NA panel passes Parental Protection Bill

Ex-FATA districts to get a seat in K-P Bar Council after NA body passes bill

ISLAMABAD:

 

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Thursday passed the Parental Protection Bill with minor amendments.

The standing committee also passed a bill to represent the merged districts of FATA in the K-P bar, while the bar councils opposed giving additional seats to Nafisa Shah's Khairpur district.

The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Law and Justice met under the chairmanship of MNA Riaz Fatyana to discuss the Parental Protection Bill.

PPP's Qadir Mandokhail said that deputy commissioners (DCs) should not be given the power to evict or punish anyone while Malik Ehsan Ullah Tiwana responded that local body representatives should be empowered to settle disputes between parents and children.

Mahmood Bashir Virk countered that there would be very few cases where children would evict their parents from their homes and that it would be appropriate to authorize DCs to take action in such matters.

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The Standing Committee passed the Parental Protection Bill with minor amendments including a provision introducing a mediatory role for local body representatives before the case is brought to the Deputy Commissioner for arbitration.

The committee also discussed the Bar Council Amendment Bill 2021. Pakistan Bar Council opposed an increase in the number of seats in the Sindh Bar Council, while supported the increase of one seat to represent the merging districts of former FATA districts.

Chairman Executive Committee Pakistan Bar Council said that if the number of seat increases, the number of KP Bar Council members will increase to 29. Mohsin Dawar who had suggested the extra seat in the KP Bar said that the issue of integrated districts of FATA is different from other districts. KP Bar Council also supported Mohsin Dawar's bill which was passed by the committee.

Bar Councils, however, opposed giving additional seats to MNA Dr Nafisa Shah's Khairpur district on which she walked out of the meeting in protest.

The Standing Committee referred the matter of Bar Association’s extension to the Bar Councils while the Federal Government withdrew the amendment bill to the Legal Petitioners Act.

Committee Chairman Riaz Fatyana said that he wants to give legal protection to the bar associations by amending the extension act. He also stressed that the procedure for appointment of judges to the High Court should be changed adding that lawyers from all over the country should be able to apply for a High Court judge position, take appropriate legal tests online and be finalized as a judge through a panel interview with five senior judges.