ISLAMABAD, March 27 The National Assembly`s Standing Committee on women`s development on Friday unanimously adopted the Domestic Violence Bill and asked the NA secretariat to place it before the house during the coming session.

The bill was adopted at a meeting of the committee, presided over by Bushra Gohar. It was attended by Shaheen Ishfaq, Qudsia Arshad, Dr Zil-e-Huma, Shakeela Khanam Rashid, Dr Attiya Inayatullah, Nisar Tanveer, Khushbakht Shujaat, Fouzia Ejaz Khan, Yasmeen Rehman (mover of the bill) and senior officials of the ministry of women development and planning division.

The committee took into consideration all previous and present private member bills sent to the committee on domestic violence and included viewpoints of all key stakeholders.

Earlier, the head of the planning and development division briefed the committee on the achievements and challenges of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The committee criticised the Planning Commission for basing its assessments and plans on old poverty statistics and called for a detailed presentation on seven critical areas directly concerning women and children.

The committee was of the view that the role of the ministry of women development in monitoring the MDGs process needed to be strengthened and it should liaise with all key ministries.