Speaker forms body to review bills ‘passed in haste’

ISLAMABAD:

National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Thursday formed a 14-member parliamentary committee including both treasury and opposition members to review the recent legislative business conducted in haste in the lower house of parliament.

The body has been directed to finalise terms of references (ToR) and its suggestions related to the legislation soon and submit them to the speaker.

From the government’s side, the committee includes federal ministers Pervez Khattak, Asad Umar, Tariq Bashir Cheema and Fehmida Mirza, Parliamentary Affairs Adviser Babar Awan, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Khalid Magsi.

The opposition members include Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Sanaullah, Shahida Akhtar Ali, Naveed Qamar, Shazia Marri and Agha Hassan Baloch.

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The parliamentary committee has been formed after commotion by the opposition over the legislation in proceedings presided over by deputy speaker.

Earlier this month, the government passed 21 laws in the National Assembly as the opposition boycotted the contentious session where 80-items agenda was bulldozed amidst rumpus in the lower house.

The controversial legislations included the International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Bill.

The bill allows Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to have consular access in line with the ICJ verdict.

The opposition leaders, including PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf, claimed the bill was passed to protect Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.

 Major changes proposed in the Elections (Amendment) Bill include granting increased financial autonomy to the Election Commission of Pakistan; appeal to the Supreme Court by any aggrieved person on delimitation lists; voting right for overseas Pakistanis and allowing use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in elections.

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The other bills passed in the session include the Port Qasim Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Bill, 2020 and the Covid-19 (Prevention of Hoarding) Bill, 2020.

The opposition filed a no-confidence motion against National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri under Rule 12 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly and protested the hastily-approval bills.

The no-confidence motion states that legislation was passed in an illegal manner as the process did not include the voices of the opposition, adding that a person, who had been de-seated could not occupy the deputy speaker's seat.

The motion also accused the deputy speaker of a clear bias in favour of the government.

However, the opposition parties withdrew their no-confidence motion against Suri after the NA speaker accepted their request to form a committee, comprising members from the government and opposition, to review the legislative business conducted in haste.