ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Monday passed, "The Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2020" to fulfill certain requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in order to bring the country out of grey list and to control terror financing through cooperative societies.
The Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was passed without referring to relevant Standing Committee of the House and discussion.
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan on behalf of Interior Minister Ijaz Ahmad Shah first placed the bill in the house for introduction then tabled for passage.
The Lower House of the Parliament also extended, "The International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Ordinance, 2020" for further period of 120 days by passing a resolution with majority to allow convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to file a review appeal against his conviction in the High Court.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its ruling, which in June last year asked Pakistan to give Jadhav consular access, while hearing an appeal filed by India against Pakistani military court's order, will expire this week.
The opposition members opposed the bill and resolution but the house approved them with majority.
Syed Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said that the government should make proper legislation instead of extending the ordinance.
He said that the bill should be referred to the concerned Standing Committee for further deliberation.
The National Assembly also referred "The Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020" and "The Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties Bill, 2020" to the joint-sitting of the Parliament for passage.
The National Assembly had passed both the bills but the Senate has rejected them with majority.
Now under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the bills were referred to the joint-sitting of the Parliament for passage.
The legislation (bills) is related to fulfill conditions of the FATF in order to bring the country out of the grey list.
According to objects and reasons of "The Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2020" is to bring more control and transparency in registration/regulations of cooperative societies.
The prime objective of proposed amendment is to control terror financing through this channel.
The provisions regarding audit/accounts mechanism of the cooperative societies have also been introduced in the bill.
In case misinformation is provided, punishment of this offence has been clearly spelled out in the legislation.
As many as 20 reports including the second and third quarterly reports of the Board of Directors of the State Bank of Pakistan on the state of Pakistan's economy for the year, 2019-2020 were presented in the house.
Earlier, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan told the house that survey of 174 villages had been completed to assess damages to properties and crops in various areas of district Khushab due to recent rains and flood.
Responding to a calling attention notice, the advisor said 14 camps were set up in the district to provide relief to the affected people.
He said that as many as 1,461 people were accommodated in the camps besides providing 10,000 foods hampers to them.
He said four feeder water pumps were also installed to provide potable drinking water to the affected people.
He said that no rain and flood-related life loss was reported from the district.
As per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), around 193,000 people were affected due to the rains and flood in the district.
Parliamentary Secretary for National Food Security and Research Muhammad Ameer also informed the National Assembly that the locust presence had been curtailed to only two districts, out of 61 affected districts of Pakistan.
Speaking during question hour at session of the National Assembly, he said that the locust was curtailed through effective control strategy by the federal government and with the support of provincial governments, armed forces and the NDMA.
He said that the federal government specially the Industries and Production Division had initiated restructuring/revamping of the Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) in pursuance of recommendations of implementation committee and decision of the cabinet.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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