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The Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights proposed on Thursday Rs 1,000 million allocation for 18 projects under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for fiscal year 2014-15. During a briefing to the National Assembly standing committee on law, justice and human rights, Director General Access to Justice Programme said the ministry still needs Rs 52.84 million for construction of court rooms in Islamabad High Court and a consultancy contract is awarded.
The director general said that an amount of Rs 700 million is already approved for construction of the court rooms and work on the project should be started in this fiscal year. The members were informed the funds would be utilised for strengthening of institutional capacity of Federal Judicial Academy, Wafaqi Mohtasib and its regional offices. It was also informed that all the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Human Rights Centres in Punjab would also be funded by the Human Rights Wing of the ministry.
The committee members were also briefed that human rights wing of the ministry has also planned to establish human rights centres in different universities across Pakistan to promote research on the issue. "These centres will monitor human rights violations, collect data and do analysis for the government," the official informed the committee members.
Commenting on the access to justice programme, PPP member Ayaz Soomro said the ministry should provide them with detailed audit report on utilisation of the funds. Special Secretary Law Justice Raza Khan (Retd) said the ministry is ready to give a detailed briefing to the members but needs time to prepare the presentation. The members were also informed that audit of the funds is carried out till 2011-12 and the money was distributed under the National Finance Commission award.
PTI member Ali Muhammad Khan said the parliamentarians should be briefed about each penny utilised under the programme. "This is the public money and should be spent judiciously," he said. He said the ministry and the standing committee should also look into the issue of the prisoners who have completed their sentences but are still languishing in the jails because they do not have the money to pay for their fines or hire lawyers.
The committee also discussed the three constitutional (amendment) bills moved by Dr Ramesh Kumar, Ramesh Lal, and Sanjay Perwani. The bill moved by Dr Ramesh Kumar was regarding the increase in the seats of non-Muslims in the national and provincial assemblies. He emphasised that the minorities' representation in the assemblies should be enhanced according to increase in population of the non-Muslims.
Dr Ramesh also said that electoral system should also be changed from the party list system to direct elections, which will encourage non-Muslims to elect their real representatives. To this, Additional Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan Sher Afgan suggested that matter of increase in seats of the non-Muslims should be delayed until census. "The census will give exact population of the non-Muslims and ultimately help take an informed decision about increase in number of the seats," he said. As for the right of dual vote to the non-Muslims, Afgan said that it is a complicated issue and the committee members should contemplate on it thoroughly before making any decision.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2014

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