Senate rejects PEMRA Amendment Bill 2020

Opposition opposes move, says empowering it will ‘further endanger freedom of press’

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate on Monday rejected the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2020 by a majority vote after the opposition parties opposed it over apprehensions that empowering the authority with regard to human resource management would “further endanger the freedom of press”.

The Senate session was presided over by Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani. Today, was Legislative Day in the upper house.

The rejection of the Pemra (Amendment) Bill, 2020 irked Leader of the House Shahzad Waseem.

He was of the view that Pemra was to be empowered to take action on the jobs of media workers and their withheld salaries. “It should be decided that who is against the rights of workers,” an angry Waseem said, adding that the rights of the workers in all institutions should be protected.

Senator Faisal Javed said that the purpose of the Pemra amendment bill is to provide protection to the media workers. “They (media workers) have security issues and the purpose of the bill is to empower Pemra in this regard.”

However, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said that voting on the bill should be done but reminded the house that Pemra's “record is Yazidi”. “You may not know that this bill can paralyse half of the Pemra employees.”

Opposing the bill, Senator Raza Rabbani, who is also the former upper house chairman, said, “The workers are aware but there are reservations over the procedure of the bill.

“Empowering Pemra with regard to human resource management will further endanger the freedom of press.”

Further, the house approved the Pakistan Environmental Protection Amendment Bill 2020 proposed by Senator Faisal Javed.

Another bill prohibiting misuse of resources in academic examinations -- introduced by Senator Javed Abbasi -- was referred to the relevant standing committee.

It has been proposed in the bill that using illegal means in the examination, assisting, immorality in the examination centre and disclosing the secret material of the examination will be punishable by imprisonment for one month and a fine of Rs50,000.

The Criminal Law Amendment Bill was introduced by Senator Pir Sabir Shah.

Senator Shah proposed in the bill that the crime of tarnishing the image of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and removing it without permission should be declared non-bailable.

He said that the accused could be arrested without a warrant for tarnishing Quaid-i-Azam's image. Under the constitutional amendment, he said, the sentence was increased from three years to five years. The bill was referred to the relevant committee.

The house passed Bahramand Khan Tangi's resolution on setting up rehabilitation centres for drug addicts in every district.

The house also passed a resolution condemning the content on Google and Wikipedia that Mirza Masroor is caliph of Islam.

Senator Sirajul Haq's resolution in the Senate demanded of the government to take immediate steps to curb the offensive content.

A bill for establishing a women's university in Islamabad was referred to the relevant committee.

It proposes upgrading a girls' college in F-Seven to university level.

The house also referred the Right to Information Amendment Bill 2012, introduced by

Senator Sajjad Turi, to the relevant committee.

The Tenancy Amendment Bill 2020 in Islamabad was introduced by Senator Mohsin Aziz. The Senate chairman also referred it to the relevant standing committee.

Senator Javed Abbasi's Guardian and Warden Act Amendment and Public Grievance Redressal Bill 2020 were presented in the house.

Both the bills were referred to the relevant standing committees.

Senator Babar introduced a bill to amend the Pakistan Arms Ordinance, saying that the federal government (cabinet) has the authority to supply weapons of prohibited bore.

Chairman Sanjrani handed over the bill to the relevant committee and called for a report in two days. The Senate session was adjourned till 3pm today (Tuesday).