Proposed legislation: NA panel to deliberate on seven bills today

Will vet Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill that covers issues like child pornography.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights will take up seven proposed bills, including pending legislation on child rights, for discussion on Monday (today).

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2015 deals with the child rights and covers issues such as child pornography, child abuse, internal trafficking and determination of age. A senior official of the law ministry told The Express Tribune that this important bill is pending before parliament since 2008.

“Because of procedural hurdles, legislation on this important area could not be completed. However, the government now wants to adopt this legislation in its efforts to improve certain areas in criminal justice system,” he said. “New sections will be asserted in the bill while introducing amendments in the Pakistan Penal Code,” he added.

The proposed bill says: “Whoever takes, permits to be taken with or without consent of the child or with or without the consent of parents or guardians, any photograph, film, video, picture or representation, portrait or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical or other means of obscene or sexually explicit would be treated as guilty and punished accordingly.”

The panel, headed by MNA Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, would also take up separate bills on child protection system and child rights.  Pakistan Peoples Party’s MNA Ayaz Soomo’s bill on National Accountability Ordinance (Amendment) Bill 2015 is also part of the agenda of the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2015.