Assembly session: Lawmakers oppose bill on child marriage, human trafficking

MQM’s ‘political drone’ severely criticised.

PESHAWAR: Treasury benches of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly restricted tabling a Child Marriage Restraint Amendment Bill 2013 on Friday.

The bill was moved by Awami National Party (ANP) lawmaker Munawar Sultana. Provincial informational minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, who assumed the seat of parliamentary leader on Friday, opposed tabling the bill, saying that it will have far reaching social consequences.

Hussain was backed by Nighat Orakzai and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s Mufti Kifayutllah, who termed the legislation NGO-centric and requested that the bill be put on a pending status.

The opposition to her bill left Sultana infuriated, who lashed out saying that Islam prohibits too many things but no one wants to talk about it. However, on Mian Iftikhar’s insistence, Sultana withdrew the bill.

A bill on the prevention and control of women trafficking was also moved by Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Shazia Tehmash. She was told, however, to discuss it with the law minister first and table it again next week.

Law Minister Barrister Arshad Abdullah opposed it, saying that the assembly was not competent to enact legislation in this regard and that a human trafficking bill had already been passed by the National Assembly.

Speaker Kiramtullah Chagarmati, reading the law department’s view, said that because an anti-human trafficking law is being considered by the National Assembly, the provincial assembly cannot enact such a law.

Tehmash, however, stood her ground, on which the speaker asked the law minister to discuss the issue with her.

Other bills, including Labour Laws Application Bill 2012, Child Protection and Welfare Amendment Bill 2003, Medical Health and Institutions and Regulations of Health Care Services amendment Bill 2013 were opposed.

Political drone

Lawmakers also criticised Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain for declaring Quaid-e-Azam a British national.

In his speech Kifyatullah equated the MQM with the Taliban. He was backed by Orakzai and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Sardar Shamoon Yar Khan, who called for contacting the British government to ban Altaf Hussain’s telephonic speeches. Mian Iftikhar said that the MQM chief should have pointed out that it was not only Jinnah who had the British passport but everyone else at the time.

The house also offered fateha for victims of the Quetta and Mingora blasts.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2013.