebral palsy.
The house also passed Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2018 also moved by Naveed Qamar. The bill seeks effective provision for protection of witnesses and persons concerned with the trial of Anti-Terrorism cases.
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According to this bill, the witness’s name and other identifying details shall be withheld or removed from materials disclosed to any party to the proceedings and the witness shall use a pseudonym. Under this bill the witness shall be screened so as to prevent his identification and the witness’s voice is subject to modulation to any specified extent.
The identification parade shall be carried out by way of witness screening which is the use of screens, curtains or two-way mirrors to shield witness and their identity from the accused and from the public and the media as a means to reduce any potential intimidation and face to face confrontation.
The lower house also passed a private member bill, ‘National Civic Education Commission Act 2018.’ According to the statement of object and reasons of the bill democratic civic education is an important instrument to provide people with intellectual context and developed necessary skills in them to actively and effectively participate in this national pursuit.
It is also fact that core concepts like constitutionalism, federalism and representative parliamentary institutions are missing in the textbooks taught in the nation’s classrooms, it further stated.
The house also passed two government bills including ‘Sir Syed (Centre for Advanced Studies in Engineering) Institute of Technology, Islamabad Bill 2016,’ and ‘The Institute of Science and Technology Bahawalpur, Bill 2018.’ Both these bills were moved by Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman, the Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training.
The National Assembly also passed ’The Islamabad Capital Territory Prohibition of Employment of Children Bill 2017,’ which was moved by PPPP’s lawmaker Shazia Marri.
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The house passed resolution to give extension CDA related Ordinance. It passed the resolution with majority of votes regarding giving extension CDA related ordinance for another 120 days.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Dr Shireen Mazari opposed this resolution and said the government should have tabled the bill in this context instead to get extension of the ordinance.
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