The government would move a motion in the forthcoming session of the National Assembly which would be held Monday (tomorrow) to summon a joint sitting of the Parliament for passing of pending bills including "The Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (Conversion) Bill, 2016."
According to sources, Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs will move a motion for forwarding the PIA privatisation bill to parliament's joint session. If the Lower House of the Parliament adopts the motion, the joint sitting will be summoned immediately. The government would adopt this procedure under 18th Constitutional Amendment. This move is being seen as the government's commitment to the bill after it was rejected by the Senate on March 4, 2016.
Five important bills passed by the Senate have lapsed due to failure of the government to get them approved by the National Assembly within 90 days. The Senate passed these bills with some amendments in the previous year but they could not be passed by the National Assembly within the stipulated period (90-day).
According to Article 70 (3) of the Constitution, "If a Bill transmitted to a House under clause (1) is rejected or is not passed within ninety days of its laying in the House or a Bill sent to a House under clause (2) with amendments is not passed by that House with such amendments, the Bill, at the request of the House in which it originated, shall be considered in a joint sitting and if passed by the votes of the majority of the members present and voting in the joint sitting it shall be presented to the President for assent."
The government suffered a major defeat in the Senate on March 4, 2016 when the House rejected a bill moved by the government to convert the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Corporation into a public limited company. The bill is expected to pass as the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) enjoys a simple majority in a joint session.
The five bills of the Senate that have lapsed are (i) Anti-Rape Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2015 (ii) The Anti- Honour Killing Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill 2015, (iii) The Privatisation Commission (Second Amendment) Bill 2015 (iv) The Torture, Custodial Death and Custodial Rape (Prevention and Punishment) Bill 2015 and (v) the Gas Theft Control and Recovery Bill 2014.
The Senate Secretariat has already notified that the five bills have lapsed. The first four bills were moved by Senators Sughra Imam and Farhatullah Babar of the PPP as private members' bills and all were adopted by the Senate after their passage through the standing committees concerned. Interestingly, the bill about gas theft and recovery was the government's own bill which it could not get to the parliament to adopt.
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