ISLAMABAD: The Senate is set to take up a 50-point agenda, including eight bills aimed at providing “inexpensive and speedy justice”, when it will meet on Monday.

The house will also take up two private members’ bills — one dealing with the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) and the other with registration of Haj and Umra operators.

While the Senate is likely to pass the eight bills unanimously and without debate, two other bills, if allowed to be introduced, are likely to be referred to the standing committees concerned.

The senators are expected to have a debate on an adjournment motion on US President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last week in which he had said that instability would continue for decades in parts of Pakistan because of extremism and terrorism.

Nacta Bill

The private members’ bill seeking to amend the Nacta Act, 2013, has been submitted by PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar.

The bill makes it mandatory for the executive council of Nacta to meet at least once every quarter and board of governors (BoG) to meet as and when required and at least once in a year.

Mr Babar said that since Nacta Act’s approval, the board of governor, a policy-making body headed by the prime minister, had not met even once.

He said the provision of meeting every quarter was too soon and this was perhaps one reason that it had not met even once during the past over one year.

Speedy justice

The eight bills which the Senate is set to pass for providing speedy justice are Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Bill, 2016; the Law Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Anti-Terrorism Act (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016; and the Arbitration and Conciliation Bill, 2016.

Through the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) 2016, it has been made binding on defendants to submit written statements in their defence within 30 days of the first hearing of the case. Through the proposed law, courts will become bound to “issue a scheduling order, with the consent of the parties, determining the agreed timelines for the disposal of the suit”.

The proposed law has put certain restrictions on courts to grant long adjournments and also called for day-to-day hearings until all witnesses in attendance have been examined.

“The fact that the pleader of a party is engaged in another court, shall not be a ground for adjournment,” says the proposed law.

Under the proposed Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2016, a police official would be held responsible for reporting false information, and would be punished accordingly.

The law has suggested imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to Rs250,000 for police officials for registering a false FIR or making “dishonest or false investigations” into a case.

The proposed Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act, 2016, provides a mechanism for the protection of witnesses, prosecutors and judges in respect of schedule crimes.

The proposed law allows a witness “to establish a new identity” and “to conceal his identity by wearing a mask, changing his or her voice, appearance or any other form of segregation during the investigation or trial; or examination under the law”.

It also allows video-conferencing in order to secure the protected person and also allows “relocation” of the witness and calls for providing accommodation for the witness.

The proposed law also calls for providing “reasonable financial assistance to the witness, whenever practicable, for obtaining a means of livelihood”.

“The offences in respect of which a witness or related person may be placed under protection” include treason, sedition, murder, rape, public violence, robbery, vehicle snatching, kidnapping, perjury, indecent assault on a child, any offence related to contraband drugs and drugs trafficking and any offence referred to in the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Through the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the number of SC judges will go up from 16 to 26.

According to the report of the committee, the number of judges has remained stagnant since 1997, and while the population of the country has increased since then (and now exceeds 191 million), the sanctioned strength of Supreme Court judges has remained the same.

Through the Law Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the intra-court appeal remedy at the high court level has been abolished in an effort to reduce the appeal burden on the high court judges.

The proposed abolition of the intra-court appeal remedy was the brainchild of legal experts, former senator S.M. Zafar and Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan.

They claimed that abolishing the remedy would reduce the burden on high court judges, as well as the time needed for a matter to attain finality.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2016