February 17, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 28, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 16: The Law Reforms Bill is landmark legislation and its adoption will help people get quick and cheap justice and it will also free them from the harassment of law-enforcement agencies, according to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Highlighting various aspects of the bill, he said that it would reduce court delays and curb police’s discretionary powers.

He was talking to a group of parliamentarians comprising Federal Minister for Railways, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Minister of State for Environment Malik Amin Aslam and MNAs Rai Mansab Ali Khan, Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan, Amjad Ali Warriach, Saeed Virk, and Mr Farhan Lateef. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister commander (retd) Khalilur Rehman also attended the meeting.

He said that the bill provided punishments by making illegal police confinement an offence punishable by imprisonment and curbing their power to arrest besides making defective investigation a punishable offence.

He praised the parliamentarians for introducing and passing the legislation and said that the trend would continue in the coming sessions of the parliament.

The prime minister praised the judiciary’s efforts to reduce backlog of cases and providing justice to the people.

The Prime Minister said that the bill proposed to rationalise and improve both civil and criminal law procedures which have been in force since the British era.

He said the bill was also in line with the Government's commitment of to providing special relief to women.