Back in session: Bill to safeguard minorities’ communal properties tabled

Govt proposes amendments to speaker and deputy speaker privileges act.

PESHAWAR: A bill outlawing the sale and transfer of communal properties owned by minorities was introduced in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly which convened after a gap of more than three months on Thursday.

With the opposition’s no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak successfully dealt with, the government was on a roll and introduced a total of seven bills and ordinances in the house, including an ordinance seeking to increase the cost of maintaining and furnishing the speaker’s official residence.

Protecting assets

The K-P Communal Properties of Minorities Act 2014 imposes a ban on the sale and transfer of properties owned by religious minority groups and used for communal purposes.



According to Section 4 (1), no such property can be bought, sold or transferred without obtaining a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the government. However, the law will not be applicable to any property bought, sold or transferred for a residential scheme meant for minorities and approved by the government.

Under the law, the NOC would be granted by the government on the recommendations of the Commission for Minorities Affairs (which will be formed after the law is enacted). To get that recommendation, the buyer or seller would have to write an application to the secretary of the Auqaf department who will process the request and pass it on to the commission.

The minority affairs commission would be chaired by the minister for minority affairs and its members would include Auqaf secretary, representatives of home, law, revenue and estate departments as well as two minority MPAs nominated by the assembly speaker.

Laying out punishment for violating the law, Section 6 of the bill states, “Whosoever sells or transfers any property belonging to a minority community meant for its communal use, shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend up to seven years and shall be liable to fine not less than Rs100,000.” Moreover, any such transaction will not have any legal standing.

More perks

The government also tabled the K-P Speaker and Deputy Speaker (salaries, allowances and privileges) Amendment Ordinance 2014.

An amendment to the existing law’s Section 7, subsection 2 seeks to increase the maintenance allocation for speaker’s official house from Rs100,000 to Rs1 million. As per the law, the upkeep and furnishing for the speaker’s official residence and grounds are the responsibility of the government.

Other bills introduced in the house included K-P Zakat and Ushr (amendment) Ordinance 2014, K-P Senior Citizens Ordinance 2014, K-P Environmental Protection Bill 2014, K-P Injured Persons and Emergency (medical aid) Bill 2014 and K-P Hindu Disposition of Property bill 2014.

The assembly also condemned the suicide attack which targeted JUI-F chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman in Quetta on Thursday evening. The lawmakers learnt of the incident during the recess. MPAs from both treasury and opposition benches went to the desk of opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman, who is Maulana Fazal’s younger brother, to express solidarity.

At the start of Thursday’s session, newly-elected lawmaker from DI Khan Javed Akbar Khan took oath as a member, while PTI’s dissident lawmaker Javed Nasim attended the session wearing a black band around his mouth.

The session was later adjourned till 2pm Friday afternoon.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2014.