ISLAMABAD: The Sena­te Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights meets here on Wednesday with a heavy agenda which includes three constitution amendment bills.

The committee headed by Mohammad Javed Abbasi of the PML-N will also consider the Federal Judicial Acad­e­my (Amendment) Ordi­na­nce 2014 introduced by Law Minister Pervaiz Rashid on April 23 last year. It seeks to grant degree awarding status to the institute.

The most important constitution amendment bill that the committee will take up was moved by Hafiz Hamd­ullah of JUI-F in March. It seeks to end the constitutional indemnity presently available to the president and provincial governors in proceedings in criminal cases.

Through the bill, the JUI-F senator has sought omission of clause 2 of Article 248. This clause had earlier come under judicial review during the previous PPP government when Asif Ali Zardari was president of the country.

The clause under the caption “Protection to president, governors, ministers, etc,” states: “No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continue against the president or a governor in any court during the term of office.”

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2015

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