ISLAMABAD: The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Law and Justice has referred a bill seeking to create Southern Punjab, Bahawalpur and Hazara provinces to the speaker for constitution of a parliamentary committee to fine-tune the proposed legislation.

The committee analysed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Amendment in Articles 1, 51, 59, 106, 175A and 218) moved by Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Ali Khan Jadoon.

After a heated debate, the committee’s chairman, Riaz Fatyana, ruled that the NA speaker would be requested to constitute a 10-12-member parliamentary committee to examine the bill and develop consensus among the stakeholders.

When Mr Abbasi pointed out that a similar bill moved by Rana Sanaullah was pending and requested Mr Fatyana to issue Mr Sanaullah’s production orders, Mr Attaullah of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf asked Mr Abbasi to concentrate on his bill only.

In response, Mr Abbasi threatened to boycott the proceedings in protest. Mr Fatyana, however, intervened and said that the committee did not receive any application from Mr Sanaullah. He advised Mr Abbasi to move an application duly signed by Mr Sanaullah so that the committee could act in accordance with the law.

The committee considered the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Bill, 2018, moved by Aliya Kamran. After detailed deliberations, the committee recommended that the bill could be passed by the assembly.

The committee also considered the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2019, and after detailed deliberations, it recommended that the bill moved by Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani might be deferred till the next meeting, scheduled to be held on Aug 21, with the recommendation that a representative of the human rights ministry should attend it.

The committee considered the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Amendment in Articles 51, 76 and 106) and after detailed deliberations it recommended that the bill moved by Kishwer Zehra might be passed by the assembly.

The committee considered the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Amendment in Articles 51and 106) and after detailed deliberations it observed that the bill moved by Dr Darshan should be referred to the subcommittee for its recommendations.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2019