The National Assembly on Tuesday ''hastily'' passed a bill to provide for export control on nuclear goods, related technologies and biological weapons and their delivery systems amid chants of ''no'', ''no'' by the opposition. The bill, introduced in the Assembly on June 7, was passed without waiting for deliberations of the House standing committee on foreign affairs on the contents of the bill.
Its name is ''The Export Control on Goods, Technologies, Material and Equipment related to Nuclear and Biological Weapons and their Delivery Systems Bill-2004''.
The proceedings comprised two sittings and the afternoon sitting was meant to pass the bill less than a fortnight before President General Pervez Musharraf''s visit to the United States to attend the UN General Assembly session.
The opposition did not oppose the bill as such but questioned the emergency, which compelled the government to get the bill through in haste. Lawmakers contended that proper procedure was not adopted and the bill could have been improved.
The bill was on the agenda of the Monday sitting, but could not be taken up due to quorum problem and was entertained on Tuesday, suspending the private members day business.
A wave of nervousness ran through the treasury, as immediately after the lunch break was over, PPPP''s Yousaf Talpur drew attention of the chair towards majority of vacant seats of the treasury.
However, after counting was held thrice, 89 ruling coalition members had made their entry to the House.
The government had introduced the bill on June 7 aimed at starting legal proceedings against all those nuclear scientists or other persons found to be involved in nuclear proliferation in one way or the other.
The bill, introduced by the then minister for parliamentary affairs Raza Hayat Hiraj, would empower the government to give sentence up to 14 years, Rs 5 million fine and seizure of property of violators of the legislation.
The new law gives full powers to federal agencies to inspect such material meant for export, inspect consignment and confiscate record of persons engaged in exporting or holding an export license.
As stated by the government, the purpose of the law is to safeguard national security and foreign policy objectives and fulfil its international obligations as a responsible nuclear weapons state and check the proliferation of nuclear and biological arms and missiles capable of delivering such weapons.
The bill says that any person who contravenes any provision of this act, rules and regulations or provides false information concerning matters governed by this act to any of the agency responsible for administering this act, shall be guilty of an offence punishable on conviction by imprisonment for a term of 14 years jail, Rs 5 million fine and on conviction, offender''s property and assets, whatever they may be, shall be forfeited to the federal government.
It says that any person who attempts to commit or abets the commission of an offence under this law shall be proceeded against in the manner as if he had committed such an offence.
"In case the offence is not serious for criminal proceedings, administrative actions, which may be determined from time to time, shall be taken against individuals contravening any provision of this law," it said.
However, the law has provided right to appeal to the convict and he can approach the high court within 30 days of his conviction.
It says that any person found involved in the case of nuclear export will be tried in a sessions court.
The federal government shall maintain control lists and notify them subject to licensing requirements under this law.
The control lists will be reviewed periodically and revised or updated as required by the federal government.
Earlier, opposition members one after the other demanded that the matter be deferred and deliberated upon by the relevant standing committee or a select committee of the House.
The treasury rejected amendments proposed by the MMA lawmaker Liaquat Baloch.
Aitzaz Ahsan of PPPP strongly objected to bypassing the standing committee and said that very shortly amendments would be made in the bill.
"This initiative has created suspicions of collateral intent and it should not be passed without proper deliberations on its clauses," he asserted.
PPPP MNA maintained that the opposition would not have been objected to the bill, had it been taken into confidence, adopting a laid down procedure.
He conceded that the country''s nuclear assets were under threat and there was a need to be extremely cautious in enactment of laws.
His proposal that it should be referred to a select committee of the House for a week was rejected.
Baloch, speaking against the passage of the bill, contended that the opposition might have not opposed contents of the bill, but would like to know why the government wanted to push it through in haste.
"The people will like to know whether the proposed legislation can be a prelude to signing of the CTBT or NPT. This taking up of the bill days before Musharraf''s foreign visit, has created certain apprehensions," he contended.
He cautioned the government against the international conspiracy to deprive Pakistan of nuclear programme, referring to the west''s propaganda against Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Another PPPP lawmaker Yousaf Talpur charged that the bill was being passed to get a ''package'' approved from the US Under-secretary, currently on visit to Pakistan.
Nisar Ali Khan of PML (N) objected to the bill being piloted by the foreign ministry instead of the defence or commerce ministry.
He alleged that the government wanted to get the bill rubber-stamped from the National Assembly.
Sher Mohammad Baloch, Imtiaz Warraiach, Naveed Qamar, Mohammad Hussain Mehanti and Naheed Khan also spoke on the occasion.