Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday urged the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Law and Justice to clear or reject the three-year-old National Accountability Bill.
"On the one hand, the government has stated many a times that the Bill would soon be brought before Parliament to strengthen institutions and to curb corruption. On the other, the Committee is not ready to submit it before the National Assembly even after three years. Former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and present Prime Minster Raja Pervaiz Ashraf have given statements that the accountability Bill will be presented in parliament, but the Committee has not cleared it for the past three years. Why does the prime Minister give such statements if the Committee does not want to bring the Bill in Parliament," Zahid Hamid of the PML-N said.
The Committee meeting was held under Chairperson Begum Nasim Akhter Chaudhry. Justice (Retd) Fakhar-un-Nisa Khokhar, Abdul Ghafoor Chaudhry, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Riaz Fatyana and others participated in the meeting. Zahid Hamid said that the Committee should make its position clear: it should either categorically reject the Bill or present it before the National Assembly. "This Bill was presented in the Committee on April 15, 2009 but three years have passed and it could not present it in the Assembly."
"We took stand on principle and wrote a note of dissent on the Bill, Madam Chairperson your party has majority and it can pass it easily," he said. Committee's Chairperson Begum Nasim Akhter Chaudhry said that if lawmakers of his party co-operated "we want to bring it unanimously".
"We will put the Bill on the agenda of the next meeting to discuss it and will try to bring it in the next session of the National Assembly." The Committee also discussed 'The Political Parties (Amendment) Bill, 2012' insertion of a new Section 8A moved by Bushra Gohar of the Awami National Party (ANP) to make compulsory for political parties to allocate a minimum of 10 percent seats for women to contest direct elections. Bushra Gohar said that this amendment was just to facilitate and encourage women to participate in general elections.
While supporting the Bill, Abdul Ghafoor Chaudhry said that there was a need to amend the Political Parties Order. Appreciating the proposal, the Chairperson said that political parties were not bound to fix a quota for women in general elections. She said that only some women had vote banks in their respective consistencies, but most of them were not so much popular.
Zahid Hamid also supported Bushra Gohar, but said all political parties should be consulted on it. After discussion on the Bill, the Chairperson referred it to all political parties for consultations. The Committee also discussed 'The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2012' moved by Syed Nasir Ali Shah of the PPP to reduce the election expenditures of candidates contesting elections. He proposed that there should be a fixed limit of Rs 100,000 expenditure for a National Assembly candidate and Rs 50,000 limit for a candidate of provincial assemblies.
Comments
Comments are closed.