ISLAMABAD, Nov 2: The Senate on Wednesday decided to constitute a special committee with a mandate to develop consensus among provinces for setting up of Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA) as a consequence of the 18th Constitution Amendment.
The decision to form the committee was announced by Deputy Chairman Jan Muhammad Jamali after senators belonging to almost all political parties termed the government’s decision of allocating functions of the proposed Drug Regulatory Authority to Cabinet Division a “violation of the Constitution” and against the spirit of provincial autonomy.
The issue came under discussion in the upper house when 26 senators through a call-attention notice flayed the federalgovernment for a delay in the formation of the proposed Drug Regulatory Authority, causing difficulties in the provinces as far as issues of registration and licensing of medicines were concerned.
The deputy chairman announced that the committee would comprise one senator each from all the provinces, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Islamabad and would approach provincial assemblies for adoption of resolutions required under the 18th Amendment to authorise the federal government for making the DRA law.
The committee has been tasked to do its job within 45 days.
DRONE PROTEST: Members belonging to Fata continued their protest for the sixth consecutive day and boycotted proceedings against drone attacks, non-release of development funds and what they called a discriminatory attitude towards them by the government as well as senators.
After completion of Question Hour, Senator Hafiz Abdul Rashid on a point of order announced that the Fata members would continue the protest until their demands were met.
As Fata members walked out of the hall, the senators of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) also staged a token walkout to express solidarity with their colleagues.
Leader of the House Nayyar Bokhari said the Fata members had some reservations over the issue of development funds. He assured the house that the issue would soon be resolved with the help of Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.
Later, moving the call-attention notice on the issue of the Drug Regulatory Authority, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan said the health ministry had been devolved to provinces, but there were still some important functions being handled by the federal government through the Cabinet Division. He accused the bureaucracy of creating hurdles in the devolution process.
Kulsoom Parveen of the Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-A) questioned the law under which functions of theDrug Regulatory Authority had been transferred to the Cabinet Division and claimed that all decisions taken so far by it were “illegal”.
Leader of the House Nayyar Bokhari said that provinces had asked Centre to continue to carry out the Drugs Act 1976 since they had no capacity to do it.
He said there was a consensus that there should be a uniform system in the country to deal with drug-related issues and that the Drug Regulatory Authority should be formed for this purpose.
He said the federation was in contact with the provinces on the issue and would form the Drug Regulatory Authority as soon as it received resolutions from the provincial assemblies required under Article 144 of the Constitution.
He said the provinces were independent to do legislation and there was no hurdle from the federation in this regard.
Mr Bokhari also said the federation had already prepared a draft regarding establishment of the DRA and would soon send them to provinces for their opinion.
PIA FARES: Senator Haroon Khan of PML-Q condemned 100 per cent increase in air fares by PIA. He said that trains were not running, 10 out of 40 PIA aircraft had been grounded and the airline’s loss had accumulated to Rs100 billion.
He called for summoning the defence minister on the issue.
MATCH-FIXING: Expressing their serious concern over the decision by a UK court to indict Pakistani cricketers for betting and match-fixing, a number of senators called for constituting an oversight committee to monitor affairs of cricket and other sports. They said these players had brought bad name to the country and should be given exemplary punishment.
Senators Haroon Khan, Tariq Azeem and MQM’s Tahir Mashhadi criticised the Pakistan Cricket Board for not taking up the issue seriously.