Parliamentary panel on delayed legislation begins deliberations
ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary committee on legislative business met for the first time at the Parliament House shortly after its formation on Thursday, with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the chair.
The 24-member committee was formed by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser in consultation with Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to discuss all pending legislations.
Earlier in the day, the National Assembly passed a motion empowering the speaker to form the committee. The motion was moved by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan.
Chairing the meeting, Mr Qureshi said that the incumbent parliamentary leadership believed in consensus-based legislation as consensus and consultations with opposition parties and other stakeholders could ensure parliamentary supremacy in the country.
Qureshi says consensus-based lawmaking will ensure parliamentary supremacy
He noted that both treasury and opposition benches together could ensure legislation for the benefit of the people and the country.
The committee discussed the Anti–Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020, and the United Nations (Security Council) Amendment Bill, 2020, in detail.
Members of the committee were of the view that the bills in question needed further discussion and, therefore, taking into account suggestions of the members, the committee decided to meet again on Monday for further discussion.
The meeting was attended by federal ministers Pervez Khattak, Asad Umar, Shafqat Mehmood, Senator Shibli Faraz and Shirin Mazari, minister of state Ali Muhammad Khan, advisers to the prime minister Dr Babar Awan and Mirza Shehzad Akbar, MNAs Malik Muhammad Amir Dogar, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Ahsan Iqbal, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Syed Naveed Qamar and Shahida Akthar Ali, senators Sherry Rehman and Farooq Hamid Naik and senior officers of the ministries concerned.
The committee has been formed to discuss pending legislations as several bills passed by one house of parliament could not sail through the other house.
A joint session of parliament is likely to be convened after Eidul Azha to pass some of the pending legislations.
Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2020