ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Delegated Legislation on Wednesday “condemned” the practice of “bulldozing” legislation by placing the bills on the supplementary agenda, without providing drafts beforehand or issuing any notices to the members.

The committee, headed by PPP Senator Raza Rabbani, also termed the notification issued by the previous PTI government about single national curriculum “unconstitutional”, according to an official announcement by the Senate Secretariat.

“No notices or circulars are issued and the bill is provided while the motion is read in the House by the minister,” said Mr Rabbani while referring to the recently-passed bill to amend the Foreign Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act to limit its scope in Balochistan to the Reko Diq project.

Mr Rabbani said the court observation on legislation was the same and legislation should not be done in this way. The committee’s chairman told the members he would write a letter to the parliamentary affairs minister, the Senate chairman and the National Assembly speaker to systemise and restore the procedure of passing the bills in the parliament as provided under the constitution.

The committee chairman apprehended that the notification of singular national curriculum that had been issued by the previous PTI government was “unconstitutional”. Mr Rabbani told Dawn the idea of designing standardised curricula by Islamabad was a serious violation of the constitution after the 18th Amendment and any committee authorised for the matter was illegal. Officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice apprised the committee that the ministry website developed was operational and upgraded while the app was on trial and expected to be functional within a week.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2023