26 January 2005	Wednesday	15 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: The legislative committee of the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) on Tuesday finalized its recommendations on five bills prepared by various party members for submission to the National Assembly and the Senate , a source told Dawn.

The meeting was presided over by Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar in the absence of Makhdoom Amin Fahim. Besides Mr Fahim, the source said, several other important members of the committee were not present in the meeting.

Those who did not attend the meeting included opposition leader in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Janahgir Badar, Sardar Latif Khosa, Farooq Naek, Dr Safdar Abbasi and Sherry Rahman.

The source said after reviewing the bills, Mr Babar sent the committee's recommendations to PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto for approval, after which the members would be allowed to submit their bills to the National Assembly and the Senate.

He said the committee reviewed three bills of MNA Beelum Hasnain and one each of MNA Sherry Rahman and Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar. According to the source, Mr Babar has prepared a bill to amend Article 29 of the Constitution requiring the president to lay before the Senate every year the annual report on "Principles of Policy".

At present, under the Constitution, the president is required to lay the report only in the National Assembly. Moreover, it is not binding on the president to lay the report every year, and because of this, only nine reports had so far been presented before the National Assembly in the past 22 years, when the parliament was functioning in the country.

Through his amendment bill, Mr Babar has also called for making it binding on the president to present the report in the parliament. The bills of MNAs Sherry Rahman and Beelum Hasnain are related to empowerment of women, the source said. The meeting was attended by MNAs Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Fauzia Wahab and Fauzia Habib.