ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice approved on Monday four government-sponsored bills despite lacking quorum and deferred consideration on five bills by private members seeking amendments to accountability laws.

A meeting of the committee, presided over by Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf in the absence of its chairman Bashir Virk, approved all government bills related to the judiciary and functioning of bar councils without any amendment.

When the committee passed the bills, only two members — Moeen Wattoo and Mumtaz Ahmed Tarar — were present besides the acting chairman. The presence of at least three members, out of 20, is required in a meeting to fulfil the requirement of the quorum of the committee.

After the meeting when reporters questioned the committee’s decision to approve the bills without quorum, Mr Ashraf said the committee continued its work since no one pointed out lack of quorum. Moreover, when the meeting began, the quorum was complete, he said in an apparent reference to a rule which says that the chairman of a committee cannot start proceedings until the quorum is complete.

Consideration on five bills by private members seeking amendments to accountability laws deferred

When the meeting began, Syed Naveed Qamar and Shagufta Jumani of the PPP, Kiran Haider of the PML-N and Ali Mohammad Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf were present. But all of them left the meeting midway.

Imran Zafar Leghari of the PPP was also present in the meeting as a mover of a bill seeking to abolish the role of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in investigating matters related to provinces.

Supported by his two party colleagues, Mr Leghari asked the committee to pass the bill as NAB investigations were creating problems for the provinces.

Besides the bureau, the Anti-Corruption Establishment and the Federal Investigation Agency were also functioning in the provinces, he said and added that the investigations had “paralysed” the provinces. After the passage of the 18th Amendment, he said, the provincial assemblies now had the right to enact their own accountability laws.

But the acting chairman of the committee deferred consideration on the bill despite requests by the mover.

The other four private members’ bills were not taken up due to the absence of the movers.

The bills passed by the committee are the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill 2016, the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill 2016, the Islamabad High Court (Amendment) Bill 2016 and the Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill 2016.

The first bill seeks to bring bar councils and associations in the ambit of federal grants. After passage of the bill by parliament, bar councils and associations will receive grants from the federal government in accordance with the total number of advocates on their roll.

The Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend the West Pakistan Civil Courts Ordinance 1962 to the extent of Islamabad Capital Territory to give unlimited pecuniary jurisdiction to district and additional district judges of Islamabad to hear an appeal against a decree passed by a civil judge.

The Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill is aimed at expeditious disposal of cases and suits related to public nuisances and public charities. After passage of the bill, people will not require the involvement of advocate general in filing any such suit.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2016