ISLAMABAD: PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui has demanded National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to trace his missing bill which was sent to President Dr Arif Alvi for assent 14 months ago after being approved by both houses of Parliament.

Senator Irfan Siddiqui had made this demand in a letter written to the speaker, which had also been released to the press.

In the letter the senator said after his arrest in July 2019, he decided that the administration should be completely separated from the judiciary as required under the Constitution.

In 2019, Irfan Siddiqui was arrested and handcuffed under the Tenancy Act, and presented before an assistant commissioner who sent him to Adiala jail on judicial remand for 14 days.

Senator Siddiqui said after becoming a member of the Senate, he prepared a bill to amend the Criminal Code, to bring this century-old law in line with the Constitution.

During the PTI government, the bill titled Code of Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, 2022, came to the Senate and was approved by the Senate’s standing committee on home affairs.

On May 23, 2022, this bill was approved by the Senate and on June 8 last year, by the National Assembly, after which on June 21, the bill was sent to the President’s Office for formal approval.

Senator Siddiqui said he raised this demand in Parliament but the bill could not be traced.

In August 2022, the Presidency officially clarified that no such bill had come to it.

In his letter, Senator Irfan Siddiqui had requested the speaker, to issue orders to trace the missing bill, urging him to order an investigation to fix the responsibillty for losing the bill.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2023