NA body discusses 'The Electronic Transaction (Amendment) Bill'

A sub-committee on National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication discussed on Tuesday a private bill, "The Electronic Transaction (Amendment) Bill, 2019". On January 22, 2020, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication was briefed by Syed Fakhar Imam, mover of "The Electronic Transaction (Amendment) Bill, 2019".

The committee constituted a sub-committee under the Convenership of Makhdoom Zain Hussain Qureshi, comprising three members, Sher Ali Arbab, Mahesh Kumar Malani and Kanwal Shauzab.

According to the bill, subject to the Constitution, primarily Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) has exclusive power to make laws with respect to any matter in the federal legislative list. Frequently, enactments empower the government or specified bodies or office holders to make rules to carry out the purpose, thereof popularly known as delegated, secondary or subordinate legislation.

Rules of both the houses provide that delegated legislation may be examined by the committees concerned.

But practically no effective parliamentary oversight has been made.

Further, in the prevalent legal system it is also a departure from the principle of separation of powers that laws should be made by the elected representatives of the people in the Parliament and not by the executive government.

In parliamentary democracies, the principle has been largely preserved through an effective system of parliamentary control of executive law making, by making provision that copies of all subordinate legislations be laid before each House of Parliament within prescribed sitting days thereof otherwise they cease to have effect.