NA body forms committee to deal with children-related legislation

The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Wednesday formed a four-member committee to deal with legislation related to children and directed it to present its report before the committee within 30 days.

The sub-committee has been set up under Rule 224 (1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly 2007, which reads, "A committee may appoint one or more sub-committees, each having the powers of the whole committee, to examine any matter that may be referred to them."

The sub-committee would be headed by Mehmood Bashir Virk as its convener, and Nafisa Shah, Shunila Ruth and Kishwar Zehra as its members.

The decision to constitute the sub-committee was taken by the NA panel presided over by Chairman Riaz Fatyana.

During the committee proceedings, the NA panel considered and passed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019, which seeks certain amendments in Articles 51 and 59, moved by Kishwar Zahra.

The NA committee also passed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019, a government bill, which seeks to amend Article 48.

The committee re-considered another bill the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019, also moved by Zehra which seeks certain amendments in Articles 51, 76 and 106 and recommended that the same be referred to National Assembly with the recommendation that a parliamentary/special committee shall be constituted to review this bill.

The NA panel accepted the request of the Law and Justice Ministry officials to defer, till the next meeting, discussion on the government bills; the Muslim Family Laws (Amendment) Bill 2019, the Muslim Family Laws (Amendment) Bill 2019 and the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill on the grounds that Law Minister Farogh Naseem, who was scheduled to brief the committee on these bills, had stepped down earlier on Tuesday to contest army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa's case in the Supreme Court. Following the absence of the law minister, the committee deferred the government bills till next meeting scheduled today (Thursday).