ISLAMABAD: Senate on Monday passed the Dyslexia Special Measures Bill, 2020, a private member bill, while eight new bills were introduced in the Upper House of the Parliament, on the start of its 300th session, and were referred to the relevant standing committees.
Moved by Samina Saeed from the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Dyslexia Special Measures Bill, 2020, recommends facilitating the children suffering from dyslexia (a learning disorder that involves difficulty in reading) through special measures for education of the dyslexic children.
The bill landed in the Senate on January 16, 2020, and has already been reviewed and passed by the relevant Senate standing committee. It would now seek the National Assembly's nod and final ascent from the President of Pakistan in order to become a law.
Of the newly introduced eight bills in the Senate, seven were moved by Javed Abbasi from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and one bill was jointly introduced by 17 senators from different political parties including Abbasi- Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
The seven other bills were: Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Islamabad Capital Territory Law Officers Bill, 2020, Press Council of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Islamabad Capital Territory Criminal Prosecution Service (Constitution, Functions and Powers) Bill, 2020, Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2020 (Amendment of Article 140) and Islamabad Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani deferred till Monday the voting on another constitutional amendment bill- The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Amendment of Article 198) due to absence of the required two-third majority of senators in the House to pass the bill
After detailed discussion, the Senate rejected the motion to refer Constitution Amendment Bill, 2020 (Amendment of Article 160) moved by Muhammad Ali Saif from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). As many as 25 votes went against the motion and 17 votes in favour.
Strongly opposing Saif's aforementioned constitutional amendment bill to amend the NFC (National Finance Commission), Parliamentary Leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the Senate, Sherry Rehman said, "It is the provinces tax collection that is running Pakistan, not the federation which is complaining about 'giving away its resources' to the provinces. This is a backdoor attack on the federation's unity and stability. Have people not seen the history of the country? Where Pakistan broke because of such attacks on provinces rights?"
A resolution moved by PTI's Zeeshan Khanzada recommending that the government should introduce uniform pay scales for all the federal and provincial governments' employees, especially Basic Scale (BS) 1 to 16, was referred to the relevant standing committee after Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan opposed the resolution on the grounds that the federal and provincial governments' employees were employed under different service structures keeping in view the respective requirements. Supporting his resolution Khanzada said the position of Upper Division Clerk (UDC) in federal government departments fell in BS-11 while the similar position in provincial governments' departments fell in BS 14. Similarly, he said the position of Lower Division Clerk (LDC) fell in BS-9 in federal government departments while the similar position fell in BS-11 in provincial governments' departments, he said adding that the pay scales of federal government departments needed to be upgraded to bring them at par with those of provincial governments' departments.
Meanwhile, different resolutions concerning allocating funds for parliamentarians towards prevention and treatment of Covid-19, taking measures to bring back stranded Pakistanis from Gulf states, increasing rate of pension and insurance of major crops against calamities were passed.
Mohsin Aziz from PTI moved a motion regarding slow progress of industrialization and commercial activities in small provinces of the country especially due to improper, unjustified and inequitable credit/lending by banks. The matter was referred to Standing Committee on Finance.
Mushtaq Ahmed from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) moved a motion regarding commitments made by government including the annual development budget of Rs100 billion for erstwhile FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas). It was decided that a Parliamentary Committee be formed to take up the issue.
Sherry Rehman moved a motion regarding locust attacks in the country which "may cause an estimated loss of Rs 600 billion to Pakistani economy." Minister for Food Security Fakhar Imam briefed the House about the issue and assured of dealing with the problem effectively.
Farooq Naek from PPP, the Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance presented reports on the money bill to amend tax laws (The Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020) and on prevention of smuggling of scheduled articles, in the wake of an emergent situation resulting from the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic: The Prevention of Smuggling Bill, 2020. The House will now meet again on Wednesday.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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