Pakistan’s Prime Minister for Law Nazir Tarar said on Thursday that the government currently has no intention of bringing constitutional amendments related to judicial reforms.
He said this at a time when the government tried to introduce constitutional amendments related to the judiciary in both the houses of the parliament in the past few days, which could not be successful as the required numbers were not met.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government has faced resignation due to this failed attempt.
Today, after attending a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice, the Law Minister clarified in a conversation with Independent Urdu that the constitutional amendments will be brought in the parliament only when there is a political consensus.
“There is currently no intention to bring the proposed constitutional amendments. We will bring the constitutional amendments only if there is a political consensus.”
The federal minister denied the news of different drafts related to the constitutional amendments and said that ‘there are not many drafts related to the constitutional amendments, there is only one draft related to the constitutional amendments which was presented in the special committee. No other draft than that.’
A decision to prevent parliamentarians from introducing constitutional bills without party permission
In the meeting presided over by the Chairman Standing Committee, Senator Farooq Naik, the matter related to the presentation of the constitutional bill by the members of Parliament without the permission of the party was also taken into consideration.
The law minister suggested that the bill should not be brought without the consent of the party and said that no member can vote for the constitutional amendment without the consent of the party. “The Supreme Court even said that the vote given without the permission of the party will not be counted, similarly it should be applied to the private bill that the private bill cannot come without the permission of the party.”
Azam Nazir Tarar said to recommend that the private bill related to the constitutional amendment should not be introduced without the permission of the parliamentary leader.
The committee later recommended an amendment to the rules to prevent members from introducing constitutional bills at will.
The chairman committee said that the rules can be amended, after which the committee decided to refer the matter to the rules and regulations committee.
In the meeting, Senator Fawzia Arshad, while talking about the bill to add a clause to include transgender (transgender) in the General Classes Act 1897, said, ‘The word gender should be added to the word person, transgenders will get rights from it. . Gender should be clarified in the law, that men, women and transgenders are included in it.’
The Law Ministry, Chairman Committee and Jamiat Ulema Islam opposed the bill. The committee members said that ‘inclusion of eunuchs will be against Islamic teachings.’
On this, Senator Fauzia Arshad said that this law already exists in many Muslim countries. Senator Kamran Murtaza said, “Even in the Qur’an, only male and female are mentioned, you should not do such a thing that something will happen to you tomorrow.”
Chairman Committee Farooq Naik said ‘This is a sensitive matter, think about it.’ Later, the committee sought the opinion of the Council of Islamic Ideology on the matter.
During the session, Senator Dinesh Kumar’s bill regarding increasing the seats of the Balochistan Assembly and allocating one non-Muslim member from each province was considered.
Senator Dinesh Kumar said there are only 10 seats for non-Muslim members, and those members come from anywhere.
At least one seat should be reserved for a non-Muslim from each province. This time, there is no non-Muslim from Balochistan in the National Assembly. Political parties from Balochistan said that the constituencies are too big.
The Law Minister said that there is a proposal to increase the seats of the provincial assembly, some parties of Balochistan do not agree, they say that the seats of the national assembly should be increased instead of the provincial assembly.
The Chairman Committee asked the question ‘Why should the seats of the Balochistan Assembly be increased?’
Later, the committee decided to take the opinion of all political parties on this bill and formed a sub-committee on increasing the seats of Balochistan Assembly.
The committee has been asked to submit a report within a month after consulting the political parties.
Senator Khaleda Ateeb’s bill related to local elections and powers was also discussed during the meeting, on which she said, ‘My bill is related to local elections, unfortunately the provinces have not transferred the powers to the lower level after the eighteenth amendment. What?’
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He said that the federal government should ensure that the local elections are held so that people get the fruits, the local elections should be under the supervision of the Election Commission.
‘Why do those funds that go to the provinces go to the Chief Minister? Why don’t those funds and powers go to the local level?’
Senator Hamid Khan suggested a ban on giving development funds to the provincial and members of the National Assembly and said, ‘When development funds were started to be given to the parliamentary leaders, the problem increased, everyone knows how much the funds are used.
Corruption has increased by giving funds to members, legislators do not want to give development funds. No member should receive development funds.’
During the meeting, when Senator Aun Abbas’s constitutional amendment bill to divide Punjab province into two more provinces was presented in the committee, it was postponed due to the opposition of the committee members.
Senator Aoun Abbas said, “The division of the province is necessary, because it is a big province, the distribution of resources is not equal.”
He said, “Rahim Yar Khan is 800 km away from Lahore. It becomes very difficult for the people of South Punjab to travel to Lahore to solve their problems.”
On this, Kamran Murtaza said, “It is not right to divide the provinces according to the area. If this happens, Balochistan will also demand division.”
Senator Anusha Rehman suggested that the bill be withdrawn. ‘Don’t talk about dividing the country.’
Awam Abbas replied, ‘N-League has a lot of pain on the matter of division of Punjab.’
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2024-09-26 21:23:18
