A National Assembly panel on Wednesday called for legislation to keep a check on the activities of banned organisations in the country.
The panel constituted a subcommittee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior for this purpose. The subcommittee will ask provincial home departments to come up with recommendations to review the already proposed anti-terrorism act.
The government wanted to introduce an anti-terrorism bill with the recommendations of the ministry of interior in Parliament, but could not introduce it for unknown reasons.
“Various banned outfits are operating under new names without any legal implications,” observed Chairperson of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior Abdul Qadir Patel. However, the committee members avoided discussing details in front of the media.
Patel also formed a subcommittee to strategise the registration of abandoned children by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). The decision was taken during the discussion of ‘The National Database and Registration Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2012’ moved by Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho regarding ‘persons of unidentified parentage’.
The bill sought the addition of a ‘guardian’ column in the national identity card, so as to resolve the issue of registration of children without known parentage. Interior ministry officials informed the committee that it had already asked the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) to give its recommendations regarding such children, but it has not got back to the ministry.
They said all provincial home departments were interested in making a separate place in Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) forms for persons without known parentage, as NADRA had already allocated a space for eunuchs and disabled persons.
Patel also nominated some members of the committee to further study the bill. “This bill is very important and NADRA officials prepared a draft through their recommendations for the registration of such persons above the age of 18.”
Patel also constituted two separate subcommittees to examine ‘The Passports (Amendment) Bill, 2012.’ A bill was also moved by Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho to discuss the procedure of recording more than one weapon into the new computerised arms license.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2012.
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