ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly adopted five resolutions on Tuesday and referred as many bills to the relevant committees for further consideration.
The sitting was held under the chair of Deputy Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi. The House adopted resolutions to restore the educational increments of all federal government employees, control the manufacturing of spurious drugs, construct new small dams, do away with load shedding of gas and to set up more hospitals in the federal capital.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2014 was also approved by the house. It had been sponsored by a Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker. The bill moved by Kishwer Zehra amends Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898.
Five bills were presented before the House on Tuesday, including the Controller General of Accounts (Appointment, Functions and Powers) (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Constitution Amendment Bill, 2017 (Amendment in Article 160), the Constitution Amendment Bill, 2017 (Amendment in Article 198) and the Constitution Amendment Bill, 2017 (Amendment in Article 25-A). All these bills were referred to relevant committees for further deliberations. The chair referred the bills to relevant standing committees for further deliberations.
The National Assembly was informed that a committee, headed by the deputy governor State Bank, had been established to improve the operations of foreign branches of Pakistani banks as per the international standards.
Responding to a call attention notice in the National Assembly, Finance Parliamentary Secretary Rana Muhammad Afzal said a committee had been established after HBL’s decision to close its branch in New York.
Responding to the motion on excessive bills, Minister of State for Power Abid Sher Ali said that mobile meter reading system had been introduced in various areas of the country to check over-billing.
The session will resume on Wednesday (today).
Senate committee: The Senate’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice presented its report on the Elections Bill 2017 in the House on Tuesday.
The Senate met for four hours and 26 minutes. The sitting started at the scheduled time of 1500 hours. The proceedings remained suspended for 13 minutes due to prayer break. The chairman presided over the sitting for three hours and 15 minutes. The deputy chairman chaired the rest of the proceedings. The leader of the house and the prime minister did not attend the sitting. The leader of the opposition was present. The parliamentary leaders of PML-F, MQM, PkMAP, JUI-F, BNP-M, PPPP and PML-N attended the sitting. As many as 12 (11% of the total membership – 104) lawmakers were present at the start and 13 (12%) at the adjournment of sitting. Two minority legislators attended the sitting.
The Standing Committee on Law and Justice chairman presented the report of the committee on the Elections Bill, 2017 in the House. The House took up two calling attention notices (CANs) on the discrepancy in the official statistics about population growth in Karachi as well as the fire incident in the Awami Markaz, Islamabad. The House also discussed the third Quarterly Report for the year 2016-2017 of the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of the Economy.
The House discussed an adjournment motion regarding the Pak-Iran and TAPI gas pipeline projects and the future consequences of importing LNG from Qatar. Eight lawmakers took part in the discussion. The state minister for petroleum concluded the debate in 28 minutes. A lawmaker took part in the discussion on a motion to thank the president for his address to the Parliament. The minister for climate change concluded the discussion. The relevant minister responded to the six points of public importance raised by the lawmakers.
Published in Daily Times, September 20th 2017.
