ISLAMABAD: The opposition-controlled Senate on Wednesday had a hectic day as the house unanimously approved five bills, including two controversial anti-terrorism laws, which had earlier been passed by the National Assembly.

Following a behind-the-scenes understanding between the government and opposition leaders, the lethargic upper house, which had not approved any of the bills passed by the National Assembly in its first year, managed to pass two key terrorism-related laws just days before the 90-day period for their lapse expired.

The bills passed by the house were the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2014; the Anti-Terrorism (Second Amendment) Bill 2014; the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill 2014; the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2014 and the Service Tribunal (Amendment) Bill 2014. All five bills now only require the president’s ceremonial assent to be enacted as law.

When Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid took the floor to put the anti-terrorism laws to vote, PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan said the opposition had agreed to conditionally support the bills on the assurance of the government that their amendments and proposals would be incorporated into the bills in the weeks after the budget session.

Mr Ahsan said they would support the passage of the anti-terrorism bills because these were set to lapse on Thursday, when the 90-day period within which they were supposed to be passed by the Senate, would expire.

The minister thanked opposition members for their support and said he would accommodate the amendments proposed by them when the house took up the Protection of Pakistan Bill in the days to come since several clauses were common to both bills.

However, after completing legislative work, opposition members walked out of house to protest the “brutal police action” against teachers and clerks in Islamabad and the worsening security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Speaking on points of order, senators from the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) lashed out at the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for its alleged failure to improve law and order in the province.

The JUI-F’s Ghulam Ali asked the federal government to play its role and demanded that the KP governor write to the KP government and warn it for its poor performance.

The two bills, seeking to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, are aimed at countering the financing of terrorist organisations through money-laundering and allowing for shoot-on-sight orders to law-enforcement agencies.

The Services Tribunal Bill seeks to bring appointments of tribunal members in line with procedures followed for appointments to the judiciary, making the tribunals financially autonomous and empowering them to implement their decisions.

Mr Hamid informed the house that the bill had been formulated in pursuance of a Supreme Court decision.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2014