The National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior Thursday asked Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) to resolve their issues forthwith with a view to address problems of residents of the federal capital.
The meeting of the committee, which was held with Raja Khurram Shahzad Nawaz in the chair, directed the interior minister to submit a comprehensive report in its next meeting on the issues between the two bodies and also sought Minister for Interior Ijaz Shah to attend the next meeting.
The committee members became furious over the inaction of the two bodies to address their tussles and administrative issues due to which residents of the federal capital are facing various civic issues.
Mayor of Islamabad Sheikh Anser Aziz, who represented the MCI at the committee, alleged the Ministry of Interior for its failure to address the issues between the CDA and the MCI.
However, senior officials of the Ministry of Interior rejected the allegations, saying that the ministry had already notified the rules by constituting a local body board, and reminded the mayor that he could resolve the issues while he was heading both the CDA and MCI for 15 months.
The mayor, however, stated that there were no rules and regulations of the board and it had no mandate to settle the issues as it only dealt with transfer of employees.
The committee, however, directed the Ministry of Interior to resolve the issues between CDA and MCI. The panel also asked minister for interior and the secretary interior to attend the next meeting to give a comprehensive briefing on the steps to be taken to address the issues.
Committee members including Marriyum Aurangzeb and Ali Nawaz Awan pointed out that residents of Islamabad were suffering due to the institutional tussles between the CDA and MCI at a time when the federal capital and the surrounding - Rawalpindi - were worst affected due to dengue.
The committee also considered various bills on the agenda and deferred these for further deliberations among the stakeholders.
On a bill, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2019, moved by Nafeesa Inayatullah Khattak, the committee gave its assent following the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Law extended their support. Under the proposed bill, it is suggested to provide safety to newborn babies/infants which are thrown out for concealment of their birth.
In the bill, punishment of imprisonment of one year or fine or both have been proposed for intentionally concealing birth of a child or abetting in concealment. With the proposed insertion of new Section 329A, it is proposed that whoever intentionally conceals birth of a child or abets in such concealment intentionally shall be punishable with imprisonment of either description of a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.
"Provided that in case of illegitimacy, if such child is handed over to a protection centre established by the government, the provisions of this section shall not apply. Provided further that in case of such handing over of a child, name of her mother shall be kept confidential," according to the proposed section.
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