ISLAMABAD: The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Aviation has given nod for the legislation to regularise the use of drones and unarmed aircrafts for commercial and agriculture purposes.
The committee convened its meeting under the chairmanship of Haji Imtiaz Ahmed Choudhary, MNA.
The committee discussed “The Civil Unmanned Aircraft System Bill, 2021” in detail.
The ministry briefed the committee that drones and unmanned aircrafts were the rapidly emerging avenues of aviation and there had been a trend of regularising the same in developed countries of the world.
The drones or unmanned aircrafts were being used for several purposes such as mapping, survey, commercial photography, agriculture, as well as, deliveries.
However, in the absence of any formal guidelines, the amateur use of drones had so far been illegal in Pakistan, the committee was told.
Therefore, it was imperative to draft set of guidelines to bring the use of drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles under a legal framework that was governed by an authority, the Aviation Ministry told the committee.
The ministry further informed that the proposed authority shall govern and oversee the licensing, import, production, sale, purchase and usage of the unmanned aircraft systems according to their weight, size and purpose.
The majority members of the committee voted in favour of the said bill.
The committee also considered government bills namely, “The Pakistan Airports Authority Bill, 2021” and “The Pakistan Civil Aviation Bill, 2021”.
The ministry gave a detailed briefing on these two bills and informed that the said legislation was already being implemented in the form of Ordinances.
The committee was briefed that the main purpose of both the bills was to bring segregation in the regulatory functions and the airport services-related sections of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to minimise any chances of conflict of interest.
It was further apprised that the previous laws that governed the aviation-related activities in Pakistan were drafted in 1960s and 1980s, and therefore, were obsolete to provide for the recent challenges and requirements.
Moreover, Pakistan is a party to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as the Chicago Convention.
The said Convention provided for the laws regarding airspace, aircraft registration and safety, security, and sustainability, and detailed the rights of the signatories in relation to air travel.
The Convention was supported by nineteen annexes containing standards and recommended practices (SARPs) that were regularly amended and updated.
The proposed laws by the government had been formulated in compliance of the standards laid down by the Chicago Convention.
The committee appreciated the inclusiveness of the said two bills and voted in favour of the same.
Members/MNAs Shaukat Ali Bhatti, Faiz Ullah, Saira Bano, Malik Karamat Ali Khokhar, Tahir Iqbal, Niaz Ahmed Jakhar, Munawara Bibi Baloch, Asma Qadeer, Jai Parkash, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Choudhary Faqir Ahmed, Romina Khursheed Alam, D rDarshan, and Kamalud Din attended the meeting.
The Federal Minister for Aviation, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, MNA, also participated in the meeting as its ex-officio member.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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