ISLAMABAD: Conceding to the opposition’s demand for revisiting 21 bills passed in haste by the National Assembly on June 10, Speaker Asad Qaiser on Thursday formed a parliamentary committee to look into the matter and address it.

The speaker has formed the parliamentary committee in consultation with leaders of parliamentary parties, said the NA Secretariat in a notification issued on Thursday.

“The committee, called the Committee on Legislative Business, will finalise its terms of reference on issues which would be referred to it from time to time. It will submit its report to the National Assembly speaker,” the notification said.

The committee comprises Pervez Khattak, Minister for Defence; Asad Umer, Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives; Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema, Minister for Housing and Works; Dr Fehmida Mirza, Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination; Zaheer­uddin Babar Awan, Adviser to the PM on Parliamentary Affairs; and MNAs Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Khalid Hussain Magsi, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Sanaullah Khan, Syed Naveed Qamar, Shazia Marri, Shahida Akhtar Ali and Agha Hassan Baloch.

Shehbaz, Bilawal ask speaker for production orders of Khursheed

Meanwhile, President Dr Arif Alvi has urged the government and the opposition to work together for strengthening of electoral system in the country.

In a related development, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari have written separate letters to the NA speaker, demanding production orders for former opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah, who is at present in NAB’s custody.

The National Assembly had on June 10 passed 21 bills, including a bill on amendments to election laws and the right of appeal to detained Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav despite the opposition’s resistance and advice not to approve them in haste.

Call for harmony

In a meeting with ministers, President Alvi stressed the need for expediting the electoral reforms process to grant overseas Pakistanis their political rights as well as to make the electoral process more transparent, secure and impartial.

“It is the national obligation of political parties of the country and the stakeholders concerned to work together to strengthen the electoral system in the country,” the president said during the meeting with federal Minister for Science and Technology, Senator Syed Shibli Faraz, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Syed Aminul Haque and Adviser to the PM on Parliamentary Affairs Zaheeruddin Babar Awan.

In his letter to the NA speaker, Shehbaz Sharif said that as the budget session of the National Assembly was in progress which required to be passed by the majority of the house, PPP leader Khursheed Ahmed Shah, who was detained, should be brought to the house to take part in the budget debate.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also wrote a letter to the NA speaker, demanding production order for MNA Khursheed Ahmed Shah.

“This is a reminder regarding production order of MNA Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah who is currently under detention. Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah has remained the leader of opposition in the National Assembly from 2013 to 2018. Given that the budget session is going on, you were requested earlier to issue production order for Shah Sahib so that he could attend the budget session and represent his constituents on the floor of the National Assembly,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2021