KARACHI, Oct 17: The Pakistan Peoples Party is considering to table a motion in the Senate against the National Assembly speaker for violating the privilege of the Parliament by constituting a parliamentary committee on water issues.

“The government actions are unconstitutional and we reject the water committee,” said Senator Raza Rabbani at a News conference on Friday, adding that “the PPP and the ARD would consider moving a motion against the speaker”.

Mr Rabbani, who also spoke on the matter pertaining to the Banking Ordinance and labour laws, demanded revival of trade union activities in organizations such as the KESC, PIA and the Pakistan Steel.

He accused the government of tackling the crucial water issue in a non-serious manner, and rejected the Nisar Memon committee on water as unconstitutional. “There is no provision in the rules of the National Assembly or the Senate for such a committee. There is no provision in the rules of joint sittings in this regard,” he said and pointed out that under the Parliament (joint sitting) Rules 1973 a committee could be elected under Rule 22(4).

Mr Rabbani said that in case of water disputes a Council of Common Interests should be constituted under the Constitution and such matters could be raised in the CCI.

“The CCI could constitute such a committee, and the committee would then submit its report to the CCI, and if any party had any objection, the matter could be raised in the joint sitting. So all the committees constituted on water issues by this government, including the committee formed by the prime minister are illegal,” he said and added that the speaker of the National Assembly had no right to constitute a committee of the joint house and there was no rule that empowered him to include a member of the Senate in such a committee.

Referring to the notification issued by Deputy Secretary (C-I) Sikandar Ismail Khan, with regard to the names of the committee members on water resources, Mr Rabbani said it did not mention any law or rules.

He said he had submitted two bills in the Senate to amend the Banking Companies Ordinance and the Services Tribunal Act.

He said that Section 27 B of the Ordinance violated the rights conferred by Articles 17 of the Constitution and it was also in violation of the provisions of the ILO to which Pakistan was a signatory.

He maintained that the section was also violative of the provisions of IRO 1969 and the controversial IRO 2002, which allowed that 25 per cent members of the trade union could be from outside the organization.

He said the report of the Justice Shafi-ur-Rahman Commission had also recommended that the said section be deleted. Further, he said, the Banking Companies Ordinance dealt with the functions and operations of banking companies and did not regulate functions of trade unions which were covered under the IRO.

With regard to a bill seeking amendments to the Service Tribunal Act, he said that by virtue of Section 2A, people in the service of corporations, bodies or organizations established by or under a federal law, or which were owned or controlled by the federal government or in which the federal government had interest, had been declared government servants.

As a consequence, he said, the right of the workers to take their disputes to the NIRC, labour courts and the High Court had ceased to exist and their matters were adjudicated before the federal service tribunal, making litigation for workers cumbersome and expensive.

Mr Rabbani vowed to continue to strive for the rights of the downtrodden. He also deplored the delay in implementation of the Wage Board Award for newspaper employees.